Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
scott@scottlongonline.com
Starting a baseball season is like writing checks. You spend the first part putting the wrong month on the line, checking yourself as it goes. Things seem as much last year as they do this year, expectations still settling themselves.
How many times will we say "Montreal" or put a player on the team they used to be on? At least today we can get the rest of the teams going. Somehow this 'staggered start' isn't as satisfying to me. I realize baseball was willing to adjust to avoid the NCAA Finals, ratings monster that it is. (Oh, let me wipe off some of that sarcasm.)
So far we've had a nice, nice start. Pedro went well in his first start in baby blue but Dunn and Randa went one better. Dmitri Young reminded us that it is possible to hit one - or three - out of Comerica. The Cubs scored all their April allotment of runs in one inning.
I'm still surprised at the public/media response to Alex Sanchez. It's getting covered but is hardly the type of outcry that I expected. It *is* Alex Sanchez and not Alex Rodriguez, a story that would get "War Declared" kind of fonts in every NYC paper. Still, I expected more outrage. A player - I think Dave Roberts, but can't find the quote - said that the first player to test positive would have his career ended by it. That's certainly possibly with Sanchez but the Rays don't really seem concerned. It will be interesting to see what happens once he returns and what crowd reaction will be. For Sanchez, I think it will be more joke than animosity. We'll see.
If nothing else, it proves my idea right, that no story this year will overshadow steroids unless Dmitri Young keeps up his 400 HR pace. Maybe not even then.
One almost have to believe that the lack of outcry is because he is a light hitting fringe player. I think the media is waiting for the right player to start the media firestorm, someone they can point to and attempt tolegitimize the need for astericks in the records of Mcgwire and Bonds.
What they're failing to recognize is that Alex Sanchez is an athlete. As an athlete known for speed, aggressiveness (when running, not fielding!), and sliding, Sanchez punishes his body more than many of the beefy, free swinging hitters the public wants to persecute as steroid users.
I want to know what Sanchez tested positive for and if in fact, trace amounts could be found in whatever over the counter stuff he claims to be supplementing with.
It doesn't mean that he is blameless if the over the counter stuff was clearly labeled and one of its ingredients was on whatever "banned" list exists but it certainly makes it different for me.
Sanchez may be a headcase as people state and he's probably no genius but he also risked his life on a raft to leave Cuba and didn't see his family for a long time to achieve "the dream". I find it dificult to believe he'd blow it all with his marginal talent but I guess stranger things have happened.
As far as mlb's policy, it's a joke. Any employer I work for conducts a pre employment drug test and you are subject to random drug testing after employment. The result of a positive test is non employment or termination.
I also know a young man who just signed with an Independent League team and hopefully Single A next year. The last thing he would do is ruin a chance at his dream of making "the show", as remote as it is, by testing positive.
I disagree, I think MLB would love to nail a star with it's policy as a way to show congress and the American people that they are taking serious action. It's only a ten game suspension and it's not like they market their stars very well anyway.
Of course, sportswriters are currently placing news like Sanchez and the minor leaguers into their pre-cast molds of what they want the story to be. Some of these old-timers won't be satisfied until Don Fehr and Selig jointly announce that all of the players since 1990 have been on the juice then commit suicide simultaneously, but with their last breath state,"Of course baseball hasn't gotten any better since 1962, everyone knows that." Only then will some of these old fossils be sated.
Regarding your own experience with drug tests: the problem you and I face is this: we are emminently replaceable. If you or I managed to make millions each year for our employers and there weren't a couple hundred guys just waiting to take your job, then they'd cut you some slack on a drug test or two. Supply and demand.
Personnally, I'm still waiting for mandatory, random drug testing for Congress...
If there isn't a fan to listen to the story, did news just happen?
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