Age gap in drug-policy perception?
Baseball’s current drug policy didn’t go into effect until the 2006 season. By then, Melky Cabrera already was a big-leaguer.
In effect, he’s part of the old guard, a member of a union that once vehemently fought drug testing and called it a violation of privacy rights. Union chief Don Fehr and his sidekicks prolonged the start of testing, though it’s not as if Commissioner Bud Selig was crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s until Congress turned up the heat.
This is the seventh season in which players who test positive for the first time can be suspended 50 games.
The policy was initiated only after Mark McGwire was linked to androstenedione; Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler died with ephedra in his system; the BALCO investigation got launched, and “Game of Shadows” was released; Jose Canseco published a book; and a Capitol Hill hearing featured Canseco, McGwire, Sammy Sosa and a finger-waving Rafael Palmeiro.
Basically, baseball had no other choice.
Players who have entered the majors since 2006 know nothing other than that firsttime offenders get 50-game suspensions.
Older players remember a game in which there were no repercussions for PED use, in which there was no punitive policy, or when there was, it had a lot more holes than it does now — from 2003, when survey testing was arranged to gauge steroid use, to 2005, when first offenses warranted a 10-day penalty.
Imagine a player coming into the game nowadays.
Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford, in his second season, was asked if it’s fair to say that young players are more surprised about a teammate’s failed drug test than older players. “It’s fair to say that for anybody,” he said, “young guy or not.” Teammate Brandon Belt, also a second-year player, had a similar response.
General manager Brian Sabean lumped Cabrera and reliever Guillermo Mota, who’s also serving a PED suspension, in the same conversation when saying, “We’ve got two players who should know better.” But maybe it’s the young players who know better because they didn’t play in an era without accountability, without a threat of getting caught.
That’s not to say young players juice up any less than older ones, but at least they’re aware of the culture the minute they arrive in the majors. As opposed to old-timers, some of whom might have thought they’re bigger than the system, bigger than the game. Manny Ramirez was a repeat offender, and Palmeiro was suspended one year after denying under oath to Congress that he was a steroid user.
A big-leaguer since 1999, Mota tested positive in 2006, among the first three bigleaguers to serve 50-game suspensions, and he released a statement saying, “I promise this is the first and last time that this will happen. I am determined to prove to you that this was one mistake.”
On May 7, Mota was suspended for testing positive for Clenbuterol, which is used to build muscle and burn fat. Mota claims the positive test was a result of children’s cough medicine. Either way, he was sloppy.
Whether players are clean or whether they’re dirty and know how to beat the system, excuses don’t work anymore. Unless you’re Ryan Braun.