[Marxism] "Baseball can't move on until it apologizes....Bud Selig owes Bonds an apology."

[Fred Feldman]

This New York Times column represents a real break in the united
white-major-media front of Bonds hatred.

Baseball players and other professional sports people have used every
available performance enhancement since performance enhancement became
possible. And they have been pressured to do so by their bosses, too.

Really the scientific goal should be to develop less dangerous performance
enhancement. But thisd reactionary moral crusade has to be opposed 100
percent.

And Roger Clemens, like Barry Bonds as a hitter and competitor, is one of
the greatest pitchers of all time whatever he was or was not using steroids.
If people want to start campaigning about the health dangers of steroids,
fine.  But if there is going to be this moralistic crusade against players
followed by new harsher laws and enforcement around steroids, I am dead set
against it.  No war against steroids. No conviction of Bonds or anybody else
who may or may have used them, whether they denied it or not.

If either Bonds or Clemens is denied entrance into the Hall of Fame on this
basis, it counts as nothing but a dirty trick.
Fred Feldman



December 15, 2007
Sports of the Times
Steroid Era Is No Longer Only About Bonds 
By WILLIAM C. RHODEN
A day after issuing his strongly worded report on steroid use in Major
League Baseball, George J. Mitchell sat in the conference room of his
Manhattan office discussing the public reaction. 

The news media coverage had been suffocating: we wanted names and Mitchell
did not disappoint. He gave us big names. Pitchers Roger Clemens, Andy
Pettitte; more than two dozen players who had played with the Yankees and
the Mets, 11 players from the 2000 Los Angeles Dodgers. 

The report threw a big changeup to casual fans for whom the steroid era
simply meant Barry Bonds. Now they had a big-time pitcher to go along with a
home run slugger. Mitchell's report had done immense damage. Now came the
second guessing. 

Was this news really necessary? We already know the life-threatening effects
of steroids on the body. We know there is a culture of abuse in Major League
Baseball. 

I pointed to a newspaper with pictures of players plastered across the front
page. Did Mitchell have to out all of them, tarnishing reputations, and in
Clemens's case jeopardizing his first-ballot Hall of Fame aspirations. 

"One of the arguments made that if a player would talk to me, then I
shouldn't publish his name," Mitchell said. "Had I not identified a player,
you would be here today asking me other questions about why I withheld
information, particularly since what I was asked to do was to find out what
happened."

Near the end of his news conference Thursday, Mitchell called on
Commissioner Bud Selig to be merciful to the players named in the report. He
said that if baseball wanted to move forward, it could not spend all of its
time in the past.

I asked Mitchell if that extended to Bonds, the beleaguered home run king.
Bonds has been trampled by the news media and fans over the last three years
and hammered into becoming the face of baseball's steroid crisis. Bonds has
been the target of a five-year federal investigation into
performance-enhancing drugs. Last week, he pleaded not guilty to felony
charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. 

The catch phrase of the last two days - from Mitchell and Selig - has been:
"Look to the future. Let go of the past. Move on."

.

The winning side always seems to advocate moving on, is always eager to
leave the past behind.

I say not so fast. Baseball can't move on until it apologizes. Baseball,
specifically Bud Selig, owes Bonds an apology. 

Sorry, Barry, for hanging you out to dry; for allowing the news media and
the public to make you the vilified face of baseball's steroid era. 

Sorry for making it clear during your home run chase that I would rather be
in a dentist's chair having root canal surgery than watching you break the
home run record. 

Sorry for looking on as you absorbed nasty fan behavior and crude treatment
from the news media.

Sorry for not being more forceful in telling fans to reserve judgment, that
the steroid canyon was wide and deep. I spoke on Friday with Selig in
Milwaukee. He was in no mood for apologies and refused to discuss individual
players. "I just think it's inappropriate for me to comment on anybody," he
said. 

Bonds has to be smiling now. Baseball's top slugger has been joined by one
of the game's legendary pitchers. 

I asked Mitchell whether he would consider making an appeal to the
government for mercy on Bonds's behalf. If Mitchell believes it's time for
baseball to move on, then move with Bonds. 

Mitchell said he had nothing to do with the federal case against Bonds. Of
all the players who declined to speak with him, Mitchell said, the one whose
reticence was most understandable was Bonds's. He was the only player who
was under criminal investigation and had been indicted.

.

For all of the talk about "moving on," the reality is that, even with
Thursday's extensive report, there are more questions than answers. Mitchell
conceded that the names listed may only represent a third of the names of
players involved in the steroid era. 

I remain convinced that baseball needs its own truth and reconciliation
hearings. I'm all for progress, but sometimes you must go backward to move
forward. How did baseball get itself in this predicament? Who was involved,
beyond players? Who were the owners who looked the other way? Who were the
front office facilitators? How many are still in baseball? Let's go beyond a
trainer and a clubhouse attendant, beyond housecleaning. 

Let's gut the entire industry.

Mitchell says no. 

"I think it's time to move on, to turn the page and move forward," he said.

Baseball, he said, did not need "a never-ending effort to go back in time
and try to find the name of every player who ever used a performance
enhancing substance; what it needs is to look forward." As we left his
office, Mitchell reiterated that one of the great accomplishments of the
report was that it pointed out - once and for all - that the steroid era in
baseball was vast, and hardly the province of one high-profile player. 

Barry Bonds is not the face of this era. He's merely a face in the crowd.

E-mail: wcr at nytimes.com