Former Senator George Mitchell has dropped his report on Major League Baseball’s performance enhancing drug problem down upon us today and frankly, big deal. Sure we now know for sure that certain players were using the drugs, but we already were pretty sure they were before the report. The most important element to come out of the Mitchell report may be the report itself. Many people closely involved with the report admit that the document could be a whole lot stronger if the owners and players union hadn’t consistently throw Mitchell, and his committee, curve ball after curve ball.
In watching the Mitchell press conference today Senator Mitchell looked exasperated. As he delivered the information we were all certain existed, Mitchell almost looked disappointed by what he was saying. When Mitchell was asked to intervene in MLB’s drug problem, there were questions about his relationship with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig. Ironically it may be Selig, in cahoots with his player’s union counterpart that did the Mitchell report in, not Mitchell’s friendship with Selig. Without unfettered access, which Mitchell did not get from either side, the report was doomed to be highly flawed.
After 20 months of research and roadblocks baseball fans know this, many of the stars that have set records over the last couple of decades are liars and cheats. People like Roger Clemens, Miguel Tejada, Andy Petite and others have sullied the game of baseball, and the accolades and awards that they have earned should be immediately removed from them. There should be no tolerance or support for players that continued to lie about their drug use and felt the need to cheat to be better.
Clearly Major League Baseball needs to do some things immediately. First, those players still in baseball should be immediately banned for life, no excuses. Second, anyone caught using substances in the future must be banned for life. Major League Baseball must institute the harshest of consequences if it wants to regain the respect of its fans.