Melky Cabrera tested positive for high testosterone levels at some point around the All-Star break, then was suspended by Major League Baseball on August 15.
And the baseball world lost its mind on August 16th.
Actually, that’s not entirely accurate: the frenzy set in around the time Cabrera’s bombshell was dropped, but it took a while for his products to hit the newspapers and websites.
On ESPN, Tim Keownwho has already worked for Chronicle of San Franciscounleashed his finest understated rhetoric to accuse the San Francisco Giants of “having a knack for attracting players who are: (1) prone to cheating, and (2) ignorant and/or arrogant enough to get caught” .
At San Jose Mercury News‘, one of the Giants’ happiest whip-wielding attackers is having a good time with the news. Tim Kawakami immediately dug up the Barry Bonds saga and noted that the Giants “still harbored and thrived with a cheater.”
Dissatisfied, he took another blow to the organization by simultaneously pouring cold water on the hit series in San Diego while implying that San Francisco is somehow more culpable than a typical franchise would be for the steroids/PED problem (although he was careful to point out that he is not saying the latter… simply implying).
Of course, none of these luminaries of rational thought compare to Greg Doyel of CBSSports.com, who exclaims right in its title that “the Giants looked the other way by fooling Cabrera.” He goes on to call the Giants “Steroid Central” and argues that the team should have its wins vacated and/or be disqualified from the playoffs.
Doyel also laments that the National League’s home field advantage in the World Series is tainted because it comes from the senior circuit’s victory in the All-Star Game. Cabrera was named the game’s Most Valuable Player.
Where to start, where to start…
Let’s start with the simplest: the stupid claim that Cabrera’s idiocy means something about winning the National League All-Star Game.
THE NL won the match 8-0, the team scored five runs in the first inning and the NL pitchers dominated the affair from start to finish. Of course, Melky started the rally in the first with a single against Justin Verlander and hit a big two-run fly to score the final runs of the game. The disgraced star therefore accounted for three races.
I repeat, the final score was 8-0.
The American League only had six hits and they were all singles. The losing team had 10 total baserunners and only twice had multiple runners on base at once. The NL pitching staff made the difference in the Midsummer Classic.
Melky Cabrera had a great game, but he was one of four or five players who could have deservedly been the MVP. You never know what would have happened, but there’s no reason to think the outcome would have been any different if Melky hadn’t been in the game.
The other claims are almost as laughable.
To affirm that the San Francisco Giants are further tainted by MLBThe era of steroids that any franchise of the beautiful game is ridiculous. This requires either willful ignorance or dedication to the developing “I can’t be good, so I’ll be scandalous” trend sweeping journalism of all kinds.
I guess a complete collection of Los Angeles Dodgers the paraphernalia could also explain it.
The reality – and I know this is an unpopular word with shock jocks – is that the list of teams spared from the taint is much shorter than the list of teams that have been covered in it.
Bud Selig and his cohorts decided to get serious about drug testing before the 2005 season, an effort that gained momentum the following year.
Since 2005, there have been at least 33 different players on major league rosters who have been suspended for testing positive (according to Baseball-Alamanac.com). I say “at least” because this figure excludes one dope like Ryan Braun who skated on a technicality.
Of those 33 players, three were from the San Francisco Giants.
THE Seattle Mariners had the same number pinched during the very first year of testing. Furthermore, the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Tampa Bay Rays And Colorado Rockies all saw three registered players stand out.
If you open the discussion to include minor leaguers, the number of suspensions go from four to 74 in 2012 alone (via Bruce Jenkins at SFGate.com).
If you go back even further than 2005, to the dark ages of the steroid era, when performance-enhancing drugs weren’t technically illegal and the Show wasn’t testing them anyway, things get more complicated . Really uncontrollable.
And you have to go back that far to trap SF’s Public Enemy #1, Barry Lamar Bonds.
Nearly every marquee franchise and baseball moment from this period is covered in the PED stench.
The epic 1998 home run run between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa comes with an asterisk while simultaneously sullying the St. Louis Cardinals And Chicago Cubs.
Eric Gagne’s incredible Cy Young season for the Dodgers in 2003 carries a whiff of steroid stench thanks to its accepted consumption of HGH. The Bums are dragged further into the mud by Manny Ramirez’s first official positive test for PEDs in 2009.
THE Boston Red Sox The history-changing World Series of 2004 and 2007 cannot escape defamation either. Both title runs were fueled by Ramirez and David Ortiz, both of whom surfaced in an article from The New York Times about a leaked list of around 100 players who tested positive in 2003.
THE New York Yankees and their World Series streak join the club thanks to Roger Clemens and manager Brian McNamee, who both would play a starring role if the Mitchell Report were ever made into a film.
The list is lengthened increasingly.
Put the whole picture together rather than cherry-picking individual pieces and the Giants’ history is no more marked by the steroid era than anyone’s. We don’t even need to address the broader scope that includes dopers who have evaded detection, a population whose size is debatable but which certainly exists.
Based on documented cases, it is evident that everyone has (is) benefited from juicers, whether in the ranking or in their balance sheets.
Only the Pittsburgh Pirates could possibly claim their innocence since they have been terrible over the past two decades.
I’m not saying Melky Cabrera or the San Francisco Giants should get a pass on this latest major league embarrassment.
Cabrera more than deserves all the criticism he receives, especially now that it has been revealed by The New York Daily News that he and his clumsy managers first tried to get out of trouble use a scam website.
Likewise, the Gigantes gained heat and shame.
They need to take a stronger stance against PEDs by avoiding players who have already been involved and dropping individuals who faced a first offense while with the organization. Team solidarity and personal compassion are elegant concepts, but San Francisco needs its actions to more closely reflect the anti-drug rhetoric it shares with Major League Baseball.
But in this regard, the Giants are no different than any other big league franchise.
When usage was (is) so widespread, it’s cheap and lazy to suggest that a team is exceptional at wooing, tolerating, and even protecting users without evidence more damning than a high-profile bankruptcy bolstered by personal disdain.
Of course, the claim East sensational.
And if you can’t be sensationally good, I guess sensational must be enough.
