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by Hal Clarke

We are all cheaters. And we are all fakes and liars and phonies, too. Come on, who hasn’t slunk out of their place of work fifteen minutes before they were supposed to on at least one occasion? Anyone? That, my friends, is CHEATING, dishonesty of you against your employer, that same employer that has faith you will work the correct number of hours as prescribed. Oh, you finished your work early, so it’s OK? Ha! Then why the slinking and the excuses? That’s what I’d expect from a LIAR?

And how about your last job interview? Or the one before that? Were you completely HONEST in everything you said to make yourself a better candidate for employment? Oh, that’s just SELLING YOURSELF? I see, then how about the poor schlub who told the complete truth about himself and lost out on the position because they hired you and your exaggerated resume instead? Doesn’t surprise me that you’d stoop to such a level. I’d expect nothing less from a PHONEY. Showing your true colors, LIAR, you have now made the playing field unlevel for those who came to it clean. Your CHEATING, combined with a lack of employer check-up, has resulted in a new playing field. This new playing field is guided by the principles lie and cheat, or perish, a playing field where those who approached it CLEAN can never compete. And you, CHEATER, are a FAKE and have ruined the integrity of life.

Now, let’s stop and think about this for a moment. Isn’t it hypocritical to make crazy comments as I have above about liars and phonies when each of us is guilty in our own way for something we’ve done in the past? As such, should we be held responsible then, years after the fact, for actions we took but which our employers never bothered to make certain were absolutely correct and true? Or maybe we should be fired on the spot if it turns out that little fib about being the assistant manager at KFC 20 years ago wasn’t the truth and we were in the back frying chicken instead? I know, this is all a bit silly, but it gets to the pont that when the rules aren’t enforced and in many cases not entirely fair and clear either, human nature often leads us down the path of self-interest, for better and worse. That’s capitalism, my friends, and that’s what The United States of America was founded upon.

Now we have the latest bit of fuel to the steroid mania fire. On December 13, 2007, Senator George Mitchell released to Major League Baseball and the media a 359-page document that lists, by name, past and present professional baseball players who allegedly have used performance-enhancing drugs. This latest steroid hand grenade, supposedly aimed at cleaning up baseball, instead makes a bigger mockery of it by digging into its past by using minimal evidence to besmirch, by name, 86 current and former MLB baseball players through accusations that they ingested, injected, or somehow got into their bodies banned substances at some point during their careers. It is a dubious document, relying on the testimony of a mere handful of people, minimal documentation and receipts, with almost no eyewitness evidence. To clean up the steroid problem in baseball is a noble pursuit, and one I can certainly get behind, but digging decades into the past to do it, and at what cost, makes this particular approach an irresponsible joke. This already infamous “Mitchell Report,” is, in no uncertain terms, hypocritical paranoia and pandemonium at its most flamboyant and ridiculous.

Sure, certain athletic enhancing drugs were frowned upon and in some cases made illegal by Major League Baseball during the past few decades, but if that was the case why was there virtually no testing or enforcement during that time? If the powers that be in professional baseball wanted a drug-free league than they would randomly test their athletes, hurt them with harsh punishments when they failed, and give frank and honest guidelines and policies to outline exactly what they will and will not stand for. None of those policies and actions were taken and hence, all the hubbub finally has come to a boil.

The science of synthetic sports enhancements will always be ahead of the testing curve. That is fact and the nature of the sports enhancement beast. However, that doesn’t mean a blind eye should be paid to the policies and penalties for infraction. When past guidelines and policies were unclear, unenforced, and perhaps even unknown to those who need to know about them, the slippery slope of usage was the inevitable conclusion. Cry foul if you see fit, and in most cases those who used banned substances did break the rules, but when your best defense of yourself and your own stupid policies and actions, especially in the case of MLB commissioner Bud Selig, is to point the finger at others than you are a true dolt.

We are all guilty of something at some point in our lives, so before we try to make up for our own lack of proper conduct by digging up every skeleton in long since closed closets, we’d be best to focus on the present and future rather than that which has already set sail. By allowing rampant drug use to go untethered for decades Major League Baseball guaranteed the steroid era its existence. And if, like some hypothesize, 50%, 60%, 75% or more have taken some sort of athletic enhancer during their days in pro baseball, it makes me wonder whether the level playing field was the one with the steroids or without. It is a sad state for clean players, for certain, but when the players themselves change the rules of the game and no one is there to tell them they can’t, then the rules have changed whether we want to admit it or not. To judge the past now when we weren’t judging it at the time it occurred is the true heinous crime currently going down in professional baseball. Anyone who thinks differently, plain and simple, is a misguided hypocrite and as foolish as those responsible for this report.

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Are you a hypocrite interested in punching Hal Clarke in the face, with or without 'roid rage? Or maybe he's your idol. Either way, shoot him an Email: halclarke@undependentmedia.com

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