Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 17, 2004
History Repeats Itself

According to this article on SFGate.com, MLB is going to make teams enforce the rules about unregulated personnel in the clubhouse. What I hadn't realized before reading this story was how much like the 1980's cocaine scandal this is:


Strong (along with six Pittsburgh men) was convicted and found guilty of 11 counts of distributing cocaine. He received a 12-year sentence and was released after serving four years. As in the current steroid case, attorneys for the defendants questioned why the drug-purchasing players weren't indicted.

Although then-Commissioner Peter Ueberroth handed down suspensions to 11 players -- seven for a full season -- all avoided the suspensions by agreeing to donate a small percentage of their 1986 salaries to a drug program and do community service work.

Afterward, Ueberroth made his ridiculous statement that "baseball's drug problem is over."

Nearly 20 years later, it's not cocaine. It's steroids.

It's not a caterer with complete access. It's a personal trainer with complete access.


Interestingly enough, Dusty Baker's name comes up in both of these cases.

Cubs manager Dusty Baker, who managed Bonds for 10 years in San Francisco, told The Chronicle in October that the steroid scandal could turn into something similar to baseball's cocaine scandal in the '80s.

"This is similar to, back in my day, the Pittsburgh drug trials," said Baker, referring to the case in which several players were called to testify in a drug probe, leading to the conviction of Phillies caterer Curtis Strong, who distributed cocaine to players. "That's bad. I've been through (guilt by association) already. When your name is mentioned, some people, all they see is guilt."

Baker's name was mentioned in testimony, along with names of dozens of big-leaguers, but he wasn't called to testify.


Too bad Dusty didn't notice the similarities sooner.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:11 PM | Cheating | TrackBack (0)