MLB steroids investigation: PR or the real deal?

[Midnight Rambler]

While I haven't really followed baseball since I was a kid, I think this could've been done a long time ago, and that Selig and company are just looking for scapegoats so they won't catch fire for ignoring the problem for so long. Kind of like they're taking a page out of *'s book. So, what's everyone else think about this?

[jakefrep]

1. It strikes me as a fool's errand

Without any reliable drug-testng data, they are NEVER going to find any sort of definitive answer about who used what, how much, and when, and if it even made any difference. It's only being done to pacify the idiots in Congress and the baying hyenas on sports-talk radio, neither of whom will ever be happy with ANYTHING Bud Selig does. I'd be very surprised if at the end of this whole thing we know much more than what we already know.

[tishaLA]

2. It';s only PR

Selig said in the press conference that he's not interested in what happened before 2002. So who the fuck cares, then? If they aren't interested in looking into McGwire, Sosa, etc...and looking at all the pitchers who have used steroids...I don't care.

It looks like they have one target in mind and they are too dishonest to admit it.

[WilliamPitt]

3. PR

No one investigating this stuff for MLB has subpoena power; what they can do amounts to a series of polite questions. Any lawyer representing a questioned player - especially a player like Bonds, who has actually testified under oath on the matter - is going to tell his client to STFU, lest he offer testimony that may tend to contradict previously offered testimony under oath.

Beyond that is the idea of some kind of penalty phase. Without subpoena power, any 'revelations' are going to be anecdotal and without teeth. Should Selig choose to, say, ban Bonds for a year after gathering information, that ban will go to arbitration, the courts, and will be vigorously opposed by the union. Ergo, any ban won't be upheld.

It's a show.

Oh, PS, the former Senator running the investigation has a financial stake in an MLB team, and is an officer with the Disney Corp, which owns ESPN, which is about to do a Bonds reality show. Nah, no conflicts here.

[Midnight Rambler]

4. Yeah, I heard about that stake in the Red Sox

I tend to think it's PR as well. Selig did nothing when they caught McGwire with andro, did nothing when the players testified, when the hammer came down on BALCO, and on and on and on. All of this is a direct result of the Bonds book. At this point I think he's just trying to save as much face as possible, let Bonds and a couple of the other BALCO Boys go down, then he and the suits pat themselves on the back for a job well done, never mind they enabled this problem for years.

[Lefty48197]

5. George Mitchell is the right person to investigate 'roidball

He was often mentioned as a possible commissioner years ago. Had he taken the job, I don't think 'roidball would have disgraced itself like it has. I'll bet he'll get a lot of people to talk.