At this pace, he''ll never catch Bonds or McQwire, but I'm still hoping he can beat Ruth and Marris. The standard is still 60 because no one will ever accept the steroid era totals. Of course now we're in the HGH era so Davis and everything HE does will also be suspect. EVERYBODY will be suspect from now on.
On a related note, super agent Scott Boras is upset about MLB and the all the Biogenesis leaks. And others are FINALLY starting to see his point. The MLB collective bargaining agreement has drug testing and findings listed as totally confidential. That way players who are SUSPECTED of breaking the rules, when it comes to performance enhancing drugs, will be given ALL of due-process (a hearing, investigations, rulings and appeals) before their names are even MENTIONED to the media, and that's ONLY if the player is found GUILTY beyond reasonable doubt by all of those doing the investigation. Otherwise, his name will NEVER be mentioned to the public or media. EVER.
The ONLY way the players association AGREED to drug testing in the first place was that baseball had to keep every little part of the investigation confidential.
The problem is that NONE of the recent investigations, including the recent Biogenesis fiasco, have been in the least least bit confidential. No, baseball isn't responsible for the "whistle-blowers" who always leak the information to the media, but baseball HAS created the witch-hunt that causes these whistle-blowers to protect themselves in exchange for testimony against their employers and suspected players.
That baseball CONFIRMS these lists and works without any confidentiality, publicly, after the leaks IS their fault. If nothing else they, according to the agreement, should treat every name on that list as INNOCENT until each investigation for each individual is completed. That AT LEAST would be in the spirit of the agreement.
HOW would baseball do this? It would be as simple as THIS statement.
"Many players have been implicated in the latest prohibited drug scandal, however MLB does not consider the leaks by any of these whistle-blowers to be anything more than criminals seeking to hide their own shadowy roles and involvement in the matter at this point. Until we have completed our own thorough investigations of the matter, ALL players listed will be considered fully innocent until proven otherwise. We will most certainly NOT confirm any lists that these shady individuals have released to the media, and we ask that the media not share this list or any other future lists until such time as we can finish our investigations.
The named players have families and reputations at stake and we will not be participants in defiling those reputations in any way by what amounts to rumors and hearsay at this point. Each of these players is a welcome part of MLB until convincingly proven otherwise.
We obviously take banned substance use very seriously, but accusations like this occur all the time when players are in the spotlight at this level. Please do them and us a favor by stopping the speculation. None of the facts have been determined at this point."
If BASEBALL doesn't start acting this way, players, collectively, as part of the union demands, should just stop agreeing to the drug testing. Rights and privacies are being violated, not because some players are doing something ILLEGAL, but because they MAY be doing something baseball PREFERS they not do. Let's never lose sight of that. You, me, and average Joe Citizen could be taking nearly ALL of the drugs mentioned, under a doctor's supervision, and NOT be doing anything illegal or immoral. Lives should not be ruined based on rumors spread by criminals. Especially when the drugs being mentioned are not something that could ever send you or I to jail.
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