Hank Steinbrenner Correct but Still Culpable
With Hank Steinbrenner in it, the world is a much better place.
George had spent the last few years in a downward spiral. The suits behind the scenes appeared to have taken control. There was a distinct chance that the Yankees would begin to act rationally. But marital strife marred the line of succession, and on came Hank, the Steinbrenner bete noire, to save the day.
Like his infamous father, Hank loves the attention. He revels in it. He tailors his statements to attract it. He saw the opportunity, with the media focusing on steroids, and could not resist the temptation to butt his bulbous beak into the fray.
“I don’t like baseball being singled out,” Steinbrenner said. “Everybody that knows sports knows football is tailor-made for performance-enhancing drugs. I don’t know how they managed to skate by. It irritates me. Don’t tell me it’s not more prevalent. The number in football is at least twice as many. Look at the speed and size of those players.”
Hammerin’ Hank has a point. When it comes to steroids, there is a societal double standard. Baseball players are hauled before Congress. Football players get a month vacation.
However, that does not exculpate him or his team. The Yankees have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to players explicitly linked to steroids. Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Chuck Knoblauch, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Jason Grimsley, Kevin Brown, Jim Leyritz and David Justice all wore the pinstripes and were paid handsomely by the club to do so.
Football may have a larger problem with performance-enhancing drugs. But, it is hard to find a sporting entity that has done more to subsidize the seedy steroid industry than the New York Yankees.
Steinbrenner Jr. has a point, but his organization does not have the moral high ground to make it. From some his comment may be quite reasonable, but from Steinbrenner it is the words of a caught child. As every child learns, having a partner in crime does not lessen one’s own culpability.
Tags: Andy Pettite, Hank Steinbrenner, HGH, New York Yankees, Roger Clemens, Steroids
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19 February 2008 at 5:35 pm
Good post, one point I’d like to refute is that baseball subsidizes their player’s drug use.
“The Yankees have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to players explicitly linked to steroids.” This statement is true, but they’ve paid millions of dollars to players who have not used steroids as well. An example would be Alex Rodriguez who is yet to be named and is at what 275 million now.
The correlation argument when trying to take a side on the double standard is a weak one because the NFL’s total payroll is lower than that of MLB. To say that such a differential exists because their subsidizing drug use is unsubstantiated due to the fact that “Football may have a larger problem with performance-enhancing drugs” and a coincidently smaller payroll.
Personal Note: I really like your blog and I have it on my “favorite stops” blogroll.
19 February 2008 at 11:04 pm
I think you for you compliments about my blog.
I did not intend to imply a cause and effect relationship between the Yankees’ contractual spending and steroid use. I just meant to point out the hypocrisy behind his comment.
20 February 2008 at 2:22 am
This a nice fair and balanced piece.
here is my take:
The reason the NFL implemented steroid tested 20 years ago was because THEY NEEDED IT 20 YEARS AGO!!! That is how far ahead of the PED curve the NFL is, and always will be. The is no practical test for HGH yet in existence. After steroid testing started in the NFL it players had allready moved on to the next wave of PEDs, which included HGH and designer steroids that were not originally detectable in urine tests. By the time a useful HGH test comes into existence NFL players will have allready moved on to the next wave of PEDs. Here in lies the rub. The science/players are always ahead of the game.
It so totally figures that when someone with some national profile FINALLY speaks up and talks about something that no one wants to admit he’ll just be painted as an old kook. But we all know that he is right.
This is not just a baseball problem. It is a sports problem. It is a societal problem.
20 February 2008 at 8:56 am
I don’t think that it was a case of Steinbrenner speaking a dirty little truth that no one talks about. It gets discussed quite consistently on ESPN that there is a double standard when it comes to performance enhancing drugs.
I think that as long as there has been sports there has been cheating and that is never going to be eradicated. The problem is that the cheating has moved into the medicinal arena which can potentially have catastrophic effects on the players themselves and on the competitive balance of the games.
I don’t disagree with anything Steinbrenner said, but in the context that he made his comments they were laughable. I view it more as a Chris Crocker-esque “Leave Andy Pettite Alone!”
20 February 2008 at 8:05 pm
POOR OL’ HANK, LOOKS LIKE HE’S BEEN CONSTIPATED FOR A WEEK! SOMEBODY HELP THAT POOR LITTLE RICH KID.