Read Loyal Homer’s argument to release the list, and Bleacher Fan’s argument to keep the list from the public.
It’s good, old Public Relations Crisis Management 101 – when in a storm at sea, steer the boat into the oncoming wave. Not into metaphors? Okay. When faced with a problem, deal with it. Do not let it fester – nothing good comes from a festering problem.
It’s likely Major League Baseball flunked that class.
It all started when MLB began their “crack down” on steroids in 2003 when they hit the “mother-load” of steroid information with alleged whistle-blower and Arizona Diamondbacks relief pitcher, Jason Grimsley. Grimsley was caught juicing, and claims the “Feds” forced him to give up the names of other players who used performance-enhancing drugs (though court documents seem to indicate that he was not “forced”). After Grimsley, a furtive testing spree spanning all of baseball ensued. The spree is rumored to have snared more than 100 players in its trap.
Now, six long, steroid-laden years later, fantasy sports website rotoinfo.com claims to have gotten their hands on THE list of lists – the players tested in 2003 that failed the performance-enhancing drug screening. Usually this is where I would include the hyperlink to the published list. Instead, you can have the link that USED to host the list, but has since been taken down. Apparently the “trusted source” that rotoinfo.com had 90% confidence in fell into the other 10 percent.
Now, according to the collective bargaining agreement reached between MLB and the players association (MLBPA), that list cannot be disclosed. Apparently, the MLB must keep a tight lid on this list of names since the MLB had yet to ban performance-enhancing drugs formally at the time of the test.
While the names are interesting (I’ve seen them… only a handful of surprises), they are not the debate issue. Today’s topic has to do with how MLB has handled the situation.
Should MLB publish the list of names to better control the unavoidable release of this information, quiet the critics, and begin the healing of the steroid era? Or, should MLB continue to disregard questions about the list and never reveal it to protect the player’s identities?
We all know what Jose Conseco would do. The real question is, what would our debaters do?
Loyal Homer will argue that the list must be published to take control of the situation, regardless of that decision’s impact on baseball’s collective bargaining agreement.
Bleacher Fan will argue that the list should never be released to the public in any fashion.
Both sides of the issue have merit. Let’s see who comes out on top (and no coffee while writing… nothing can enhance your performance!)!
[...] The Publish the Steroids List Debate – Should Baseball Release the List off 100? [...]
[...] this testing did so under the guarantee that the results would remain confidential. Furthermore, as Sports Geek points out in his introduction, there was no ban against the use of performance-enhancing drugs when the [...]