The High Court

Deep Thinkers Only...

Say It Ain’t So...Felix?

October 20, 2005

 

Felix Heredia has been suspended for flunking his steroid test, people!  Where is your righteous indignation?  Don’t you realize we are going to have to start putting asterisks next to the glorious “hold” statistic?  How can we trust that Heredia held left-hand hitters to a .233 average in 2003 without being on the juice?  I will never forget the night in Colorado when Felix came out of the Reds bullpen with runners on second and third and retired Larry Walker AND Todd Helton in succession to end the inning.  And now I have to wonder if it was all a lie.  If it was only the result of pharmaceutical enhancement.  I am so disillusioned.   How could Major League Baseball do this to me?  Cultivating an atmosphere where every left-handed reliever is a steroid freak run amok…WHERE IS JOHN MCCAIN WHEN WE NEED HIM?  Somebody call a hearing…because if we don’t, every young situational reliever in the country is going to be hitting the juice to be more like Felix Heredia, he of the lifetime 4.42 earned run average…

 

Yeah, I’m just kidding.  But I couldn’t resist the urge to revisit the whole steroid “crisis” one more time in the wake of Heredia’s ten-game suspension (he will begin serving it at the beginning of the 2006 season).  I have searched high and low, but I can’t find a single column…not from Skip Bayless, or Jay Mariotti, or Dan Wetzel…screaming out about the foundation of baseball crumbling because Heredia failed his drug test.  And so we have proof positive of what I have been saying for months: These journalists that have painted themselves as the guardians of the game, of all that is holy and right in baseball, don’t actually care about any of that.  They care about being noticed.  Sure, they seem to care about the steroid issue when it revolves around Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Mark McGwire, and Rafael Palmeiro.  But if it is a small fish, a player that is reasonably insignificant, well…yawn…who cares?  But the fact of the matter is, steroid use is steroid use, plain and simple.  When Felix Heredia gets caught, nobody bats an eye.  And that is wrong. 

 

I have often said that the thing that really bothers the steroid police is the notion that somebody benefited from their drug use.  If you hit a lot of home runs and threaten the sacred record book, well, you got some explaining to do, buddy.  Should you be a non-descript journeyman relief pitcher, well, here’s a suspension and a free pass from scrutiny.  When you see the disparity between the Palmeiro case and Heredia’s, it is absolutely comical how disingenuous everyone is, from Congress, to the media, to the public.  You think McCain and company will be calling Heredia to Capitol Hill next spring?  Suppose ESPN will have Pedro Gomez shadowing Heredia’s every move?  Think Felix will be booed every time he gets up in the ‘pen?  No.  No.  No.

 

In a world full of andro, creatine, B-12, and seven trillion other supplements, I am still a little unclear where the line would be on HGH and other steroids as a form of outright cheating.  I would agree that it might be, to a degree, but I think more than anything it outrages our sense of fair play.  So most of us agree that we want it to be stopped.  And if you do feel that steroid use is flat-out cheating, remember this:  Just because someone might not benefit from cheating, that doesn’t make them a better person than the cheater who prospered.  They all go in the same boat.  If Felix Heredia didn’t have the same success of Rafael Palmeiro, it’s probably because Palmeiro was a much better player to begin with.  It’s sort of like disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson; even if Johnson wasn’t on steroids and I was, I wouldn’t be winning any footraces against Mr. Johnson.  But I would still be a cheat…

 

I just hope you can keep in mind the hypocrisy involved the next time you see Palmeiro or Bonds trashed by the self-righteous media types.  Ask yourself, “Where was this guy when Felix Heredia got pinched?”  You will know where…looking for the next story that would get him some attention.  That is all this has ever been about.  A nice, juicy hook to pull the public in with.  Nothing more.  You will also do well to remember that the next time you hear from Presidential-wannabe John McCain on the subject, until he brings Heredia, Juan Rincon, and Rafael Betancourt to Congress, he’s just looking for a little free air time.

 

Now if you will excuse me…I have to go hope and pray that I never find out that Vic Darensbourg was dirty…

 

 

Contact The Chief Justice at chiefjustice@thehighcourtofsports.com.