The Double Standard Standard

More baseball. More steroid talk. New person of interest.

Shortstop Miguel Tejada of the Houston Astros today was sentenced to one year of probation for withholding the truth from Congress when asked what he knew about specific and alleged performance-enhancing drug use by other players. He was not in court at the time of the offense. Nor was he in the act of testifying before Congress or a subcommittee. He was not even under oath at the time. Also note that the "probation" is NOT a suspension from baseball.

To read more on my feelings about Congress wasting public time and resources on something so non-critical as professional sports, please refer to my previous post, "Moeroids". For the full extent of my thoughts regarding steroid use in baseball, you'll want to read, "I Just Didn't Care".

Today's blogal-bludgeoning goes to the following statement from Assistant US Attorney General Steven Durham. I've got no issue with Mr. Durham whatsoever, and I don't want to detract from his point about the importance of honesty.  

"If Congress or a representative of Congress asks somebody a question in their official capacity, that question must be answered truthfully. There are no options to prevaricate or withhold the truth or parts of the truth."

Tejada Gets Year Probation for Misleading Congress, by Howard Fendrich

Mr. Durham obviously must have forgotten about whom he was speaking, as Congress certainly has perpetuated its fair share of deception, half-truths, and outright lies - all whilst engaged in its fiduciary duty to the people of this country. Do we, the people, not have the right to that same expectation of complete integrity?

Hypocrisy is a pretense of virtue. I think the real story here is not the wrist-slap given to Miguel Tejada. It is not the message to children that crime never pays or 'just say no'. No, the message of import herein is the valuable parenting lesson taught by Congress, "Do as I say, not as I do."

I Just Didn't Care

I was talking casually with a couple of friends and the topic of steroids came up - specifically, steroids in professional baseball. I'm the kind of guy that is a little bit informed about a lot of different subjects. I try to have an opinion one way or another because it makes for interesting conversation - at least for me.

One of the guys lamented how drugs had ruined baseball, so I naturally took an opposing viewpoint so that we could continue the discussion. I brought up points along the lines of 

• Not being able to dismiss the past 25 years of baseball history as invalid
  
• Pill-popping players were mostly hurting themselves
• If everyone was doped up, the playing field was more or less equal

I didn't know it at the time but I was in way over my head. The two baseball PhDs I was talking to had obviously dedicated a lot more brain cycles to the subject than I had. They were quite passionate about the topic and I had apparently struck a nerve with both. The conversation quickly escalated into much more than I had bargained for. I felt like Bugs Bunny trying to sneak out of the bottom of a dog pile during the commotion.

The short of it was, of course I think it is wrong to use drugs. And of course I think it is wrong to cheat. And of course I think using performance enhancing drugs in competition is cheating. I was just trying to spark a lively conversation, but evidently I lit a full-on five-alarm fire. Problem was, I simply don't care enough about the subject to spend any material amount of time or energy pondering its finer points.

I need to be more careful in the future.