Baseball, steroids and integrity

Question: How can you be sure that the reputation of baseball has been seriously damaged by the steroids scandal?

Answer: Even Pete Rose is outraged.

Rose, of course, was banished from baseball for life in 1989 for betting on games while he was manager of the Cincinnati Reds. He supposedly tarnished the reputation of the game, and is thus ineligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Betting on your own team, as Rose has admitted he did, is a bad thing. But weigh that against playing baseball with determination and grit for 23 years and ending up as the all-time leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562) and at bats (14,053).

And remember that he did it all without illegal substances to make him play better.

But baseball now has admitted, in the form of a special report by former Sen. George Mitchell, that illegal use of steroids and other performance-enhancing substances has been rampant in the game for many years. The players' union and the owners have both essentially conspired together to ignore the problem, making a mockery out of the official records for home runs as well as the title of "All-Star."

No wonder Rose says, with scorn, "I never thought anybody would make me look like an altar boy."

Yet it is entirely possible that the people accused of violating the rules on steroids, and thus leaving the game's integrity in doubt, are going to get off without any punishment at all. No prosecutions. No suspensions. No banishment from the Hall of Fame.

And yesterday we learned that Major League Baseball and its players union "have agreed to begin discussions" about how to respond to Mitchell's allegations of industry-wide wrongdoing. Maybe, just maybe, the fact that use of illegal substances is a subject for the negotiating table instead of the courtroom is part of the problem.

Baseball's owners were just as guilty as the baseball players who used steroids. They were both trying to "beef up" their numbers - record-book numbers and box-office numbers - and yes, the fans have to take some responsibility, too. The excitement of the long ball and the irrational exuberance of seeing long-standing records smashed made too many of us look the other way - or maybe it's just hard to look someone in the face when their head size has ballooned the way Barry Bonds' did.

The biggest losers in all of this are the young players and the young fans. Players who are coming up in college and in the minors now have to wonder whether they can possibly measure up to the inflated performance of their predecessors who had the advantage of illegal substances. They may even be tempted to try to find new ways around the rules, but let's hope future offenders will be dealt with swiftly and mercilessly.

As for those fans, what are they to think about the transformation of baseball from a team sport to a "me" sport? From a game of fair play to a game of "anything goes"? From a game of big hits to a game of big biceps and big bucks?

Perhaps, this is a symptom of our society's general surrender to the temptation of riches, fame and narcissism. With luck, it will also be a warning signal to society at large that dishonesty and deceit are not without a price.