Blog written by Courtney Lawrence
The world of baseball is crumbling as we know it due to the Mitchell Report — or is it? In a report to the commissioner of baseball, Senator George Mitchell released his findings after a 20-month investigation that major league baseball players knowingly used steroids and performance enhancing substances. Congress has invested their time in these allegations, so has members of the media, and the accused players are running scared, but the real question is: Do the fans really care?
Sure, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa got booed every time they were up to bat on the road, but to their home fans (minus Sosa in Chicago) and the individuals that caught their homerun’s, they are still solid players and can hit them out of the park like the best of them, drugs or no drugs. Baseball had a record $6 billion in revenue last season, all in the midst of these allegations. So while some people feel the sport has been tainted, many are still happily giving money to America’s favorite pastime.
Roger Clemens is suing and spinning his way out of his allegations. His former personal trainer, Brian McNamee, claims he injected Clemens with performance enhancing drugs on several occasions. And, instead of keeping quiet, Clemens is on a public relations tirade, and spinning the accusations with such force, that people have to believe they aren’t true, right? Are people seeing this as a case of he said vs. he said? Are these players really good at spinning these claims to make it seem as though they are the victims? Or, do the fans really just not care, and want to watch a good ballgame, enhanced or not?
