Thursday, May 17, 2007

Mitchell is Looking in the Wrong Place

While George Mitchell looks to blow the lid off of steroid use by Orioles players who were more or less washed-up three years ago, the eighth player from the New York Mets was just suspended for juicing.

With the exception of Guillermo Mota, all of the suspended Mets players have been career minor leaguers or guys perpetually on the shuttle to Tidewater or New Orleans.

Everyone wants to talk about Barry Bonds and the record book, but the real impact of steroids in baseball is going to be felt in ten to fifteen years when former, desperate farm hands start dropping dead of heart failure in their 40s.

Baseball and the writers who cover it should stop focusing so much on what's happening on the tiny peak where the elite tread and start worrying about what's going on down at base camp.