Month: February 2005

Lock-Out Knock-Out

It was twenty-five years ago this week, on tape delay, that the world witnessed perhaps the greatest moment in the history of hockey when a young squad of talented American college players, led by a gruff but determined coach, upset the heavily-favored Red Army squad from the Soviet Union and vaulted themselves into the Olympic finals, where they easily beat Finland to take the gold. The “Miracle On Ice,” as the win against the Soviets was later to be named thanks to Al Michael’s call in the final seconds, united a nation trying to pick itself up after a decade of indifference and, in the same moment, captured the glory of the game itself. If that was the pinnacle of hockey, the low point came last week, when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman took the podium in New York City and announced the cancellation of a major professional sport season for the first time in history.

Thus, the day came that was both expected and feared and, consequently, the National Hockey League, for all intent and purpose, is dead. Whether the two sides can reach an agreement before the start of the next scheduled season is no longer of significance. The NHL got greedy trying to establish itself as the number one sport on the planet and did nothing except to force itself into financial ruin. Expansion tried to force teams into markets that just weren’t there and had the negative effect of watering down the talent. Player salaries escalated to the point that they were forcing some teams into bankruptcy, yet many league owners were either unwilling or unable to police themselves and the players were enjoying the wealth too much to care about the league’s financial distress. The money that was expected to come in the form of a television contract, like the major networks and the National Football League had negotiated, never materialized and the debt mounted.

Knowing that it would be vehemently opposed by the players union, the owners nevertheless tried to force the institution of a salary cap and locked out the players before the new season had a chance to be. With time enough to try and hammer out a deal that would save the season, the two sides inside dug in their heels and refused to come to the table, wagging fingers at each other and blaming the other for the mess that had been created. As the point of no return approached, the players suddenly decided to try and hammer out a figure with the owners, but the two sides still could not come to an accord. It was a difference of mere millions, but neither side wanted to surrender more than a few minor concessions. In the end, the league made the only, if imprudent, choice left; it pulled the plug on itself and, in the process, further.

It remains to be seen how far the ripple effect of these actions will be felt across North America. Who’s to say that the effects won’t spill over into minor league hockey, where leagues like the American Hockey League have seen attendance drop this season despite having some NHL talent among its ranks? Will high school and college hockey suffer the same fate if these boys, who have practiced diligently for years to perfect their skills, suddenly realize that there’s no reward for all that hard work?

Hopefully, Major League Baseball owners and players have watched and learned from the mistakes that their brethren in the NHL made. It isn’t difficult to imagine that this same scenario could play itself out in another couple of years when the current collective bargaining agreement expires. Despite the general feeling from the owners that the economic playing field needs to be leveled, several once more threw money around to players this off-season, signing several second and third-rate players to sizeable, long-term deals. As has been pointed out before in this column, the lack of parity outside of the big-market venues is slowly sucking life out of the league, evident by the half-empty baseball stadiums and abysmal television ratings. The last thing that Major League Baseball needs is to mirror the failed efforts of the NHL; instead, the owners and the players, who both have a vested interest in the success of the league, must find common ground together to create a balanced package that will be beneficial to both sides as well as the health of the sport.

In Need Of A Fix

Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi, looking rather drained and weary in stark contrast to the man we’ve all seen launch several souvenir baseballs into the bleachers over his career, all but admitted in a packed press conference at Yankee Stadium yesterday that he had used performance-enhancing drugs in the past, including steroids. All he wishes to do now, with the belief that a great burden has been lifted from his shoulders, is put past mistakes behind him and focus on the goal of helping his New York teammates reclaim the glory of a championship in 2005. Of course, it will be nearly impossible to do so now that former Major League Baseball player Jose Canseco, who stroked 462 home runs in his major league career, not only admits in his new book, due to be released Monday, to using steroids but also fingered several former players and teammates, including fellow Bash Brother Mark McGwire and former Texas teammates Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro, and Ivan Rodriguez.

Odd that all of this comes just a day after MLB commissioner Bud Selig appeared in San Francisco, stood in front of SBC Park, and announced that the city would host the 2007 All-Star contest. Ironically, it will take place the year after Barry Bonds, the player who some accuse of being the biggest cheat in baseball, witnesses the end of his contract with the Giants and perhaps his career, more than likely able to stake a claim to the title of the most prolific American home run hitter of all time. Fortunately, there’s little chance that he’ll ever catch up with Sadaharu Oh, who clobbered 868 home runs in 23 seasons of professional baseball with Japan’s Yomiuri Giants, to stake ownership of greatest home run hitter ever, period. Admit it; you likely either snickered or rolled your eyes when the legendary Willie Mays, Bond’s godfather, stood at the podium in front of the park and joked to reporters that perhaps he would have hit a few more home runs had he played here and that Bonds was aware of this fact. Yeah, we’re sure that Barry gets all the help he needs to pad those statistics thanks to the park’s generous dimensions that favor left-handed batters.

Of course, part of the blame can be pointed in the direction of Mr. Commissioner; his only response in addressing the problem recently is to flash the recently-signed pact, a more extensive, punitive and comprehensive policy governing testing for steroids and other banned substances, reached last month between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association. It’s not hard to see that this agreement has more bite than the toothless policy that had been instituted before this landmark accord. Yet this deal is just one answer to many questions still left to be satisfied with a viable response. How many records have been set by and how many honors have been bestowed upon players who weren’t all that they seemed? How long did the ownership turn its collective eye away from the problem, focused instead on trying to get the game back on its feet after the disastrous baseball strike in 1994? Why did it take loud whispers from every clubhouse in baseball, the death of a former MVP, and US Senate hearings to finally get baseball to address the matter?

It would be really hard to just take an eraser, open the record books, and begin removing names and numbers; this isn’t exactly an open-and-shut case like Milli Vanilli’s Grammy Award. Even with solid proof that a player cheated, there’s little the league can do. It appears that perhaps only history will mark this era in baseball with an asterisk, much like Ford Frick labeled the new home run record set by Roger Maris in 1961, the first year that the league added eight additional games to the regular season schedule. Of course, Maris accomplished that feat using determination as his drug of choice, not something that came in the form of a pill, a salve, or an injection.

Sadly, baseball continues to claim ignorance when it is clear that there was never doubt that there was something rotten in the state of the league. Canseco is certainly not the most trustworthy source; his allegations and accusations need to be taken with a grain of salt since he has made it his mission to single-handedly embarrass the industry that made him a household name. Regardless, from everything that we know today, league ownership needs to put on an honest face, swallow its pride, and cough up the truth about what it knows. Otherwise, the credibility of the league will continue to crumble and no apology will be able to repair the damage.