The owners did not want outside interference thus they choose one of their own to oversea Major League Baseball. It has worked for twenty years now it is time for change. Maybe an African American leader would turn this maligned industry around.

Bill White, Frank Robinson, Joe Morgan, and Condoleezza Rice, would be ideal African American candidates, while Bob Costas, George Will, or Peter Gammons would also be other great candidates. These seven individuals would move baseball in a different direction, one away from the power of owners to the power of the fans and players.    

THE TRUTH of the matter is that commissioner, (Bud Selig) has done little or nothing to improve the game for the fans or the average player. He has installed a new playoff system, he has installed the wild card and he has doggedly fought for the Designated Hitter.

The owners have profited two fold while the fans have suffered with more regular season night games, more meaningless playoff games, and more night World Series games. All of these things have benefited of the owners. The owners have received new stadiums, new expansion teams, and unlimited amount of money to spend.

Bud Selig should be the first casualty of this latest drug problem, losing his job would be appropriate because he cannot deny that he knew nothing about it. Steroids were all around him.

The MLB Players' Union is currently the strongest union in the sports industry consequently the Commissioner, owners, and managers are unable to confront the union on random drug testing. That is why baseball is in this situation today. 

The union has defended players who have broken rules and have used drugs. The Union defended players that have been in fights and in shooting incidents. This union has repeatedly blocked drug testing.

Prior to the 2003 season, testing was conducted for survey purposes only. Baseball had no drug-testing policy, more than five percent of players tested positive, a full-fledged testing program was instituted, but House committee members complained that the policy is too weak.

Baseball's drug policies are not the tightest in the world. Anybody could drive a Mac truck through their weak drug rules. A prime example is the great New York Mets teams of the late 80's. This team won more games in one decade than any other team in baseball history. They should have been recorded in baseball history books; Here was a team that everyone wanted to imitate. 

The Mets should have won four World Series, but only won one in 1986 against the Boston Red Sox. If it were not for Billy Buckner's gaff in the 10th inning of the Game Six, the Mets would not have won that series either.

There were numerous reports of Mets team members getting on the airplane to their next game and opening vials of powder cocaine and marijuana. Could it be that they would play the game high on drugs? If the Commissioner, the team owner, or the manager were aware of it, they did nothing.

Black males Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden became baseball's poster boys for drugs in the 1980-90's. That whole team in New York should have been suspended and fined. When you are buddies with the commissioner this does not happen.

Baseball's administration should have taken action but the Commissioner, owners, and managers turned their collect heads and baseball went on.  This drug trend continued in the late 80's and early 90's with the Oakland A's.

The "Bash Brothers", Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire using the muscle enhancer Andro. Whispers were everywhere saying that they must be taking something because there bodies have grown two fold since the previous season.

Baseballs were flying out of Oakland Alameda County Coliseum on regular bases. Again the powers that be in baseball turned their collective heads instead of dealing with this massive problem.

The owner of the Oakland A's (Walter A. Haas Jr.) and the manager of the A's (Tony LaRussa) should have been suspended and fined if they knew about Jose and Mark's steroid use. With the old boy network at play, it is safe to say that this would not happen if you were friends and buddies with the commissioner.

TELL THE TRUTH!!

The baseball administrators did not care what Jose and Mark were taking. The most important thing was that they were putting people in the seats. It did not matter. Baseball was making money. Baseball was a good capital investment and nobody really cared about how it got that way.

This whole situation was revealed in later 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa went on a 60-homer binge. They were chasing the great Yankee, Mickey Mantle and his season single homerun record of sixty-two. Not only that, but skinny little shortstops and second basemen were hitting 30-40 towering homers at a ridiculous rate. It was so oblivious something was going on.

Everybody was on a baseball love fest, a baseball high but there was a distant thunder of Congress looming and examining the numerous steroid allegations in 2005. Two important players, Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds were not at the congressional hearings nor were they suspended.

Barry Bonds felt slighted by the baseball world hitting forty five home runs in San Francisco that same year. Everybody ignored Mr. Bonds which set the stage for the final act. Mr. Bonds grew two fold and started hitting home runs at an unbelievable pace.

Bonds broke McGwire's single season record and Aaron's carrier record within four years. Then Major League Baseball took a serious look at the problem but the horse was already out of the barn and the damage was done.   

TELL THE TRUTH!!

The San Francisco Giants owner (Peter Magowan) and management (GM Brian Sabean) should have been suspended and fined if they knew Bonds had taken steroids but when you are buddies and friends of the commissioner it will not happen.

THE MEDIA HAS NOT SAID A WORD

Baseball got wind of another Congressional investigation and the Commissioner marshaled his troops to ward off another congressional snooping probe. The week long meeting in Washington with senators, the commissioner, owners, and players prove that drug use was prevalent in the sport and that baseball's leadership literally did nothing to stop it.  

This year, the Mitchell report would be commissioned. Bug Selig asked his friend to investigate Major League Baseball. This committee had no power to subpoena, no power to arrests, no power to suspend, so what was the point. The Committee just threw out baseball players names and hoped for the best. This is not the way to run any business.

Barry Bonds became the poster boy for steroids another Black man just as Strawberry and Gooden had been years before with powder cocaine, alcohol and marijuana.

TELL THE TRUTH!!

The baseball elite did not want a proud, strong, arrogant, Black (Barry Bonds) man taking all of the prestigious baseball home run records. These same baseball players, played by the rules set forth by the union, the commissioner, and the owners, and now you want to punish ONE, Barry Lamar Bonds.

WELL the house of cards are now coming down just as the GRAYLINE stated six months ago in my BASN Barry Bonds article on Race, Baseball, and American Anger.

Superstar pitchers like Roger Clemons, Andy Pettitte, and 80 others are now on the list of steroid users and many more players we may never know about. One who plays the race card usually gets burn and baseball has played this card this year and looked foolish.

How will the commissioner, the owners, and managers spin this tale?

BASEBALL IS ON IT'S DEATH BED ONCE AGAIN!!