Baseball's Lie Comes Home to Roost

Where do we go now? In a sense, general managers, who must be the game's most pragmatic people, have already figured it out. In the baseball tradition, they look at the numbers. Just last season's statistics, not those of previous years. In '07, homers were down by several hundred and baseball's drug testing, while lame compared with that of the Olympics, was better than in the past. What a player did last year, whether he was clean or just beat the testing system, that's who he is now to those who run teams.

So, when a Lo Duca or Tejada changes teams, the new price is set off '07 and little more. So, you can get Lo Duca to replace Brian Schneider at reasonable rates. The Lo Duca who hit .320 for the Dodgers in '01 and .318 in '06 for the Mets doesn't exist in the marketplace until he proves himself again. Instead, he's the no-power, no-arm, calls-a-good-game, .272 hitter of last year.

As for Tejada, whose slugging percentage and defensive range have shrunk four straight seasons, the 150-RBI superstar is gone. So he only fetches a low-average decent-power outfielder (Luke Scott) and five prospects, some credible, none inspiring.

Perhaps baseball, in the aftermath of the stern Mitchell report, can hope for tougher drug testing in the future if the union agrees to revisit the collective bargaining agreement, as it has two previous times in recent years. Then, perhaps, baseball can glimpse the beginning of a Post-Steroid Era when the sport has no more cheaters than the NFL, NBA and NHL. Is this a low standard, since none of America's major pro sports leagues has a drug-testing system as independent and tough as that of the Olympics? Absolutely. Perhaps baseball can even become the first pro sport to emulate international standards.

Three years ago, every baseball player was a suspected cheat. In '05, new Nats GM Jim Bowden stared at a player who'd been an Expos standout. "He looks smaller this year," Bowden said. By the next year the player had been traded.

That deep cynicism, ingrained throughout baseball from owner's box to bleachers, will not change quickly. It took nearly 20 years for baseball to lose the benefit of the doubt about its basic integrity. The Mitchell report is almost certainly baseball's best chance to hit the absolute bottom of its dismal performance-enhancing pit. Finally, the game has stopped ducking its problems, covering up its cheaters, making its hole deeper. With its analysis of the past and its recommendations for the future, the Mitchell report gives baseball a choice: stop digging deeper into denial, throw away that damn shovel and grab this rope like it's your last hope.

The climb will be long and hard. But, at last, baseball can make a start.