Hubris

Can Major League Baseball really be this arrogant?

The World Anti-Doping Agency wasn't allowed to conduct unannounced drug tests before the World Baseball Classic and still can't determine whether the sport's governing body complied with its code.

WADA said in a statement Tuesday that the International Baseball Federation, which was put in charge of testing by Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, allowed its out-of-competition testing agreement with WADA to expire in December and didn't renew it until after the tournament, which was played March 3-20.

"WADA's repeated requests of baseball officials to provide the details of the anti-doping policies and their implementation have been met with refusal until one week after the end of the event," WADA said.

C'mon MLB -- either you're serious about the doping issue or you're not. You can't have it both ways! Sure MLB ignored obvious signs of steroid use for years, but now it claims it's ready to get serious: the new drug testing, the stiff penalties, and the new investigative panel headed by George Mitchell. Then something like this comes up. What's the deal?

MLB, of course, claims this is no big deal. "This seems to be nothing more than a petty jurisdictional dispute among two members of the Olympic family," he [an MLB spokesman] said. Even the WADA admits that its beef is with the IBF and not with MLB. Still, the timing seems very suspicious -- IBF's agreement with the WADA expired in December and they just happened to put off renewing it until ONE WEEK AFTER the World Baseball Classic? The whole thing reminds me of the Dante Jones (I think that was his name) summer school scandal. I may be wrong on a few details, but this is how I remember it. Jones was a hot shot ringer than the Mississippi State basketball coach had found on the playgrounds of Nashville. At the time he was working at a Kenny Rogers' Roasters restaurant, but coach got him to go to college and turn his life around -- at least that was the tale.

In reality, Jones was brought in for one season for one reason -- he helped the Bulldogs get to the Final Four (I think). Of course Jones had some eligibility issues, so he went to summer school at one of the community colleges in MS where he earned something like 36 credit hours IN ONE SUMMER! Anyone who has ever been to summer school knows that is impossible. When the NCAA came around asking questions though, the school president said something like, "We're not part of the NCAA and we don't have to answer to them."

This is what the convenient lapsing of the WADA agreement reminds me of. We don't like your jurisdiction, so we'll just find a "workaround". Oh, as for Dante Jones ... I seem to recall he attended school for one semester, failed all his classes (maybe didn't even take final exams), but by the time sanctions came down the season was over. He entered the NBA draft and I think maybe played one year of pro ball. Again, I'm a little fuzzy on the details (and Google didn't help), but it was clearly a ploy to "rent" a player for one season.

Anyway, I thought MLB was smarter than MS State, but I don't know why I'd have thought that. Oh well, the Cards play tonight and I'm actually going to get to see the game. Yes, I realize the inconsistency: I criticize MLB's actions, yet I still consume the product. But it's the Cards!