Rant of the Day

[oykib]

From Baseball Prospectus' Gary Huckabay

Originally Posted by Gary Huckabay

All this time, I thought there was a writer’s strike. But surely, this has to be fiction, right? Pakistan is teetering on the brink of chaos. The economy’s fragile at best, plagued by fear, uncertainty, and doubt, both on the business and consumer side. Oil’s at $100 a barrel. We’ve got nearly 200,000 troops deployed and in harm’s way around the world. The federal debt is to the point where it’s about to grow by a digit — which would be its 14th.

So, facing these, and lots of other issues that face the citizenry, Henry Waxman and crew have decided to spend their time, their staff’s time, and, unfortunately, our time, by grilling a bunch of ballplayers about whether or not they used substances to enhance their play on the field.

The full article

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by oykib

From Baseball Prospectus' Gary Huckabay



The full article

Made a comment about this in the Clemens thread.

He may be right about Congress getting involved. . . but trying to prove it by talking about all of the other problems in the world and acting as though Congress should only focus on them is asinine. It's equal to you going 75 in a 55, getting pulled over and telling the cop "Shouldn't you be catching murderers?" Get the hell over it. You broke the law. STFU. Pay your fine, move on.

The arguement also falls flat on its face in another perspective. There is no way this would hold up the passing or debate of a bill that impacted Iraq or the budget shortages. There are only so many things congress can do about either issue and they have been debated and voted upon. There are senate hearings and committees for a lot of things. This one happens to be getting attention because of the high profile nature of the people involved.

He wants to make an arguement that it's a worthless cause? Fine. Compare steroids to alcohol? Good job, have it it. Say these hearing won't change anything? Good for him.

Why he ruined it with those last two asinine paragraphs is beyond me.

[oykib]

The problem is that these congressmen are just going to have a dog and pony show to pander to voters. So it is just a waste of time and money.

I'll eat my words if they say implement changes x, y, and z or we'll repeal your anti-trust exemption. But they are not going to do that.

Not only that. But, really, who's most responsible for PEDs: players or ownership? If you could commit a victimless crime and know you'd not get caught and then your boss encouraged it because it was better for busines, you might have the moral fortitude to refuse. But how many of your peers would.

They are not going to do anything like really trying to get to the root of the problem.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by oykib

The problem is that these congressmen are just going to have a dog and pony show to pander to voters. So it is just a waste of time and money.

I'll eat my words if they say implement changes x, y, and z or we'll repeal your anti-trust exemption. But they are not going to do that.

Not only that. But, really, who's most responsible for PEDs: players or ownership? If you could commit a victimless crime and know you'd not get caught and then your boss encouraged it because it was better for busines, you might have the moral fortitude to refuse. But how many of your peers would.

They are not going to do anything like really trying to get to the root of the problem.

Of course it's a dog and pony show. Of course it's a waste of money. Of course they aren't going to do a damned thing.

That's an arguement worth making.

The "there are more important issues" arguement is a load of BS. If it weren't the baseball players, they'd be going after something else equally as dumb and not changing anything about that either. Violence in video games and TV, racy magazine ads or regulations to keep the cheese from bursting out of Hot Pockets in the microwave.

He could have stopped before the two idiotic paragraphs you posted and I'd have been fine.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by TroyF

If it weren't the baseball players, they'd be going after something else equally as dumb and not changing anything about that either.

You mean like pro wrestling for example?

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

You mean like pro wrestling for example?

Vince McMahon beat the government in the 90's, he'll do it again.

He's VINCENT KENNEDY MCMAHON, damnit!