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How MLB players are like the Mob

Posted by: Tony Bleill

Tuesday, February 24, 2009 11:51 AM

Former White Sox slugger Ron Kittle told the Chicago Tribune that he's surprised no one has taken vengeance on Jose Conseco, the steroids whistleblower who fosters both goodwill and bad for his repeated assertions of drug use in baseball.

"I still think somebody who might have had their life ruined might take vengeance on him," Kittle said. "If I were [Canseco], I would think about that."

Cosa Nostra, anyone?

Kittle's attitude is that what happens in the clubhouse, stays in the clubhouse. Good teammates don't reveal what they know. This, of course, is similar to what is known in Mafia circles as "omerta," one of the most ridiculous dogmas of this or any other century.

Criminals protect their accomplices. It happens in the Mafia, and it happens in Major League Baseball clubhouses. For anyone to suggest that baseball players should stay quiet about their knowledge of steroid use is absurd. (Judeo-Christian doctrine, for example, says that remaining silent in the face of wrongdoing is inappropriate behavior.)

Steroid use in baseball is both immoral and illegal. For Kittle to suggest that Conseco crossed the line by breaking the clubhouse's code of silence shows he, like many others before him, don't get it. They don't understand the big picture.

Listen, if baseball players want to maintain the clubhouse's code of silence when it comes to a player's personal life, fine. If your teammate is an alcoholic and you go blabbing that to every media outlet in the country, perhaps you could understand Kittle's point. But we're talking about steroid use here. It is an illegal activity. By maintaining silence, you are only protecting the guilty, and that's unfortunate.

Beyond that point, Kittle's perspective is flawed regarding the benefits of public exposure. "It is unfortunate that it has been brought out in the open like this," Kittle said. "It is damaging to MLB. And it is damaging to the people who played in MLB."

So, Kittle apparently believes that bringing steroid use into the open is more damaging to the game than the steroid use itself. It's that type of logic that makes you wonder about the intelligence of major league baseball players because -- believe this -- Kittle is far from alone. I've heard many, many current and former players espouse the same type of nonsense. Again, though they might not even realize it, they are protecting the guilty at the expense of the innocent.

Only by exposing cheating and corruption can it be rectified. This isn't rocket science. If cheating is never exposed, it will continue to happen. Does Kittle believe that cleaning up baseball can be accomplished without it being "brought out into the open like this"? Shaky logic, at best.

Yes, damage to MLB has been done. But that's just the way it goes. It had to happen, and it's a byproduct of the poor choices made by MLB players who took steroids. They are the ones who caused that damage, not the whistleblowers who brought it to light.