Kuzul

Let’s say there is a university going through a rough patch.

Previously, it was viewed as one of the best schools in the nation, and it pulled in billions of dollars in endowments. Teachers who succeeded there, would go onto academic fame and be set for the rest of their lives financially.

However, a teacher’s strike in 1994 had ruined the university’s reputation.

The public thought the strike showed that the university and its teachers only cared about the size of their bank accounts.

When the strike was over, enrollment was at an all time-low.

Many parents had pulled there kids out of school and applications for admission, which once flowed in like the Mississippi, now trickled in weakly. 

Realizing the rewards success at the school could give them, some teachers began grading easier than Paula Abdul in order to have more students get A’s.

The school had never explicitly forbade teachers from artificially enhancing students grades, but teachers were expected to uphold the academic integrity of the university.

In forsaking academic integrity, the number of students with “A”averages exploded. Applications skyrocketed, and money from endowments returned to the levels seen before the strike.

The record for the most “A” students in a year was broken in 1998 and 2001.

In 2007, the all-time record for students with an “A” average over a career—once held by Henry Louis—was broken by Harry Hondz. 

Later, the practices used by teachers to obtain these results was exposed.

The public split on the issue based on what people believed was the purpose of teachers and education.

Those who believed in academic integrity wanted their names erased from the record books and fought to prevent those teachers from being acknowledged as all-time greats. Others deemed that the practices did not take away from the teachers’ achievements, and that a teacher’s purpose was to have students obtain the highest grades they could. 

MLB had difficultly getting back into the national spotlight after the 1994 strike and the steroid era helped to bring it back to national prominence.

At the time, the Summer of 1998 was seen as a great time for baseball.

Barry Bonds gave baseball non-stop coverage as he broke the single season and career home run records.

Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were two of the best hitters in baseball and brought a World Series Championship to the Red Sox in 2004, which was their first in 86 years.

Now what do we think of that era and those achievements?

We no longer look back at those times as moments of greatness. Instead, we look back and see that it was all a fraud. All the records and all the moments were products of the lab and not that of the players on the field.

The competitive integrity of the game was compromised because of those men, and without competitive integrity, baseball goes from being a sport to being just entertainment.

However, there is not universal outrage towards PED users. Instead, people are divided as to whether those players should have their names remain in the record books, and whether they should be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. 

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s three stated purposes are preserving history, honoring excellence and connecting generations.

So what purpose does the Hall of Fame serve if it inducts those who used PEDs and keeps their names in the record books?

It shows that the achievements of players who took PEDs are just as valid and deserve as much respect as the achievements of those who played in previous generations.

It shows that the achievements of those who cheated the game are equal to the achievements of those who upheld the integrity of the game. How does that fulfill the Hall of Fame’s purpose of honoring excellence?

Should the destruction of the game’s integrity not be factored when considering excellence? 

Recently, another problem with allowing PED users into the Hall of Fame arose. Manny Ramirez failed another drug test and instead of taking his suspension, he retired from baseball.

If Ramirez was inducted into the Hall of Fame, the repercussions would be disastrous for the competitive integrity of the MLB.

Players, in the twilight of their career, would start taking PEDs to give their career new life. They would continue to take PEDs until they retired on their own, or they would retire once they failed a drug test.

Players who would have been Hall of Famers before using PEDs or those who were made into Hall of Famers by PED use at the end of their career would still get into the Hall of Fame.

Their names would still be in the record books and their achievements will be officially deemed valid. They will not be punished at all, but baseball will be punished.

Fans will grow more cynical of all achievements players make. The legacy of clean players will be tarnished because they played in the same era as those cheaters. By inducting PED users, the baseball Hall of Fame would end up promoting the use of PEDs and destroying the integrity of the game. 

Some argue that erasing PED users from the record books and not inducting them into the Hall of Fame would go against the baseball’s tradition of preserving their history.

The solution to that is simple: Make sure people don’t forget the era. Have a wing in the Hall of Fame devoted to the Steroid Era. Show how players brought disgrace to themselves and to the game by taking PEDs. Make sure that those who are guilty are viewed in shame, and those who are not guilty are clearly set apart from the guilty.

Baseball should not run away from its darkest era.

It should should acknowledge that it happened, but it should not reward the players responsible for why it happened. It should not reward those who destroyed baseball’s integrity as a sport and turned it into just a form of entertainment. 

If you want to treat baseball as merely entertainment, then the fences should be moved in 100 feet, a pitch clock should be established, and metal bats should be legal.

If you want to treat baseball as entertainment, then have the teams that bring the most fans to the ballpark and arner the highest TV ratings as the only teams that make the playoffs.

If you want to treat baseball as merely entertainment, then records should not exist, let alone matter.

If you want to treat baseball as merely entertainment, then there should not be a concept of the game’s integrity. 

However, if you want to treat baseball as a sport, then you can not reward those who have done so much damage to it.

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Ozzie Guillen has never shown any fear about expressing his opinion, no matter how controversial.

So it should come as no surprise that Ozzie Guillen decided to give his two cents about what he believes is racism in baseball.

However, Ozzie Guillen is completely wrong in his analysis of the situation. 

Here is what Ozzie said concerning the treatment of Asian and Latino baseball players.

“Very bad. I say, why do we have Japanese interpreters and we don’t have a Spanish one. I always say that. Why do they have that privilege and we don’t? Don’t take this wrong, but they take advantage of us. We bring a Japanese player and they are very good and they bring all these privileges to them. We bring a Dominican kid … go to the minor leagues, good luck. Good luck. And it’s always going to be like that. It’s never going to change. But that’s the way it is.”

Let’s take the second half of the statement first.

The reason kids from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Venezuela, or other Latin American countries (except Cuba) go to the minors has to do with the age at which they are signed.

Most of these players are signed at 16,17, and 18 years old. At that age, those kids belong in the minor leagues.

That’s no insult to their abilities; it’s just how baseball works.

When these kids are signed, they are not ready for big league play.

When players like Orlando Hernandez or Jose Contreras are signed, they do not get placed in the minors because they are more developed and are deemed Major League ready.

Asian players do not come to America the same way. Asian players go through the minor leagues in Japan and then go on to play professional baseball in Asia.

When they come over to America, they are in their mid to late twenties and are established big league players.

The Nippon Baseball League and the MLB also agreed on having Major League clubs pay posting fees. Posting fees are bids made by MLB teams in order to get the chance to negotiate with a player.

This idea is very similar to transfer fees in football. That means that the players MLB teams get from Asia are the cream of the crop.

They aren’t going to waste posting fee dollars on players that are not ready to make an impact on the Major League level.

Another reason that Asian players coming over get paid is the exposure teams get to Asian markets.

When big-time stars from the Nippon League go to the United States, they do not just bring an impact on the field.

They bring in major dollars from Japan. One of the reasons for posting fees was the lowered ratings for the Nippon League and growing ratings for MLB telecasts.

Ichiro made the Seattle Mariners the most popular baseball team in Japan. In 2003, Matsui’s arrival to New York brought immense revenue from Japan.

One could see Japanese companies advertising at Yankee Stadium because they knew how popular the Yankees were in Japan.

This foreign revenue increases the value of Asian players to MLB franchises and since there is no salary cap, baseball players have the ability to be paid the amount the club believes they are worth.

Also, a Japanese player can not have this financial impact if he is in the minor leagues. 

It’s is because of their age, ability, development, and their marketability that Asian players do not start their MLB careers in the minors like Latino players, not racism.

The first half of Ozzie’s comment is misguided as well. When Latino players come through a Major League team’s development system, they are provided English speaking courses.

Before they ever step on a Major League field, they have the opportunity to learn English.

Asian players do not go through MLB developmental systems.

They are developed by Asian teams to play in Asian leagues. The Nippon League clubs are not worried about preparing their players to play in America (actually they would rather they stay in Japan).

Asian leagues are not televised in the Western Hemisphere, so there are no endorsement deals that Asian players lose because they can not speak English.

The second problem in Guillen’s opinion about interpreters is the makeup of the clubhouse.

In the MLB, almost 30 percent of the players are Latin American. Every team in the MLB has multiple Hispanic players. Not only do the Major League teams have a plethora of Hispanics, but Latinos are make up a significant portion of minor league teams as well.

So when a 17-year-old Dominican is brought stateside, he will be surrounded by other players who speak his language and understand his culture at every level from Low Single-A Ball to the MLB.

In the large majority of clubhouses, there are players who can speak English and Spanish.

They, in effect, serve as interpreters so that players and management can communicate. Major League teams even hire coaches who can speak Spanish so language because less of a barrier.

When an Asian player comes to the MLB, it is not the same.

First, there are few Asians in the MLB. When guys like Matsui, Ichiro, or Nomo are brought into the United States, there is nobody in the clubhouse can speak their language or understand the culture from which they came.

When the Red Sox signed Daisuke Matsuzaka from the Seibu Lions, they made sure they brought another Japanese player.

Remember that Hideki Okajima was not brought over to be a major part of the bullpen. Initially, he was to serve as Daisuke’s friend in a new land. 

Unlike Latin America, there is no universal language in Asia.

For example, having Hideki Matsui on the roster did not mean that the Yankees did not need an interpreter for Chien-Ming Wang.

Most Japanese players are not going to be able to have a conversation with a Taiwanese player, let alone help them communicate to other in the clubhouse.

Without these interpreters, Asian players would have no leg to stand on when it came to working and acclimating to their new environment.

Ozzie Guillen needs to realize that the MLB’s treatment of Asian and Latino players has nothing to do with race. All that Ozzie Guillen did by making this statement is to earn a sit down with Bud Selig, not expose some racist element of MLB.

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