Hank Steinbrenner, son of Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner, and heir apparent to “The Boss” as the team’s main man, spoke out forcefully yesterday on the issue of performance-enhancing drugs and baseball. His comments came on the same day Yankees star pitcher Andy Pettitte issued a major mea culpa for using human growth hormone, and tried to explain his side of the Roger Clemens-Brian McNamee tiff.
In making his views known, did the younger Steinbrenner, aka, “The Mini-Boss,” forcefully condemn the use of PED by major leaguers, most prominently current and former Yankees who have been named in the Mitchell Report? Did he present a plan to help his sport eradicate the scourge that has tainted it in the eyes of many? Did he issue a new policy for his organization stating that the Bronx Bombers would avoid signing known PED offenders? No, the new sheriff in Yankeedom did none of those things, but instead aired his frustrations that in his opinion the NFL gets a pass from media and fans on the subject of PED, while MLB is taken to the wood shed for lesser offenses.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Steinbrenner, who in recent months has become the Yankees main spokesman on issues ranging from the departure of Joe Torre to the re-signing of Alex Rodriguez to how new manager Joe Girardi should handle the team’s pitching staff, said, “Everybody that knows sports knows football is tailor-made for performance-enhancing drugs. I don’t know how they managed to skate by. It irritates me. Don’t tell me it’s not more prevalent. The number in football is at least twice as many. Look at the speed and size of those players.”
That away Hank! With that statement you have beyond doubt allayed all fears that you aren’t ready to step into your father’s shoes in not only running the most famous franchise in all of sports, but also in making outlandish comments guaranteed to garner national headlines and attention to yourself.
Without debating the merits of Steinbrenner’s statement (the NFL has responded by pointing out that it has been conducting PED testing since 1990, and that it does over 12,000 random tests per year), let’s brand it for what it was: a blatant attempt to take heat off Pettitte, an important cog in the Yankees 2008 pitching rotation, and mask the fact that the Yankees clubhouse has been revealed to be a veritable drug den during the last decade or so.
That’s not to say the Pinstripers are unique among MLB teams as drug cheats. Everyone familiar with the Mitchell Report acknowledges it merely revealed the tip of the iceberg when it comes to who used what. It also would be unfair to label the recent Yankees success, most importantly their four championships in five years to close out the 20th century, as tainted.
It’s just that Hammerin’ Hank could have stepped to the plate and done something no one in baseball has been willing to do: admit just how bad things have been and make it clear that going forward there will be zero tolerance for continuation of the status quo.
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