Are Baseball Owners Really Just Community Organizers?

Donald Fehr did his job, whether you like it or not. 

That is because Fehr's job was to protect players in contract negotiations.

The fact is that the juicers made big money thus that is where many of the big contracts went. Thus, that money and those contract negotiations affected all players.

The reality is that the players aren't solely to blame. You can't call the players greedy without saying the same thing about the owners and Bud Selig. 

They were equally greedy but, as I see it, the owners initiated the problems that became the steroid problem when the owners colluded against the players in the mid-1980s.

Bud Selig has not done his job—he has and had the power as commissioner to officially do what's in the best interest of the game, but did nothing.

Yes, Fehr stalled on "testing" and was cutthroat in bartering salaries for the substance-addicted sheep known as professional baseball players (Ball Four, Juiced). 

To claim that Donald Fehr introduced substance abuse into the MLB is utterly ridiculous. 

That's a problem that harkens back to the yore of Babe Ruth, and exemplified in the book Ball Four about the one season by the Seattle Pilots in 1969. They were bought by Bud Selig, moved, and renamed as the Milwaukee Brewers.

Seems funny that someone (Selig) who supposedly abhors substance abuse and wanted "testing" would name his team after people whom make one of the most dangerous substances available—alcohol.

Before you cry foul, I'm not a puritan on the issue. 

I prefer not to drink, but that's your decision; just don't claim that alcohol is harmless or safe, and safer than illegal drugs. Hey, at one time, alcohol was illegal. So, alcohol is obviously a gray area, but one thing I know for sure—don't underestimate the affects.

Nevertheless, Selig could have forced Fehr's hand by enacting testing by commissioner's order. 

Selig did not do so, yet has pointed the finger at Fehr, while Selig has also paid lip service to testing.

Why no action?

The money—everyone in the MLB (including the media) was getting rich (directly or indirectly) from steroids, except the fans.

When you think about it, pointless shows began to boom during the age of steroids because fans became addicted to watching stats.

That's what fans wanted to see. 

Thus, the media said nothing and now tries to claim a moral high ground over the juicers.

The problem is, the fans have also had the tendency to call the players greedy, but not say the same thing about the owners who jacked-up the prices on concessions and memorabilia, all while getting rich from media contracts—then stiffed the players in the 1960s, '70s, and much of the '80s. 

Gee, it's no wonder the players went on strike in 1994.

The owners even colluded against the players in the mid-1980s and were forced to pay over $250 million in damages.

Thus, the owners eventually overthrew the player-friendly commissioner, Fay Vincent, in a "coup" and replaced him with one of their own in the early 1990s—Bud Selig.

Selig became the first owner to become commissioner. It wasn't the players that eroded the game of baseball, it was the owners.

The players merely fought back. 

Selig's job was to stall and find ways to smear the players in order to detriment any leverage.  All that Selig is, is a glorified "hatchet-man" for the owners.

The game of baseball, however, can exist without the MLB.

And the one consolation for fans? 

Hack insults against fans by the media, frauds that demand credit and recognition, robber barons in the luxury suites that your money built, and memorabilia and memories that are now meaningless. 

How's that for irony?

Blaming the players won't change that.

If you want to change the situation, then go into your communities and demand to play hardball in "The Houses That You Built" through your tax dollars (or, community monies). Then compete against other teams to win rather than feel like a winner vicariously through substance addicted egomaniacs.

And please, don't berate me with nonsense about how the owners rightfully earned the money that they hoarded to the detriment of players. The owners aren't businessmen. 

How do I know this? 

The US Supreme Court determined in 1920 that baseball is "not a business" but a subject to anti-trust laws. Baseball is merely a community exhibition.

Baseball owners, hence, are not capitalists. They merely have a stranglehold over a product and the dreams, self-esteem, and fantasies of the fans.

Thus, baseball owners and executives are, in fact, community organizers. Community organizers work in order to enhance the dreams, self-esteem and fantasies of the people within their community through volunteer work. 

In the Steroids Era, those facets have been on an inverse correlation against the money available within a community exhibition.

Forget about your skill level or conditioning; just take it to the ballparks and demand what is rightfully yours. You'll be the winner.

Rather than let your butt grow in the groove on your couch as you watch gilded boys that cashed in from sticking needles in their rears.

"Yours will be the earth and everything that's in it. And what's more? You'll be a man, my son." (Rudyard Kipling)

Play ball!