Point missing
There's nothing at all wrong with adults doing cocaine, in principle or in practice. As a matter of principle adults ought to be able to buy whatever drugs they want at 7-11. As a matter of practice it's just not that harmful a drug if used in relative moderation, and people who let it ruin their lives tend to be the types who would have done so with whiskey, Scientology or gambling anyway. To say the very least it's not my thing for any number of reasons, but the stigma and hypocrisy around the drug, which lots of people have done, is ridiculous if thankfully fading.
My point here is that the only proper response to the news that Texas manager Ron Washington tested positive for the drug last year is to wonder why in the blue fuck central baseball is demeaning 57-year-old men by making them piss in cups. Even Craig Calcaterra, clearly not a sports moralist, seems to cede the premise that there's something wrong with Wash's behavior, ending his take by noting that 'People deserve second chances.' They absolutely do, but Washington doesn't need one. He didn't do anything wrong in the first place other than violate an obviously silly and unnecessary agreement with his employers, who don't seem to be all that put out by it. This is a case where I think we can go beyond asking sports moralists to spare us the outrage and ask them to spell out exactly what's wrong with a grown man doing his own thing in his free time.
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Reader Comments (5)
Agree on all points, with the exception that LaRussa needs to be tested before he reaches into his bullpen.
I'm with you. The problem is, the drug's illegal and testing positive for it means Wash is in some sorta blackmailable position vis a vis his supplier, and that means he could be pressured into trying to fix a game. I don't agree with it, but I think that's the rationale of testing a manager.
Now, can someone explain why managers need to wear team uniforms?
Eh, you can get blackmailed over all sorts of stuff, women being more worrisome than coke, plus MLB has a private FBI to deal with that sort of thing. Not a total non-issue but close enough that I don't see why the discreet manager shouldn't be able to unwind with an eightball if that rings his bell.
This sort of thing has really gone far enough. It's gotten to be an enabling device for people whose lives are so pathetic they're emotionally gratified by the premise of more successful individuals faltering.
Maybe if we all had the ability to improve conditions or something....
Re: blackmail, according to the following piece, Washington and the Rangers actually were being blackmailed... over the positive test. I've read enough Ross MacDonald to figure that the smart play for the blackmailer would have been to sell this info to an underworld sort (with a wife whose sister was really her daughter), but there you go.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/03/17/2048257/cocaine-blackmail-converge-on.html