One of the funniest moments in Casablanca:

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?

Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.

Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.

John Perricone finds Bud Selig doing his best Claude Rains in this daily news story:

But the case Selig presented yesterday - that baseball tried to get a testing policy as far back as 1991 - also undermines Selig's insistence over the last few weeks that baseball was unaware of a steroid problem before 1998, when a bottle of androstenedione - a steroid precursor - was spotted in McGwire's locker.

After the Daily News reported the contents of Canseco's tell-all autobiography last month, Selig began to deny Canseco's charges that owners were complicit in the 'roid rage of the 1990s. When the Daily News reported that FBI special agent Greg Stejskal, who convicted more than 70 traffickers in the largest steroids investigation in history, said he warned baseball in the mid-1990s of a steroid problem in the game, baseball attacked his credibility, essentially calling him a liar.

So just how complicit was MLB? They did try to get steroid testing into the CBA twice in the early 1990s. I suppose they could have made it the centerpiece of negotiations, but they were more interested in breaking the union at that point. The league certainly could have acted on the FBI warnings. While they could not take action against players, they could have started to look at the players associates. They could have gone to players and said, "We know you are friends with a steroid trafficker. We don't know if you're using steroids, but if you continue to see this person, we'll go public with our suspicisions." Or they could have leaked the story to someone in the press that the FBI was investigating suppliers of ballplayers. The owners give lots of money to politicians; they could have gotten Washington to open an investigation into the matter then.

Instead, MLB used the CBA as an excuse to do nothing. And to tell you the truth, I'm fine with that. Steroids (if as widely used as some would like us to believe) were helping the game, not hurting it. Baseball had taken a huge blow after the 1994 strike. Why hurt the game further with another scandal? The players were grown men; the union was full of very intelligent people. If they were willing to risk their bodies for a fame and money, why shouldn't owners make a buck off it also?

The owners couldn't even blacklist players, as that would be collusion.

But the owners should be candid about this. Selig, being a used car salesman, finds this difficult. But remember, the blame lies nearly 100% with the players. I haven't heard an owner or GM accused of encouraging steroid use. The players wanted the problem neglected, and the owners were happy to go along. Bu the owners weren't in the bathroom sticking needles in the players. Or providing the drugs (as the clubs did with amphetamines). The was the players problem, and the players deserve the blame.

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