300

I’m not sure if the new Temperance League has cleared this record for public consumption, but congrats to Tom Glavine. It’s a little bittersweet, given how many of those involved throttling the Expos, but it’s always a remarkable accomplishment.

Speaking of the new TL, one of our readers claims in my refusal to join the War on Steroids: “[y]ou are simply indifferent to the labor conditions of athletes. It’s a bit at odds with your other political positions but, hey, no need for moralism.” A couple points:

• The players have a very strong, high-leverage, powerful union. Moreover, it’s not as if they’re fighting for testing and management won’t give it to them; rather, management wants more testing. The argument, in other words, seems to require an attribution of false consciousness of the kind I usually reject, and professional athletes aren’t in a sitation comparable to other kinds of workers that justify other forms of workplace regulations. And, by the way, is mandatory drug testing by corporations now a “progressive” value? If so, I’ll happily sign up with the libertarians on this one.
• If this is really about public health, and not The Sanctity of The Game or whatever, I have a more efficacious proposal: ban the NFL altogether. Once we’ve done that, I will accept that these claims are serious and we can get to the less important problem of getting hysterical about steroids in baseball.