Hoping “history” doesn’t repeat itself

To be honest, I had little use for Deadspin.com, a snarky website created by Will Leitch devoted to pointing out the faults and flaws of the sports world. Nevertheless, he does make a valid point on occasion, moreso since he left Deadspin for more serious journalistic endeavors.

This Leitch piece from The New Republic second-guesses the wisdom of Obama’s selection of Sen. George Mitchell — he of The Mitchell Report/steroids in baseball fiasco — as special envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Leitch writes

Let’s hope [Mitchell] does a better job than he did with … the “investigation” into steroid abuse that came out in December 2007. He couldn’t do much worse.

…

Mitchell’s main failure is that he gave the report the illusion of definitiveness without actually addressing any of the underlying problems that led to the steroid problem in the first place (and that could lead to another one). You rarely hear much talk about steroids in baseball anymore, other than to re-try and re-convict names from the past like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and [Roger] Clemens. Andy Pettitte, one of the few players plausibly fingered in the report, was weighing competing $10 million-a-year free agent offers this offseason, until he signed a $5.5 million deal with the Yankees Monday that, with performance bonuses, could be worth as much as $12 million.

So, what does this mean for Mitchell’s work as Middle East envoy? Well, if he does the same job he did with the Report, he’ll show up in Gaza, find one guy who fired a weapon, give his name to the press, and–voila, you’re welcome, world–declare the Middle East crisis solved. One hopes President Obama is a tougher boss than Commissioner Selig.

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Kaplan’s Korner on Jews and Sports © 2009 New Jersey Jewish News

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