I've joined the widening group of those fascinated with the scandal surrounding New York Yankee pitcher Miguel Pineda's use of pine tar to get a grip on things. I'm not sure why; it's a demonstrably trivial incident. But I suspect it's an insight into how we treat important things as well, and it certainly has captured public attention.
For those who don't follow the sports pages, Mr. Pineda is a young and oft-injured pitcher who is making a comeback with the Yankees.
In an earlier game, television cameras picked up a patch of pine tar on his hand, which is widely used to improve a pitcher's grip on the baseball. The next inning, the pine tar was gone and Pineda was acting like nothing happened. Warnings were issued and the world moved on.
Then, a few days ago, he was caught again, with a patch of pine tar on his neck, and the stuff hit the fan. He's been suspended for 10 games and has admitted wrongdoing and asked for forgiveness.
The problem is that everyone concedes that the use of pine tar doesn't really amount to much, and everybody does it. Pine tar does the same thing as the perfectly legal rosin bag — it helps you grip the ball. But there's a specific rule saying you can't use a "foreign substance." A 10-game suspension is imposed by the commissioner, the rule of law is upheld and integrity vindicated.
All this from a sport that tolerated massive and criminal use of steroids for decades.
Does this remind you of anything?
As Yogi Berra said, "This is deja vu all over again." And not just in sports. We collectively tolerate massive wrongdoing, and then jump all over particular unfortunates, who, having done a small wrong, are massively punished.
In the world of Albany's government and politics, we do the pine tar thing regularly. The fundamental problem in state government is the distorting effect of huge amounts of money. Huge amounts, not the occasional $250 check. Laws are passed and contracts given, and millions flow.
We have a parallel problem, real and unsettling, of individual idiots and petty criminals taking bribes or lining their personal pockets with public dollars. These are bad things and need to be stopped. And so we have Moreland Commissions, and occasional indictments, and much hand-wringing. But the real problem — the big money, the "steroids" of politics and government — well, that goes on forever.
For the next two months, the Assembly, Senate and the governor will wrap up a legislative session that has so far been defined by a series of tax cuts for the wealthiest New Yorkers, an expansion of pre-K services and a failed, minor tango about public campaign finance. Miguel Pineda would fit right in. And the widespread editorial and good-government harumphing about steroid abuse and political reform will likely continue without any real improvement emerging.
There's just a chance that something more will emerge, maybe a minimum wage bill, maybe changes in various giveaways at the Port Authority, maybe a public campaign finance bill that includes public financing not just in the comptroller's race, but in the race for governor, attorney general and the Legislature.
But the burden will be on us. If we pay a 10th of the attention to all this that we pay to pine tar scandals, we've got a shot. It's tempting to blame Commissioner Bud Selig, or Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver or co-Senate leaders Jeff Klein and Dean Skelos, for the failures of baseball and politics, respectively.
We will get the baseball and the government we demand. As Yogi also said, "It ain't over until it's over."
Brodsky is a fellow at the Demos think tank in New York City and at the Wagner School at New York University.