Opening Day

Today was Opening Day for most Major League Baseball teams.

It was a great day in Cleveland -- it did not snow, and the Indians won!

During the winter, most baseball talk was about who was mentioned in the "Mitchell Report" on steroid use in baseball. Digging through that report, it is easy to uncover a network -- who supplied whom with drugs. But that network, by itself, does not explain the social dynamics of steroids in baseball over the last decade. We have to look at the social networks amongst players to see:

• how steroid acceptance spread,
  
• how drug sources were shared,
  
• why outsiders were in the dark while it was happening.
  

These dynamics are explained by the dense social networks that develop through the movements of players from team to team via trades and free-agent signings. A dense clique, like the one above [not all networks are pretty]...

• efficiently spreads information -- everyone knows what is going on
  
• maintains conformity -- everyone knows what not to discuss with outsiders
  
• over time, creates acceptance of norms that are aberrant to outsiders
  

For more info, see this short brief on the social life of steroids in baseball.

With many of the "stars" of the Mitchell Report, out of baseball this season, the steroid controversy will be relegated to the court room and not the ball yard.

Play Ball!