Steroids in Baseball: A Sad Fan's View

Let me start by saying that the whole steroid "thing" in baseball makes me more sad than anything else. While it does make me angry, disappointed, skeptical and confused, the prevailing emotion for me is sadness. Some of my best sports memories were created by athletes who it now appears used banned substances. Who could forget The Bash Brothers? As a proud Oakland A's fan, I can say that both McGwire and Canseco (along with hall of famers such as Dave Stewart and Ricky Henderson) were among my favorite players early in life. Then there was the summer of 1998. And what a summer that was. We saw unprecedented stuff from Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. I'll never forget the moment I learned about McGwire blasting #62. Then of course there was Barry Bonds, who took everything to a new level. In a park that was seemingly designed for him to hit home runs he put on a show that I can still scarcely believe. In a three year span he went from being a hall of fame 4-tool player (we all know he never had a very good arm) to the greatest and most feared presence at the plate in Major League Baseball history.

As a young Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux once pointed out in one of Nike's best commercials, "chicks dig the long ball". However, chicks aren't the only ones who dig the long ball, we as baseball fans dig the long ball as well. It cannot be denied that the home run chase of 1998 propelled Major League Baseball to new levels of popularity. It's almost clear that the Lame Duck commissioner Bud Selig turned a blind eye to the goings on regarding performance enhancing drugs to boost the popularity of baseball. There's something majestic and captivating about the home run, Major League Baseball had to have realized that this was its biggest draw. As a result of this though baseball is now getting loads of negative publicity; perhaps more than ever.

I am all for cleaning up the game. If it takes urine tests, blood tests, lie detector tests, whatever, just get it done. Here's a couple things that I think are wrong though. First of all, what in the world is congress doing involved in this? I hate how the steroid "investigations" are turning into a witch hunt. If you watch the testimonies of McGwire, Sosa, Clemens and Palmeiro (sp) before congress, you can't help but notice that they bear striking similarity to the McCarthy communist trials. That is not right. Second, I hate how superstars are being singled out. Reportedly there are upwards of a hundred players who tested positive in 2003, why haven't all the names been released. I hate how it's only a big deal when the best players do it, while average and mediocre players who used PEDs get to fly under the radar while the big guys take the fall.

As far as I'm concerned there's nothing that can really be "done" at this point. The idea of revoking MVP awards, batting titles and records as a way of showing a firm stance against steroids is ridiculous. Because where does it stop? Should MLB also take back the World Series titles that the Yankees won with Clemens on the team? Should the A's lose their 1989 World Series because of Canseco and McGwire? Should the Giants lose their 2002 National League championship because of Barry Bonds? Absolutely not. Do we give Bonds' MVP awards to the runners up of those years? Or do we just have no MVP? The point is, there is far too much "stuff" to go case by case. Are we going to have no hall of famers from the steroid era? How ridiculous would that be? I think Bonds, A-Rod and Clemens all belong in the hall of fame and they deserve to keep all of the awards they won.

Baseball changes with the times. Let's not forget that ballparks are a lot smaller now than they used to be. How many homers would Hammerin' Hank and the Babe have hit if they played in this era? Let's not forget that after Bob Gibson posted an outrageous 1.12 ERA, baseball decided that the mound should be lowered because pitchers were becoming too dominant. That is a fundamental change in the way the game is played, and yet nobody is saying that we should take away any of Cy Young's wins because he had the unfair advantage of pitching from a higher mound. The game changes, and the players change with the game. If I had a hall of fame vote I would vote in Bonds, Clemens and A-Rod when his time comes.

-Bryce B