Steroids in Baseball

Steroids has attacked baseball far worse than the mosquitoes attack my skin on a summer day (this summer has been so bad!). Steroids is like the plague that travels from rat to rat infecting the public and people just want to run the hell away. Steroids is something that will forever be linked to baseball and will forever taint the game itself. Although there are steroid users in football and in other sports, when you think steroids you immediately think baseball. There are a few reasons for this, the first is Bud Selig's inability to send a clear message about steroids. It wasn't illegal for a while and when it finally became legal the punishment was, 10 games? Ha, nice try Bud, but that doesn't stop anyone. All these government investigations and anonymous and confidential reports just shows me that this is a complete disaster. This ties in with the other major reason for baseball and steroids being forever linked. Baseball is a game of history and stats. The only way we can compare legends of the past is by looking at their achievements and comparing them to today's greats. Stats like, all time home run leader and all time RBI leader, are crucial to the make up of baseball. It is something that all players and fans want to see be achieved with dignity, not through cheating. It is with this that we cannot just cut ties with what has happened and say, "forget it, lets look forward with a new drug testing policy and anyone who used steroids, o well. That was then and this is now." Although to be honest I kind of want to hear that.

I think Ortiz's name coming out as part of the 2003 sports illustrated survey shows us truly nothing. That study was conducted in 03 to see if there ought to be a drug testing policy and it showed that there should be because so many people who participated came up testing positive. It was taking in confidence that the names would not be released and therefore we cannot penalize anyone on that list. We can change our opinions of them as players knowing they used steroids, but we shouldn't know those names to begin with. Anyone with half a brain knew Ortiz and Manny used steroids. Everyone knows the obvious steroid users just from the sheer increase in head and arm size in a matter of years. We all know Ortiz went from never having hit 20 Hrs as a Twin and never having 400+ at bats to 40 and even 50 Hrs and 600+ abs as a Red Sox. It's something that tainted this era of baseball because this will be known as the steroid era. Anyone who is putting up Hall of Fame type numbers may not get in for being linked to steroids. This may be unfair to those who aren't steroid users but are legitimate home run guys. Ryan Howard for example has yet to be linked to steroids (it will come with time) and he is crushing 40 and 50 a year. He may get 500 or more on his career and it would be a shame if he were witheld from the Hall of Fame or even looked negatively upon just because of the time he played. I also guarantee there are many players who are steroid users and just have not been caught. I'm not mentioning any names, but I bet there is a long list of players who used steroids and never got caught. What about them? It's hard to look back at all these records and achievements and sift through to find the clean and the dirty ones. It's hard to differentiate the legitimate accomplishments and the not so legitimate ones.

The talk about steroids will never die and for that reason baseball is in trouble. Baseball wants to remove steroids from the conversation of baseball. If you are a baseball enthusiast you want the link between the two to be removed and not to return. You only want to hear about it when someone fails a test today and is suspended. You want baseball to be strict on its steroid policy to the point where any user is literally screwed. Make steroids a hanis offense and test for it arly and often. Remove it from people's minds immediately and make it something that will never again happen. A full season's suspension or expulsion from the game. NO NEED FOR SECOND CHANCES. Why give someone a second chance when this is the most blatant form of cheating and everyone playing the game knows how bad steroids are and knows the ridiculous crap baseball is going through about steroids. Any kid at 15 years old right now playing in high school thinking about being drafted and playing in 5 year should say, fuck steroids I can do this on my own. If you use steroids I don't want you in my game, I want you out of baseball, that's it. You cheated, they didn't (the rest of the league), so...get the fuck out. Makes perfect sense to me. Then you can show everyone in the world that you are taking this steroid stuff seriously and you can then start to look back if you would like and decide who makes it to the Hall of Fame and who's records will stand and such. For now it just seems like MLB is ok with steroid use because they understand how home runs draw fans and money and therefore any means to increase revenue is a good thing. Until this policy changes and until priority number 1 is to remove steroids from baseball, MLB will be looked on negatively and will always be tainted in some way.

The last point I want to make is in regards to the 104 players who participated in the anonymous SI survey in 03. That was confidential and those players should not be mentioned by name. A-rod, Manny and Ortiz have been mentioned but that doesn't mean that all the other names ought to be. I think those 3 being revealed is wrong because it makes them stand out when they were not the only ones. Not to remove them of blame but I'd say at least 50% of the legaue was using steroids at the time and to single these guys out when they were guaranteed security, is not fair. Now it seems like to make it fair everyone should be revealed, but that violates their security as well. Baseball made another mistake revealing only a few names. This drip drip drip way of revealing roiders just makes this whole controversy continue and always points back to tainted stats and records instead of the great things that go on each day in baseball. a great game is being ruined by DUMB executives and commissioner. Bud get your shit together my man cause I can't take people abusing my sport.