I wasn't going to blog about this but I have to since I'm a baseball fan.
First, we all know what was going on in the 90's with the steroids in baseball. The problem we have is that guys like Bonds and Clemens stubbornly deny being involved. Nobody likes a smug person who cries woe is me when everyone pretty much knows they're flat out telling a lie.
Alex Rodriguez has his name leaked to the public that he was doing the PEDs and suddenly he's the poster boy for steroids. I don't care if he took five years to admit his wrongdoing, at least he had the guts to sit there and flat out admit it. Did he tell us everything? Who knows, but he said he used. This is what people wanted to hear. Still no admittance from Bonds or Clemens. Maybe their people leaked his name to remove the from their trials.
Secondly, what's done is done. Nothing can change what happened in those years. Erase the numbers? They still happened, people saw the home run derby between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. How many pitchers did they face who were on the stuff? Doesn't matter it's done.
One can probably breakdown any era of the game and find a demoralizing factor. The stories of Babe Ruth playing drunk, Mickey Mantle being so hungover he could barely stand, or Doc Ellis pitching a no hitter while being high on LSD. Those are tainted moments of the game too just as steroids are now. Thirty years from now people will talk about the years when players bulked up just like we talk about pitchers cheating in the 60's and 70's.
Cheating is wrong. I'm not condoning or totally accepting the rationalizations of today's well paid athletes. I'm not going to sit here and persecute them either. I'm sure we have all done something wrong to get ahead in our lives and even betrayed the trust of family and friends. We all work hard to regain what we lost.
If people are mad at the Rodriguezs', Bonds', and Clemens' of the world that's fine. Don't go see them play. Just rember to look in the mirror first.
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4 comments:
While it's true we cannot undo the evils of the past. But, what are people learning by the wrong doings of others? The message MLB is putting out, is nothing will happen to those who, broke the law, repeatedly lied about breaking the law, cheated to make millions, and lied about cheating.
Back in 1919 there was the infamous Black Sox scandal. The actions of 8 players were considered detrimental to the game of baseball. Banned for life.
There have been others that were banned, mostly in relation to gambling.
If MLB was truly serious about stopping steroid use you would see some type of penalty.
Steroids help MLB make money, gambling hurts the bottom line. This is why the steroids players will never be punished, seriously.
They do have a penalty, 50 game suspension for first offense. Several players have been hit all ready.
Remember things were different in 1919. No union. Pete Rose was no longer a player when banned.
People who keep paying to go to the games and whine that MLB is doing nothing are helping MLB make money.
If stadiums stop being filled, jerseys and hats not being bought because people demand the game be cleaned up, only then you'll see real change.
Guess what? It's not going to happen.
ARod isn't the problem? He certainly is part of the problem. The only reason he had the 'guts' to admit it as you say is because that's the road Giambi took that somewhat worked to get him out of the spotlight.
He had no other direction to go.
You've got to remember that this wasn't 1998 when baseball fans were angry about the strike season and baseball needed to bring them back in. Baseballs were wound tighter, fences were moved in, and the great homerun was used to lure people back. McGuire and Sosa were watched with a turned head by MLB and by believing fans.
No this was 5 years after that which means that ARod did this for himself. Steroid use was talked about by then in MLB and ARod new what he was getting into and why.
That makes him a phony and a liar and a bad example to kids which is opposite of the image he projected.
The sad part is that Bonds and ARod were the complete all around players without steroids and would have been in the Hall of Fame anyway.
What's done is not done. All these guys should have asterisks by their names showing they were caught using steroids which makes it fair to the ones who played the game clean, or at least weren't caught.
Fine put the asterisk there. How does it change anything?
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