Merry Xmas Barry
It was a dark day for baseball when the Mitchell Report was
released last week but it clearly was as an early Christmas gift
for baseball’s all-time homerun king Barry Bonds.
Merry Xmas Barry
It was a dark day for baseball when the Mitchell Report was released last week but it clearly was as an early Christmas gift for baseball’s all-time homerun king Barry Bonds.
The gift was a simple one: A list. Not exactly the naughty and nice one that Santa will use to prepare for his sleigh ride on Monday night. No, this list only included the names of those players who were naughty as far as baseball’s rules go.
Yes, the report’s long list of the names included former and current Major League Baseball players that were alleged to have taken or used illegal performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids or human growth hormones at some point during their stint in the league – and it was about as long and deep as one of Barry’s homerun blasts.
It would have been one thing if the list were short. And it would have been another if only a few no names were on it. Instead, the list was like a “Who’s Who” of Major League Baseball talent. It looked more like an all-star lineup than one of a bunch of sketchy fringe characters that needed to give themselves an edge on the playing field and in the batter’s box. Among the names: Roger Clemens. Kevin Brown, Ken Caminiti, Lenny Dykstra, Eric Gagne, Glenallen Hill, Wally Joyner, Chuck Knoblauch, Andy Pettitte, Miguel Tejada and Mo Vaughn – to name a few.
Case dismissed.
Sure these substances are illegal but Bonds clearly wasn’t the only one using them. So now what? Do you want to put a double asterisk next to Bonds name in the Hall of Fame? The first one will mention his involvement in this scandal. But the second one will clarify it with the caveat that Bonds, although he did use these substances, was hitting his slew of homeruns off pitchers that were evidently using them too.
Case closed.
All of these guys were wrong and shouldn’t have been using any such substances but if they all were doing so then, I ask, where is the unfair advantage? Sure, it’s unfair to the players that never used any of these substances but we will never know for sure with 100 percent certainty which players did and didn’t use them. This cloud of uncertainty will hover over the league forever.
I say wipe the slate clean and start over. Drop the whole thing and from this day forward adopt much stricter policies that will be enforced but don’t tarnish and question a guy’s brilliant career because he played in an era and time when these unfair practices were commonplace.
Aren’t spitballs an unfair advantage? What about corked bats, remember them? How about the use of the aluminum bat at the lower levels… They are used to give younger players more pop in their bats so that they will be drafted? Is that an unfair advantage? What about stealing signals and signs? Again, an unfair advantage – and this practice has been alive and well for more than a century.
What about the use of a pinch runner? Is that not an advantage? What about the American League’s DH rule?
Yes, it’s been a dark and dreary month for America’s pastime but baseball will survive it. And years from now another scandal will break that will be perceived as giving players another unfair advantage. I guess when you really think about it, the desire to get an edge over our competitors is the American way…
