I have done lots of research and have read a lot about this topic and have written two papers on this topic for classes. And while yes, the players are certainly to blame for their lack of discretion, I blame the Commishioners office most. Bud Selig is the number one culprit because until 2004, there was no real standardized testing and a very weak, hardly if in fact at all punnishment for testing positive. While certain players were always suspected (Sammy, Mark, Pudge, Bond, Boonie...) they were never tested, or if they were, their tests were never made public and punnishment never happned.
So then suddenly we are faced with a crisis...Juiced was written and Jose Canseco tells all...and suddenly...players are being accussed, the government gets involved, fans suddenly wake up and are mad and feel cheated, and MLB and the Players Union scramble to agree on a testing system and punnishment. The question of whether to asterik * or not in records is a hot debate, and the future of assumed Hall of Famers are now in question. The biggest question of all is...who do we believe? Players are blaming players, doctors, club house attendants and playing the Victim or dumb (Ryan Franklin...somebody has it out for me...They must have tricked me..yah yah!) In trying to save their reputations they are lying, placing the blame, and calling out other players they say also took steroids. We are left with a mess. Miguel Tejada and Roger Clemens are facing Jail Time.
So then, Bud Selig, encourages the Mitchell Report where some 80 players, current, retired, and deceased (Ken Caminiti) were all listed as those who either :there was evidence they took steroids or failed the testing. There were no shockers, and there were shockers. Not all of their names were given to the media because there wasnt enough evidence (Damon, Varitek, Pujols, the major ones that come to mind) and like I said in my previous post, Alex Rodriguez was not on that list...and yet, he tested positive in 2003, and was one of the few (Andy Petite comes to mind) who admitted to using. Why wasn't he on that list? there are many reasons...and Mariner blogger Geoff Baker hits it on the head:http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/mariners/2009/02/09/arod_did_it_now_about_that_mit.html
Could it be that they were hiding some of the bigger names? Alex Rodriguez, the youngest player, the brightest player, the player of the now and future..if he were revealed to be a steroid user along with Clemens, Palmeiro, Tejada, Canseco, Petite, Schilling..etc etc that fans would be ruined by baseball forever? Not attend games? (Because face it, Selig is in it for the money) Add in the hype of Canseco's book, and the asterik controversey...fans are UPSET. Now Arod has admitted to usage.. many have hailed him as the savior to baseball..an unrealistic view in my opinion. Rodriguez says it was a time of steroids...it was the culture of baseball. He's right. As a fan I cant believe that everybody is innocent. Shane Monahan declares the Mariner clubhouse was a steroid haven in the 90's...and the guilty players prove it. John McLaren is nuts to publicly deny there was a problem. The Mariners have had the MOST past/current players on any list. Its over 10 probably close between 15 and 20...The Mariners SHOULD be investigated. Texas and New York clearly had steroid problems as well. I think of Ken Caminiti's quotes...They are engrained in my head and I think of them everytime a steroid story comes up...
"It's no secret what's going on in baseball. At least half the guys are using steroids. They talk about it. They joke about it with each other. The guys who want to protect themselves or their image by lying have that right. Me? I'm at the point in my career where I've done just about every bad thing you can do. I try to walk with my head up. I don't have to hold my tongue. I don't want to hurt teammates or friends. But I've got nothing to hide.
If a young player were to ask me what to do," Caminiti continued, "I'm not going to tell him it's bad. Look at all the money in the game: You have a chance to set your family up, to get your daughter into a better school.... So I can't say, 'Don't do it,' not when the guy next to you is as big as a house and he's going to take your job and make the money."
Lying and cheating have been a part of the baseball since the Black Sox scandal of 1919. Nolan Ryan and the KY jelly, Pete Rose and gambling, Sammy Sosa and the cork bat. Steroids just go with it. They helped the homerun war between McGwire and Sosa. Bonds breaking the Aaron's record..pitchers become Cy Young and MVP's, and players to have their best seasons yet. We cannot change what happened, and we cant, nor should we FORGET what happened. But it happened. We can't change records. We can asterik them, but the public nor the media will never forget. The only thing we can do is encourage the REMOVAL of Bud Selig and a better and stricter enforcement against steroid use in Major League Baseball.
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