It seems that many want to pretend that they were not surprised by the admission of one Alex Rodriguez that he injected steroids — not just the evasive term of performance-enhancing drugs, but steroids — into his body on a regular basis, thereby cheapening the slew of hitting records he remains in pursuit of.
Even the ever-outspoken Curt Schilling was fooled in this case. Curt had once said respectfully about his pinstriped rival, "If anything, it makes me appreciate the fact that Alex Rodriguez is more of a genetic freak than we ever thought, because he is truly the only 40-40 guy to ever play the game." This was in the wake of many of the steroid revelations that claimed the reputations of faux-legends Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, and the rest of the all-'roid roster.
Tragically as our economic deficit grows, so too does our faith in our ballplayers. Not that Congress should make such issues comparable, but one of the small areas of life we Americans can traditionally find joy, solace, and most importantly, escape, is slowly eroding into a dark, chemically-polluted sea.
Like Schilling, many of us truly believed that Alex was too much the squeaky-clean role-model type to force a drippy needle where the sun doesn't shine. We were looking forward to the day that he took Barry Bonds' career home run record off the books, thus cleansing the mark. Now we may have to shift our thinking to hoping instead that he doesn't break the record by too much and leave it unreachable for the next "Great Clean Hope." Such a scene also begs the question: will Barry Bonds have prepared a pre-recorded congratulatory message from jail to mark the occasion?
Ultimately, the scariest prospect for this baseball fan is the idea that no hero, no icon from this late-'80s to early-'00s generation of ballplayers is truly suspicion-free. If Rodriguez's reputation has gone from a guaranteed clean to a certified user, how can we doubtlessly say that Derek Jeter or Albert Pujols or Ken Griffey, Jr. never took steroids? Being friendly with the media, appearing in commercials helping underprivileged kids play ball, and smiling a lot all work wonders for a star's image, but why should that give them a free pass from the ongoing witch hunt when none of those things are truly relevant to it?
Just last year, it was Roger Clemens in the same situation, albeit Clemens went about responding to it the wrong way, while Rodriguez made some refreshing admissions (even if they were not the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help him, God) that put him way ahead of most other busted ballplayers. The similarities were in the public shock that these two men could have been steroid users. Clemens was a family man with a tireless work ethic and a daily regimen that often left his Yankee teammates in awe. Surely, his 98 mph fastball had to be the result of nothing more than the hard work of a blue-collar Texan.
These kinds of revelations allow us to cook up all sorts of horrid what-if scenarios. For example: there is no proof of this and I pray there never will be. However, many ballplayers claim they took some performance-enhancing substances, particularly HGH, in order to avoid injuries. This was the reason Andy Pettitte showed up on the Mitchell Report. Now, what if the beloved Cal Ripken, Jr. had found out this nifty little secret, as well? Is it feasible the modern day Iron Man had a little artificial reinforcement to lessen the impact of the various injuries he played through during all that time? Ripken could have still very well been filled with the selfless desire to do it for his team and give them the best chance to win every day. The legacy would still be tainted nonetheless.
After all, Ripken's teammate was Brady Anderson, who magically became a power guy and hit 50 homers in 1996 when he had hit 16 in the full year before. Never a proven user, many writers as well as former players have gone as far as to assume that Anderson had to have been on something that year to produce those numbers for a speed-and-defense type player as Brady. If Anderson had been on something, perhaps a few conversations with Cal could have led to No. 8 learning how to get his hands on some substances not yet as-of-then banned. Where does that leave the incredible streak of 2,632 consecutive games then? Hopefully, this nightmarish hypothetical remains just that.
As more admissions and accusations come out, some of us inevitably start to change our outlooks on the steroid issue. There is certainly some truth to the matter that players in the '90s through 2002 took substances that were legal in the United States that are now considered illegal banned substances in the country and in the majors. Even Alex Rodriguez' positive steroid test in 2003, prior to mandatory testing, was essentially none of our business even after the story came out.
Others will question just how much of an impact these banned substances really had on the games of the era, especially if such a large percentage of players were taking them. If a 'roided-up Jose Canseco came to bat against a 'roided-up Roger Clemens sometime around 1998, aren't most of the advantages for either man nullified at that point?
And yet we must also keep in mind that steroids have been taken seriously enough by other communities, particularly the International Olympic Committee, that gold medals have been stripped from countless athletes found to have been using. American sports tend to operate on a de facto law that game, series, and championship results and statistics are generally irreversible once a score goes final or a season ends. This means that the 2000 Yankees, with a roster half-full (or is it half-empty?) of Mitchell Report guest-stars, will still keep their World Series rings. This means no MVP award will literally be wrested from the cold, dead fingers of admitted steroid user Ken Caminiti and awarded to someone else.
There is one exception to all this, where glory and credit can essentially be stripped from a player found to have used, and that is Hall of Fame balloting. Mark McGwire has not come close to making the necessary 75 percent since he became eligible, and this may set precedents for those such as Roger Clemens who follow him. McGwire and his record 70 home runs in a season was considered a lock, as was Clemens and his record six Cy Young awards. But is it truly fair for every player who tested positive for something to be eliminated from the Hall? Eventually, there are going to have to be some guidelines put in place as to what level of banned-substance use is worth having the writers weigh it into the equation along with all the statistics. Otherwise, the '90s may see very few inductees even if there was no true shortage of Hall of Fame talent.
The entire sport of baseball will have no shortage of tough questions to answer on this issue for a very long time to come. For now, though, all those questions fall on the broad shoulders of a man who has just been publicly labelled as A-Fraud. This spring, the walls of media members will undoubtedly be closing in on a man who had the gall to select jersey No. 13 for the New York Yankees after leaving Texas with a positive drug test.
All I can say is good luck with that.
February 26, 2009
Novaiiman:
Why as journalists are we so consumed with believing that Bonds’ best place is ultimately behind bars. Witness your comment that he should one day be penning a “good job” note to the new round tripper king. Why we can’t see beyond the tips of our bruised noses that Bonds’ only crime might well have been trying to save face for doing the same thing that most — if not all — of his peers were partaking in. The real fact remains that our overzealous government is intent on spending too much time and unthinkable amounts of taxpayer money trying to prove an already accepted fact than they are willing to spend on preventing real crime and helping those truly in need. And let’s not forget that bombs and bullets that put our young at risk in far away foreign lands are much more deadly than steroids. Wake up and channel your efforts on the real problems of life and get beyond the Bonds factor. It really doesn’t matter.