I have weighed in a few times within these pages regarding Major League Baseball's cowardice, which was most apparent during the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa home run chase and the accompanying attendance boom.
The subject matter has varied from Barry Bonds' overhyped stats (where were his RBIs why hy wasn't he part of the chase for Roger Maris' mark in 1998?), to Bud Selig looking the other way concerning PEDs. Such columns have never failed to generate debate. The latest relevation revolving around disgraced Dodger slugger Manny Ramirez, he of the Octomom meds, is no different. Some fans and journalists will say, "Hey, if all these guys were juicing, the playing field was even." Others will insist the game is hallowed, and the PED-enhanced era was a statistical aberration. Which sluggers from this period merit election to Cooperstown? The Manny Ramirez mess only serves to further muddy these waters.
Naturally, I'm jumping into the fray again with both feet. The addition of RBI kings Alex Rodriguez and Manny to the equation, and what we have learned about Roger Clemens, casts a dark cloud over a generation of superstars and lesser players. It also begs questions about the record books and posterity. Every year, Jose Canseco and his books look more and more authoritative on what was going on behind clubhouse and training room doors.
What must Hank Aaron and Willie Mays think? What would Commissioner Landis do? I can tell you what former Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud "I'm Just One of the Guys" Selig will not do. He will not insist that an asterisk accompany Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa's season home run totals of that "magic" (more than we knew at the time) 1998 season. More importantly (and despite superior evidence than with McGwire or Sosa), Selig and his leadership lack the stones to remove Barry Bonds' career big fly mark from the top of the all-time list and restore that of Henry Louis Aaron. Yet they should.
The issue with the Bonds record goes beyond the alleged use of anabolic steroids. Bonds also faced charges such as perjury and tax evasion, not to mention marital indiscretions. He was untruthful (not to mention surly) with the media. If Pete Rose (although his records are not in question) has been left off all-time and all-century/greatest moment lists and teams because he broke the law, and placed the integrity of the game in question, why was Bonds honored by MLB as the lifetime home run king? Which U.S. laws does baseball consider inviolate, and which not? Which baseball rules can one thumb one's nose at, and which not?
Were Rose's lies about wagering any less forgivable than those told by Bonds, Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro, and A-Rod about juicing? Where is the consistency? If MLB (or the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the journalists with Hall votes) is going to punish Rose for the rest of his life, then Bonds should be similarly penalized with at least a disclaimer next to 762. In different times, then-Commissioner Ford Frick demanded Maris' mark bear an asterisk to remind fans his season was eight games longer than Babe Ruth's 1927 campaign.
Either legal and personal conduct is,or isn't a factor when honoring baseball's best. Orlando Cepeda (not inducted until 1999) and Juan Marichal (election delayed until 1983 in large part due to sentiment regarding the 1965 brawl during which he struck Dodger catcher Johnny Roseboro with a bat) know what it is like to wonder if poor decisions they made would forever overshadow their diamond accomplishments. So does former pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, a 284-game winner not admitted to Cooperstown until 1991 (like Cepeda, Jenkins was arrested in a much-publicized drug bust). None of these mens' controversy directly impacted on their actual numbers or performance. Such is not the case with players like Clemens and Bonds.
If baseball is to take a stand that will speak loudly to youth players, sports historians, agents, trainers, and Hall of Fame voters, it will deny Barry Bonds a place at the top of the home run list. Numbers mean everything to ballplayers (Rose knew his lifetime stats by heart at any given time late in his career, down to runs scored and bases on balls), and the best manner in which to punish individuals is to deny them something they value. Failing that, there is no deterrent for the violator, nor reward for the law abider. With an asterisk, Bud Selig could salvage his stewardship of a tainted era.
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