Posted by
Tom G. on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 12:00:00 AM
Probably the most important issue Baseball faces in the Steroid era is what to do about the impact illicit substances has had on the integrity of the game. What made Baseball America's game is that from 4 to 92, you have fans who can relate to each other because of the STATS of the game. What made/makes baseball transitional is that we can compare, all be it, imperfectly the players from different era's. Yet, what stands in conflict with all this is the addition of illegal, sometimes not, of performance enhancing drugs, nutritional supplements...etc.
Whether it is Brady Anderson jump from a singles and doubles hitting centerfielder, to a 50 homerun slugger, to Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire from good players to the greatest trio of Home Run hitters in history, to Alex Rodriquez moving from the phenom at 19 to the Boli admitting player of today...Baseball is tainted, more so as a transitional sport.
Fans cannot any longer say Mays, Aaron or Ruth compare to Bonds, McGuire or ARod...because we know the later three cheated the sport.
We can test, we can randomly test, but the only thing that will begin to heal the wounds is correcting the record!
Bud Selig who is arguably the worst commissioner in history, yet was compensated 17.5 Million, see any parallels to ARod?...is ultimately the source of rectification here...he MUST....do the following...
1) Require that all records set, made, or achieved during the period of 1993 through 2008 have an asterisk (*) placed upon it...we do not expunge it, we just qualify it happened during this era.
Certainly it is impossible to go back and claim this is justifiable or this is not, as it relates to the records. However, it is not just the INTEGRITY of the SPORT seriously enough to self police.
I will say this again, ONLY IF WE PLACE AN ASTERISK ON THE WHOLE OF THIS ERA CAN WE CREATE A SELF POLICING ENVIRONMENT, for the sake of the integrity of the game.
2) We can place this asterisk in all media driven accounts of baseball, all almanacs and in the official records, including the HALL OF FAME...
3) Allowing these folks to gain entrance to the HALL is not objectionable, but it must be considered, but only if the Black Sox scandal is settled...kind of pardoning of all past to present.
4) finally, we must look at the integrity as a commodity...it is at an all-time low...to gain it back we must prosecute officially those involved...but isn't everyone in the era involved?
It boils down to this,...Coaches, Players, and Owners knew to varying extents what was happening, and not a person stepped forward...punish the era...the Teams that won, the players that succeeded, they are all tainted...this is the ASTERISK ERA...1993 through 2008...let Baseball police Baseball, and let the history reflect they once failed miserably.
the players who acted improperly that we have to hold accountable, it is also those who knew but did nothing. For if we selectively prosecute the offenders, we will miss some...ONLY if we punish the whole era will we create an environment that forces all of baseball to