Shame On the Game

When it comes to the steroid era in baseball, going after the players is fine and good, but only if they have actually violated league rules or state or federal law. Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) appears to have taken steroids, but it was prior to league rules prohibiting such usage. The testing revealing A-Rod's usage was suppose to remain confidential and thus a horrible breach of player privacy has occurred as it has so often in the past. A-Rod has not been tried, not to mention charged, for any state or federal crimes. A similar situation exists with many of these players, with the big exception coming with players who lied in grand jury testimony and have subjected themselves to federal penalty.

Meanwhile, the MLB executives, most notably Commissioner Bud Selig, and team owners have come through all of this unscathed. They built back their sport after the players strike in 1995 using the longball. The revitalization of the Yankees, powered by several players appearing to have been bolstered by performance enhancing drugs, put together a dynasty that drew tons of fan attention. In short the owners and the league endorsed this drug usage if nothing else by passively allowing it and not pushing for drug testing to protect the health of the players and the integrity of the game.

There should be no striking players names from the record books, because we will never know which records have been tainted by drug usage. Why should Barry Bonds be outcast while the Yankees keep all their World Series victories during the last decade and a half. It's a slippery slope that could lead us to erase 30+ years of history in order to properly remove any taint from the record books. Frankly, that type of witch hunt is ridiculous and useless. Leave the record books as they are and people will always know that this era, and maybe on into the future, all records are subject to the use of enhancement products.

Shame on the players that did this and the league and owners that allowed it while everyone in the sport got rich in the process.