In the wake of the announcement of A-Rod's positive test for steroids there's been a great deal said about what to do with him and other steroid users. Many say he should be blacklisted forever, tainted for all time and never allowed to join the hall of fame, along with the other offenders, but is this really realistic? Indeed, one of the facts that seem lost in the A-Rod report is that he was one of 104 players who tested positive for steroids, 104! That comes out to about 2 players per every team's active roster of 25, and that's not a number that can be dismissed. Chances are there are other players who are big stars on that list who we would be equally surprised about, and this is after players were told about the beginning of steroid testing! Who is to say that there weren't even more players who were using who stopped prior to the testing?
We may never know who is on that list, but we do know that there were many, many players taking steroids during this strange era in baseball, and who could blame them? We're talking about professional athletes, men who make their fortunes by how far they can hit a baseball or how hard they can throw it, natural born competitors who have strove to be the best their whole life, if they were given an opportunity to improve their lot and gain an edge on the field, why wouldn't they do it? Sure steroids were illegal, but they were not prohibited by baseball, and they were everywhere. Players were openly using it the locker rooms, trainers were supplying anyone who wanted them, and the owners didn't care, they just wanted results, and who could blame them?
In short it was an evironment where it is not hard to see steroid use being rampant and quite accessible for everyone. They were everywhere and players of all sorts of talent, from the marginal utility player to the best of the best, bonds, clemens, and now a-rod were all there ready and willing to do what it took to be the best. Sure there were players who didn't do it, but they too were compilict in the whole affair. Where were the players shouting in outrage of steroid use? There weren't any because it was something that everyone had more to gain from. Everyone was complicit. Everyone was guilty.
Now this tained era in baseball has since been brought to light and some of the worst offenders have been shown for what they did and the court of public opinon seeks to place all the blame of entire industry on the shoulders of a few, but is that really fair? Yes these players of guilty of using performance enhancer that gave them an unfair advantage, but so were many of the players that they were competing with. Indeed, how many juiced home runs were hit off of juiced pitchers? Do two wrongs make a right?
My point here is that baseball writers and many others want to try to sort through this mess of a time in baseball history and decide who was "clean" who was free from guilt. They want to re-write history and say that this person's accomplishments do not count because he cheated, but is that just? For sure, some of the offenders who have broken records have been revealed for their misdeeds and baseball writers want to punish them by not allowing them into the hall of fame for that, and I find this positively pure arrogance. Whether they like to admit it not, these things still happened, these players still made an impact in actual games on both sides of the field, and now they want to say that they didn't happen, that these events are not worthy of recognition because of the era in which they played in. Who are these writers to say what did or did not occur?
Cheating is as old as the game, Babe Ruth was known to use corked bats whenever he had the chance, are we to say that his achievements did not exist because some of those home runs were hit with an unfair advantage? No because for some reason writers for some reason think that corking a bat or spitting on a baseball is somehow a less egregious offense, somehow less horrible and because of this cheaters like Ruth or Gaylord Perry are in the hall of the fame.
I'm not absolving these men of guilt nor am I saying that what they did was right, but their accomplishments don't deserve to be eliminated just because they were one of the unfortunate ones to get caught. It happened, the damage has been done and should be rectified and recognized for what it was, but let's not pretend to close our eyes and say it didn't happen, it did.
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