Thursday, February 28, 2008

Steroids or Bust


The topic of steroids has been in the forefront for 5 years now. When is it going to end? At this point, does anyone really care? Steroids are prevalent in all sports. The major sport leagues who are having problems (baseball,football) have no one to blame but themselves. Baseball is the worst. Until recently, it wasn't even against their rules! It was against the law to use steroids, but not illegal in baseball. They had kind of a "don't know, don't tell" policy. Managers looked the other way and trainers provided the juice. Once reports started coming out about the use, only then did MLB react. But once again, they reacted poorly. They decided that they would adopt a tougher testing policy. But was it the toughest it could be? No. How are we supposed to think they are serious when they don't do all they can do? Enter Barry Bonds. The perfect fall guy. The closer he got to the coveted home run record, the harder people pushed. Only when he started getting close did MLB take notice. Through the last decade, you could literally see Bonds grow in epic proportions. "Don't know, don't tell". Then Congress got involved. The Mitchell report? The best comedy ever written. It named less than 100 offenders. You can't say cheaters because, remember, it wasn't against the rules. The ones who know, the players, won't talk other than to say that the abuse is much wider than anyone wants to believe. The Mitchell Report wasn't even close. The best thing MLB could have done was to admit they messed up, install the absolute toughest testing known to the world, and move forward. No matter how badly you want to change the past, you can't. Stop trying. We will never know who, what, when, how long or how it changed outcomes. Accept that and move on. Roger Clemens is the latest fall guy. Did he or didn't he? Does it matter? If it is proven one way or another, does it change anything? At this point, does anybody care? Stop the madness! Move on. The game needs closure. Let's celebrate the future, not dwell on the past.

2 comments:

H said...

That makes sense. Don't you think in 50 years, when people look at the records they will say, "yeah, but that was during the steroid years"?

Now, go get me frosty float

April said...

Bill!!!! I didn't know that you had a blog! I was so excited to find it and now, what? This is all sports, hey...BOOOOO! At least you have cute pictures of your kids on it. You're forgiven! April