The Hypocrisy of Steroid Use in Baseball

I'm tired.

Tired of hearing reporters blast players, past and present, about the use of steroids.

I'm tired of people assuming that because players have used steroids that this somehow has tainted the most beautiful game on earth.

I'm tired of every offseason coverage of baseball having more to do with who has done steroids, what their penalties should be and whether or not they should be allowed in the hall of fame.

But, most of all what I'm tired about is the blatant level of hypocrisy that comes into play when we discuss who has done steroids. 

Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa

No matter what we may think about them and their legacy, watching them crank out home run after home run in 1998 was a beautiful, historical moment that we can never forget. It is seared in our memory as one of the greatest baseball moments in history. Here you had two guys, from rival squads, trading off day after day—blow for blow—blasts towards the history books.

It was a beautiful thing to see and I am personally happy that I was alive to witness it.

Rafael Palmeiro had one of the most beautiful swings that this generation has witnessed, while playing an incredible first base and being one of four incredible legends with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs.  

Barry Bonds

If you don't think that 756 was an amazing shot and were not moved to emotion by the sheer magnificence of the moment, you allowed the media to pull the wool over your eyes (as they did Bud Selig as he didn't attend the game) and persuade you to miss another one of baseball's greatest moments.

It was magical.

Even Hank Aaron was a part of it. Here you had a guy that was blasted everyday in the media on his march to history about his use of steroids, his friend was in jail, he was in his 40's, and was carrying a horrible baseball team on his massive shoulders.

It, too, was a thing of beauty. 

Roger Clemens

Steroids/HGH or not, watching this man in the latter days of his career mow down young hitter after young hitter with his mental toughness, mean splitter, and spotted fast ball was another thing of amazing beauty. Here you had a guy that, when he came out on the mound, his teammates and fans breathed a sigh of relief and were thankful that it was HIM on the mound, while his opponents and their fans racked their brains frantically about how they were going to get around to beating that looming figure on the mound whose mere presence struck fear in them.

His 300th victory, like Bonds' 756th home run, didn't come easy but when it did, made me feel as though I had watched a historical moment that I may never get to see again. I was wrong, naturally, with Maddux, Glavine, and Johnson doing what may never be done again, yet, and still—Clemens being the first was another beautiful, historical, moment for this generation. 

These aforementioned moments were historical points in baseball's lore that elevated the game to astronomical proportions. They made teams, owners, media outlets, and corporations mega-profits.

But when we find out that they have done steroids we turn our backs on them as if they stabbed us in the back?

We turn our backs on the players when the coaches, GM's, owners, and Bud Selig knew all along that this was going on heavily in baseball?

Since McGwire and Canseco were doing steroids in the late 80's, and most of this information came out in the mid-90's...how did they NOT know? Of course they did. They turned a blind eye because it was profitable for their pockets because the obsessively endured and casual fans were packing the stadiums and tuning into any channel they could to be a witness to history. 

Americans try to uphold a history of purity as if every "victory" won was through the purest of means. Maybe the purest of victories to be won throughout American history was the non-violence movement that opened doors for people of all ethnicities and women. Much of the other so-called historical moments that we look back on had violence and bloodshed at the roots.

I find it funny that often African-Americans and Native Americans are told that they should get over slavery, the theft of land, and murdering of their people throughout history, while people in baseball can't get over the 1919 White Sox, Pete Rose, and Mark McGwire et. al. 

Hypocrisy

This is a recurrent theme within our American tradition. We favor certain people, incidents of similar ill over other people, and incidents of similar villainy. For instance, don't you find it interesting that Jason Giambi admitted to doing steroids in 2003, but won comeback player of the year in 2005? Was this simply because he admitted to doing it and apologized?

How about Alex Rodriguez? He admits to using steroids, after he had been found out for doing so, and he becomes THE story of the New York Yankees World Series victory and will continue being the highest paid player in professional sports. All is forgotten for them, Andy Pettite, Miguel Tejada, and others implicated in the Mitchell's Report.

Manny Ramirez tries to keep his sex life alive and loses 50 games of the season and is ridiculed and scrutinized throughout the entire season.

Then there is the fact that there will always be an open case for many others that have used (I have my personal suspicions) that have not been found out and escaped the eye and voice of omnipresent scrutiny. 

We know and understand that money is at the root of all of this.

The media outlets want to boost their ratings on the backs of the ridiculed; vultures.

Team owners, GM's, and coaches' profits were expanded exponentially off of the bats of these great players; hypocrites.

The players were trying to fight the league minimum salary and the $3 million dollar league average to make celebrity style cash. Hell, if someone told me that if taking steroids could possibly take me from making $42K a year to $5 million a year, I might ask them to look for the nearest needle.

It's like that running question: What would you be willing to do for $1 million dollars?  Get a ripped body, have all the women you want, and possibly get in the Hall of Fame? That's tough to pass up.

Do you think that jealousy sometimes gets in the way of our compassion and understanding?

Mark McGwire is no longer a player. He has not been banned by baseball. Let the man go along with his job and stop making press out of other people's pain. If it were your life you would ask for the same freedom. Give him his and let him help guide the Cardinals to their 11th World Series Championship. 

In the end, baseball is the most beautiful game on the earth.

It cannot be tainted. It cannot be defiled.

It is artistic poetry, intelligent banter, and foresight combined with athletic agility within an obstacle course.

When you put the players above the game, you lose sight of the game that is played inside the lines and the great plays that are made outside of the lines.

Give up on this holier than thou nonsense as there is nothing holy about our collective, bloody, American history. 

Play ball!!