Has Baseball Become All Juiced Out?

Thirty is the new 50 in major league baseball. Looking back to a few years ago, it was looked at as a disappointment to have your favorite play only hit 40 or 50 home runs.

Today, we have the top sluggers in the MLB hoping to knock out 30 bombs. Now, we can blame the "new" and "improved" baseballs that were supposed to make it more difficult to hit home runs, or even the fact that starting pitchers have become more dominant.

In my opinion, that would be facetious.

The reason no one wants to talk about is steroids.  These baseball stars don't become these super athletes because they are born this way.

The human body can only grow to be so strong and so big.  I am going to go ahead and make the generalization that at one point in the history of the MLB (about 10 years ago), 75 percent of the players had at least used some form of illegal steroid.

I'm also going to make the not-so-bold statement that about half of those players used them on a regular basis (cycling).  As soon as the Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa era had subsided, Barry Bonds took his role in cementing his name in baseball history.

However, his flashy way of hitting home runs prompted nationwide chaos. He hit more home runs than previously thought physically possible at his age.  Now that this steroid scandal or Muscle Scare has come about, home runs have declined rapidly.

The threat of "neo-McCarthyism" in this Muscle Scare has thwarted the growth of home run records. The reason is simple: Players have temporarily stopped using steroids.

Now, this scare will soon be over once the real devils have been prosecuted by the federal government for perjury.  Once these "cheaters" are gone, the radar gun will be turned off and players will once again be able to buy these human growth hormones and manufactured testosterone.  

Even though all of this is speculation, deep down, most people know this is true.  The problem doesn't begin with the MLB.  It starts with the dream.

It's the unrealistic dream that many kids think will come true.

"Hey dad, one day I want to play for the Yankees".  Little Johnny doesn't understand what it really takes to make it to the professional level.  It takes extreme dedication along with the willingness to take the effects of steroids like a man.

In order to stand out in high school, the kids who don't have the talent resort to steroids to show scouts and recruiters that they can physically hang with the big dogs.

Once in college, if the player has not been successfully drafted out of high school, getting to the next level requires more than just commitment; it requires the number of a steroid dealer programmed into your cellphone.  

By no means am I saying that every professional athlete takes or has taken steroids.  I am, however, stressing the point that I know the truth about what it takes to get to the next level.  

In high school, 8 out of 11 athletes I knew that were going Division 1 in a sport had used steroids at least once to help them achieve their goal.   It doesn't matter what sport you play, steroids are something that is very beneficial to your professional success.  MLB is just the first organization that has been called out.

Maurice Green is also on the fence because he too was caught using performance enhancing drugs.  Jose Canseco can be crucified by the media, but he has done the right thing.  He is calling attention to something that has been kept under the radar for way too long.

Even though he is guilty of using them himself, Jose has shown that success in major league baseball doesn't just happen from practice or natural ability.