Baseball's "Steroid" Era Being Blown Way Out of Proportion

Alex Rodriguez has been a great hitter his entire career.  He has posted at least a .300 batting average in nine of his 13 full seasons in the big leagues and has hit at least 35 homers in all but his 1997 campaign.  He has been very consistent over the course of his career with no real "spikes" in his statistics.

That is why I think his recent admission to taking banned substances should not destroy his Hall of Fame opportunity.

Since the beginning of the "steroid" era, all players with connections to so-called performance-enhancing drugs have been denied entry into the Hall of Fame, been subject to public ridicule, and in some cases have even found themselves in legal struggles.

The point is that these players have been labeled by media and fans alike as cheaters.

When I think of what I have been taught to understand as cheating, I think of someone deliberately trying to gain an advantage over someone else by using morally wrong tactics.

I look at Barry Bonds, and yes, I have noticed his increase in size over his career, but does that make him a cheater?  Must we forget the great baseball talent that he is—how he could singlehandedly put fear into opposing pitchers because they knew he would not swing at anything out of the strike zone because he had maybe the greatest eye at the plate baseball had ever seen?

Since cheating is gaining an unfair advantage, how can these great hitters be accused of it?  Let us not forget that for every Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire, there is a Jason Grimsley or a Roger Clemens.  People sometimes fail to understand that the "steroid" era consisted of both hitters and pitchers.  The pitchers throwing to the hitters were just as "juiced" up as anyone.

In fact, I would say that there were probably more pitchers using steroids than position players, mainly because pitchers have injuries much more frequently and some steroids are used to hasten the healing process.  The point is, if everyone is on the same playing field, no one is cheating.

Baseball at the end of the day is a business.  How much revenue do you think the home run race in 1998 between Big Mac and Slammin' Sammy created for MLB?  I would venture to say a lot.  How much did the San Francisco Giants franchise benefit from Bonds' quest to become the home run king?

These professional baseball players may make lots of money compared to you or me, but they do not deserve to be labeled as cheats and frauds.