Jim Leyland Is Correct: Fans Growing Tired of Hearing About Steroids

Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz were all steroid users. But what else besides that do they have in common? That baseball fans across the country continued rooting for them.

It's about time baseball realized that most fans just don't care anymore. But what really matters is what the media thinks; and they obviously feel that fans still care.

This past weekend, it was refreshing to hear from a baseball elder statesmen on this topic, Tiger manager Jim Leyland.

When asked about Ortiz's recent positive test and the infamous list of 104 banned-substance users in 200, he said:

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"I don't condone steroids or any other type of growth hormones or anything else, but I could care less, and, for the most part, I don't think the fans give a (bleep). The people that care about it are the people that probably don't like baseball."

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"Do we want to peck until we get every last name out? What's the difference? I don't condone any form of cheating, but I'm tired of press conferences about steroids. Who am I to judge? It's none of my business."

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"I'm not trying to prove (baseball) innocent. We've made some mistakes. The worst era in baseball was when guys were found guilty of using cocaine and other (bleep) because they could've gone out there and hurt someone."

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I couldn't have said it better myself, but I'll try anyway.

As a fan who speaks to other fans, we just don't care about steroids anymore. We did before, but its become so rampant that its no longer a shock.

In addition, no one is really sure if baseball was ever pure; but I do know this: The storyline you see in all athletics, from amateur to professional, is top athletes being caught with banned substances. This isn't anything new. Baseball, football, track-and-field, swimming, you name it, and they have issues.

Modern steroids may be the best and least detectable enhancement device yet. But I think you'd have to be naive to believe there weren't players willing to skip the weight room to gain an advantage.

That isn't to imply every athlete does it. Or even the majority. But if they did, would it really matter?

The baseball purist answer is yes.

How can you compare stats across time periods when a guy like Barry Bonds breaks the home run record, and is alleged of doing it unfairly?

The sudden outbreak of PEDs is a marked break in the continuum linking the ballplayers of the 1800s to the ballplayers of today.

I respect that view, but I cannot buy into it myself.

With time, the old movie reels, the black-and-white photos, and the old newspaper stories that only told half the story, seem to take on more stature than they deserve.

Just because it wasn't written doesn't mean it didn't happen. At times, we take our desire to respect history too far.

That brings us to today.

Due to the legal nature of the documents—and illegal leaking of some strategic names—a whole added level of intrigue is given to the list of players who took banned substances. But it would be nice if the entire list would be published at once. You get your "oohs" and "ahhs" in for a few days and move on. But legally, that is impossible. So instead, we just get steroid fatigue.

And ultimately, it doesn't matter.

Baseball went from a sport whose labor issues overwhelmed it in the mid-'90s, to a sport playing in front of sold out stadiums, and to high TV ratings by the early-2000s.

Years later, we find out maybe the muscles were fake. So what? Even if that would have mattered years ago, it has little baring on the action on the field today.

Today, we've got more important things to care about, like several close pennant chases and Albert Pujols making a run at the Triple Crown.

This season, one star player admitted he took PEDs in the past, and no one cared. Another was banned for 50 games, then welcomed back by cheering throats.

It's just not a big deal to a majority of the fans. Sins occur, and sins are forgiven.

Leyland was right; its time to move on.