Steroid use in Baseball:
Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa did it in 1998 and again in 1999. Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa did it in 2001. For 37 years nobody could reach Roger Maris' 61 home runs in a single season. It has been shattered six times in the last four years.
In 1989, Kevin Mitchell bashed 47 round trippers to lead all of Major League Baseball. His name is no longer in the top 50. Ten times since 1997, someone has hit at least 56. Something is going on...or maybe something is going in.
Steroid use has shattered the lives of countless athletes and to accuse someone of it is equivilent to accusing an innocent man of rape. It tarnishes their professional career and nobody ever looks at them the same again.
McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds are all tremendous home run hitters.
McGwire came into the league in 1987 and won rookie of the year honors with 49 homers. Nobody was looking at his forearms then and saying he must be on something.
Sosa hit 170 home runs between 1993 and 1997 and nobody thought he was cheating.
And Bonds came into the 2000 season already clearing the bases 445 times for his career.
These three men were already great home run hitters before anyone ever even considered making accusations.
But steroids can't hit a baseball. That is what McGwire and Bonds keep telling us. And they are absolutely right. I can't hit a 89 mph curveball over the Green Monster or into McCovey Cove. But they can.
Steroids would allow men like McGwire, Sosa or Bonds to go from hitting 40 homers a year just grazing over the fence, to hitting 70 out of stadiums.
To be honest, I could care less if these three men or anyone else (i.e. Ken Caminiti and Jose Canseco) are juicing up to earn millions of dollars. It's their choice how they want to die.
"Doctors ought to quit worrying about what ballplayers are taking. What players take doesn't matter (and) it's nobody's business." Bonds told the AP. Does Bonds know how many children look up to him as their idol?
I care about little leaguers because they are ignorant enough to love their heroes. McGwire stopped using androstenedione specifically so that children would not spend money on the pills.
I am furious with baseball for allowing players the option of using steroids. Lyle Alzado, a former NFL star, died because of steroid use. The NFL reacted to this by banning the drug. When Alzado died on May 14, 1992, all sports should have banned the drug the following day.
Waiting for Caminiti or Canseco to die in five years is as sickening as it is depressing. What kind of society do we live in where we must wait for tragedy before there's change.
I don't want to find out that anybody in baseball is on steroids. But maybe testing won't let the cat out of the bag; an untimely death will.
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