Kuzul

Ken Burns’ documentary The Tenth Inning aired nationally last week, picking up on his original nine-inning documentary series, Baseball.  One of the central themes of the documentary was how rampant steroid use in baseball shaped the state of the game from the post-strike period until now. 

Now, I’m not here to review the doc, which was great.  I’m here to give a little perspective on steroid use in baseball.  My opinion started to evolve this summer while working in the minors as the broadcast and media relations intern for the Kinston Indians, Cleveland’s Advanced-A affiliate.  Burns’ documentary only helped to reinforce those new-found beliefs.

I used to be like the majority of baseball fans, disgusted that these macho players had taken more shots than a frat guy on his 21st birthday and were cheating their way into the record books.  This past season made me realize that baseball is so much harder than people think.  Fans believe that players just show up, take batting practice and play baseball, and have the easiest and best job in the world. 

What most fans don’t appreciate is the difficulty of surviving the grind of playing stretches that can be as many as 30 days in a row without a off day.  The players go through 140 games in a minor league season and 162 in the majors.  I was just working for the team in a non-labor intensive job, and even I was mentally and physically exhausted by the time mid-August came around. 

The players, who are going through workouts, batting practice and the game itself, are all afflicted by bumps, bruises and injuries of some sort.  There is not a single player that isn’t hurting and/or tired by the time the stretch run comes around. 

How much do you think minor league ballplayers make?  Sure, early-round draft picks make big bonuses, but after that, everyone might as well be selling popcorn at the stadium for how much they get in salary. 

Where am I going with this?  There are so many players trying to make it to the majors and fringe major leaguers fighting just to keep their jobs.  Those that have a fairly stable spot in the majors, still have the battle to make more money and gain recognition along with winning awards and championships. 

It takes so much more than talent to be successful in baseball.  Players have to be able to stay consistent through the everyday grind and avoid major injury.    

Along came steroids.  Here’s a drug that will help your body recover through the long grind of a season, increase strength and muscle and improve baseball performance.  That helps players to get to the majors, stay in the majors and make more money.  Oh, and everyone is doing it, so if you don’t, the playing field is tilted against you.  Good luck making it to the major leagues, young prospect, and good luck staying there, crafty veteran. 

I almost forgot to mention, baseball is the one sport where you can do steroids and get away with it!  They won’t even test you!

Of course, there are a plethora of short-term side effects and long-term health risks that arise with steroids that still make them wise to turn down.

I don’t know who originally said this but it makes sense: “If you could take a shot or a pill to earn more money at your job wouldn’t you do it?”  Baseball players are constantly in the spotlight and are under immense pressure to perform at the highest level. 

My intent is not to apologize for the players, but just to present their reasoning.  Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire are the faces of the steroid era for their record-breaking performances, but there were plenty of unidentified users during that time period who in some way owed their jobs to the juice. 

It’s a sad commentary on that time, and it’s refreshing to see some signs that the era is over.  There have been six no-hitters in 2010, including Roy Halladay’s postseason no-no on Wednesday.  According to Baseball-Reference.com, this season featured the lowest ERAs in each league since 1992 and fewest home runs per game since 1993.  The purists are thrilled, but those who grew up in the homer-happy era might start pining for the long ball sometime soon. 

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Roger Clemens is going have to work out of this jam all by himself.

He can’t be pulled for a reliever. And he can’t just rear back and let loose with a 95 mile-per-hour fastball and try to blow the Feds away.

It’s going to take some finesse and nibbling around the corners. He needs to induce a harmless ground ball, that his lawyers can turn into an inning-ending double play.

Clemens is under Federal indictment. It’s the one thing you don’t want to be under, other than Refrigerator Perry.

The Feds say Clemens lied with his pants on fire back in 2008 when he testified before Congress, saying that he no way, no how, took performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) as a big league pitcher.

The feds have six counts against Clemens. They say that Clemens, no less than 15 times, made knowingly false statements while under oath on Capitol Hill.

A Federal indictment ought to make the one under indictment soil his or her briefs. It’s a big deal, because lengthy prison time could be in the offing. And indictments aren’t brought lightly; usually the Feds feel they have a pretty good case.

It’s one thing to have a feeling that someone is lying to Congress. It’s quite another for that feeling to become an actual indictment. The Federal government usually only indicts when it thinks it can win, and win convincingly.

Clemens is still sticking to his story. He maintains that it’s not he who is lying, but rather his former trainer, Brian McNamee, who told Congress at the same time that Clemens was testifying that McNamee injected Clemens more than a dozen times with steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) between 1998 and 2001.

McNamee supposedly has syringes, vials, and other physical evidence—including even some of Clemens’s DNA—to support his claims.

Clemens and McNamee have since sued each other for defamation, with Clemens’s claims being essentially dismissed by federal courts. McNamee has a suit pending in federal court in New York.

Former Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the top Republican on the House panel at the time of Clemens’ testimony, called it “a self-inflicted wound.”

“Clemens was not under subpoena. He came voluntarily,” Davis said. “And I sat there in the office with [committee chairman] Henry Waxman and said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t lie.’ ”

Apparently, Clemens didn’t take that advice to heart. Now he has the bases juiced (so to speak) and no one warming up in the bullpen.

I believe that Clemens lied. The indictment speaks volumes, and why would McNamee lie, knowing the repercussions if he was proven to be making up tall tales?

All that, plus the physical evidence that McNamee says he has—which he kept for some 10 years, for just such an occasion as this one.

For what it’s worth, Clemens’s old teammates are standing by him, including Yankees catcher Jorge Posada and steroid user extraordinaire Jose Canseco.

Current Yankee Lance Berkman, a teammates of Clemens’s in Houston, said, “Whatever you want to say about the guy, he belongs in the Hall of Fame. In my opinion, legacy-wise, I guess that’s up to—I mean, 200 years from now, who cares?

“But in the short term, I guess, he may have some things to address,” Berkman conceded.

That’s one of the biggest understatements of the year.

Clemens is back on the mound, staring in at a federal indictment that stands menacingly at the plate. And the Feds don’t strike out that much when it comes to this kind of thing.

I have a feeling that Clemens is going to be taken deep.

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Jose Canseco may want to think of writing a new book or do something extraordinary in order to get out of the current streak of bad luck that he has hit. When Canseco was in his prime, he would date models and drive some of the world’s most expensive cars. Nowadays, it seems like he can’t even afford a nice home.

The former Major League slugger has reportedly been evicted from his home and is currently living in a friend’s garage. This is all coming from the popular tabloid website, TMZ, that still seems to treat Jose Canseco like a celebrity. The website is stating that the former Yankee missed two months of rent at a rented home. 

On his Twitter page, Jose Canseco confirmed the rumors and admits that ever since his controversial book “Juiced” hit shelves, it has been downhill. He goes as far as to call himself “the modern day Frankenstein.” 

The steroid abuser decided to play the blame game and points to Major League Baseball as the source of all his problems. He believes that they have aimed at destroying his life and, apparently, they succeeded. 

Canseco is not shy to express what is currently going on. He expresses his desire to cry, but at the same time, he believes that living in a garage is not too bad. 

He says that he doesn’t mind being poor again since that is how he was raised. But the may not last long as he is back in baseball.

Do not fear. He is not back in the Major Leagues. Jose Canseco was just recently signed to a contract to become a designated hitter and a bench coach for the Laredo Broncos.

It is a short-term contact that will only last the next two Laredo Broncos’ homestand, according to the Associated Press.

Jose Melendez is currently serving as the Broncos’ general manager and he issued a statement on the team’s website on Jose Canseco’s hiring. Melendez said, “He felt baseball was over with. We’re the ones who encouraged him to come back and return to the game of baseball and back to where his beloved fans can see him again.”

Canseco was the mentor to many on steroid issues during his baseball career in the Majors, but now he will serve as a mentor to younger baseball players hoping to keep their dream alive of making it big. 

The Broncos are really excited about signing Jose Canseco that they even decided to state that his signing is the “biggest” in all of Independent League Baseball History. 

Could this be a publicity stunt by Canseco to be on top of the world again? He was on a VH1 show a few years back and he could be looking for a comeback or a television show to make money again. Any type of spare change will be greatly appreciated by Canseco at this point.

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I want you to ask yourself this, what Major League Baseball players deserve to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame? Does Pete Rose deserve to be in the Hall of Fame? How about Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, or Roger Clemens? Maybe even one day New York Yankess third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who is on the eve of hitting home run No. 600?

While watching Hall of Fame outfielder Andre Dawson give his speech after his induction into Cooperstown on Sunday, he said some things that struck a chord with me and became the inspiration for this article.

“Do not be lured by the dark side. It’s a stain on the game. A stain gradually being removed. But that’s the people, not the game. Nothing wrong with the game. There never has been,” Dawson said.

He then continued with, “Baseball will, from time to time like anything else in life, fall victim to the mistakes that people make. It’s not pleasant and it’s not right.”

However, the quote that made the most impact in my mind was, “Individuals have chosen the wrong road, and they’re choosing that as their legacy. Those mistakes have hurt the game and taken a toll on all of us.” 

Dawson was clearly taking a shot at all players who have been accused or have openly admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs while playing baseball.

Ironically, those comments were coming from a man who endured 12 knee surgeries over an impressive 21-year major league career; a man who was an eight-time All-Star, with 438 career home runs, 2,774 hits, 1,591 RBI, and 314 stolen bases.

Dawson also spoke highly of Pete Rose, but didn’t lobby for his induction to the Hall of Fame.

Rose has been permanently banned from baseball since 1989 and thus keeps him from being enshrined in the one place he deserves.

That’s right sports fans, Pete Rose deserves to be in the Hall of Fame!

Pete Rose, aka Charlie Hustle, was the definition of a baseball player. Over his 23-year career, Rose was a three-time World Champion, 17-time All-Star (at five different positions: 2B, LF, RF, 3B, and 1B), two-time Golden Glove Award winner, 1963 NL Rookie of the Year, and 1973 NL MVP. He also holds a record that in my mind may never be broken—4,256 career hits.

Rose, however, was deemed permanently ineligible by then-Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti for allegedly betting on baseball games. He would later admit in his 2004 autobiography My Prison Without Bars that he did bet on baseball and other sports while he played for and managed the Cincinnati Reds. He also admitted that he bet on the Reds, but never bet against them.

Though Pete Rose may have bet on baseball games, including games he managed, he never cheated, something many of the great baseball players over the last decade have done.

Players such as Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens all have been linked to using performance-enhancing drugs. Among those players, only Alex Rodriguez and Mark McGwire have come forward and admitted that used medications that improved their play.

Last time I checked, anytime you use a substance that helps you enhance your performance would be considered…CHEATING!

Pete Rose isn’t a cheater. He never did anything to enhance his physical performance. 

This article isn’t solely about who has cheated and who hasn’t.

A professional baseball player’s induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame shouldn’t be determined solely on what records a player has broken, or what feats that player has accomplished, but what that player has given to the game of baseball itself. It needs to be about what that player has given to the fans of baseball as well.

Below are three outstanding baseball players, who have done wonderful things for the game of baseball, but because of their poor lack of judgement (i.e. Pete Rose) they too may never see the Hall of Fame. 

Mark McGwire

Mark McGwire was first eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2007. He can be remembered as one of the famous Bash Brothers (along with Jose Canseco) of the Oakland Athletics, McGwire broke the single season home run record for rookies in 1987 with 48 home runs. He was a 12-time All-Star, 1990 Gold Glove Award winner, three-time Silver Slugger Award winner, and the 1987 AL Rookie of the Year.

Eleven years later, in 1998, McGwire would gain national notoriety along with Sammy Sosa as they pursued the single season home run record the same way that Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris did in the summer of 1961.

Mark McGwire would finish the 1998 season with 70 home runs, nine more than Roger Maris hit in 1961.

However, McGwire’s amazing feat, toppling a record that stood for 37 years, would be tarnished by revelations that he used androstenedione, an over-the-counter muscle enhancement supplement, in order to shorten the time needed to recover from the physical wear on his body.

Although he never admitted to using steroids during the 1998 season, McGwire would admit in 2010 that he had used steroids during his playing career.

Barry Bonds

Do Barry Bonds’s stats alone give him enough credibility to be voted in for the Hall of Fame? Yes. Will the BALCO scandal and steroids be his downfall? Absolutely!

During Barry Bonds’s 21-year career he was a 14-time All Star, eight-time Gold Glove Award winner, 12-time Silver Slugger Award winner, and seven-time Most Valuable Player. He is also the single-season home run leader with 73 home runs, and is the career home run leader with 763 round trippers.

Bonds also had 2,935 career hits, 1,996 RBI, and 514 stolen bases.

His accomplishments alone should make him worthy of a first ballot induction to the Hall of Fame in 2013, however his involvement in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) may have tainted that.

Bonds was accused and indicted by a grand jury about his involvement with BALCO around the time he was chasing the single season and career home run records. Reports had been leaked on Bonds’s grand jury testimony contend that he admitted to unknowingly using “the cream” and “the clear” both being anabolic steroid supplements.

Roger Clemens

Roger Clemens will also be eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2013 and his accolades and feats match that of Barry Bonds and then some. In his 23-year career, Clemens was a 11-time All-Star selection, seven-time Cy Young Award winner (having won the award in both American and National leagues), and the 1986 AL MVP.

Clemens is a member of the 300 win club, 3,000 strikeout club, 4,000 strikeout club, 300 wins-3,000 strikeout club, and in 1997 and ’98 won the pitching Triple Crown (wins, ERA, and strikeouts).

But, Clemens’s accomplishments will be marred by his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens’s former personal strength coach, Brian McNamee, came forward an admitted that he had injected Clemens with steroids during the 1998, 2000, and 2001 seasons.

Clemens was also mentioned in former US Senator George Mitchell’s report on steroid use in baseball 82 times; however Clemens still denies that he had ever used steroids or performance-enhancing drugs.

In conclusion, I believe that if any one of these players, including Alex Rodriguez (who will probably hit 770 home runs, and openly admitted to use performance-enhancing drugs) should be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, that Pete Rose also be given a fair chance for reinstatement.

We all need to remember that baseball is a game a majority of us loved while growing up, and that all these youngsters who have dreams of one day making it to the Majors and maybe even the Hall of Fame will get there, with hard work and determination.

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It seems that nary a week goes by without another player being indicted on charges of using PEDs. While the juicers’, and their suppliers, house of cards fell in the MLB, PED investigations and suspensions have now proliferated to the NFL, professional cycling, and other sports.

One thing is clear. These substances, the people who use them, and the people who distribute them, are not going away.

Every conviction is only a drop in the vast ocean that the purists believe professional sports are sinking in.

There may be only one solution: Legalize performance enhancing drugs.

It may not be a perfect fix, but it would end the tiresome finger pointing, rumor generating, asterisk affixing, 1940’s style blacklisting that has been running rampant in professional sports today.

The argument for the legalization and regulation of these performance enhancing drugs is similar to the argument for the legalization of controlled substances such a marijuana.

There is no stopping it completely. Sure, the War On (Performance Enhancing) Drugs has garnered a few victories, but those are few and far between compared to the holes in the system that allow these PEDs to enter the bloodstreams of our prized athletes.

Athletes in general are adored by their fans, and are idolized by young children. The truth, however, is that just because they are rich and talented, does not mean that they are inherently “good” people. In fact, it is often because of their fame and fortunes that many athletes become drug and alcohol users, female and spousal abusers, adulterers, conceited, selfish, jaded, narcissistic, or all of the above. Take your pick.

Reading the newspapers or watching ESPN, it seems that there are very few athletes who can even qualify as decent, much less heroic, figures. Maybe the athletes are changing, or maybe, like how the brightest of lights brings out flaws in even the smoothest skin, the media evolution allows us just too close of a look for us to retain the puppy-saving ideal citizen image we have of our favorite sports figures.

Regulating performance enhancing drugs would even the playing field. Teams already have their own nutritionists, weight trainers, medical staff, and high tech facilities that allow their players to achieve physical results far beyond the normal Joe six-pack is capable of. Performance Enhancing Drugs merely widen the gap between the mortal and the superhuman.

In the MLB’s Mitchell Report, over 87 players were specifically named as relating to steroid and steroid based offenses. On this list were superstars like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, and Rafael Palmeiro. Also on this list were no-names like Todd Pratt and Hal Morris. This is evidence that steroids alone cannot turn an average player into a star.

More recently, NFL players have been getting caught up in the PED storm.

Brian Cushing, the Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2009, was recently suspended four games for his involvement with PEDs. However, upon a re-vote, Cushing was still awarded Rookie of the Year honors. This is a sign that not only are PEDs widespread in the NFL, but people know it and are even beginning to accept it.

In the opinion of one NFL player, PED use is as low as 15 percent amongst players. In another current players estimate, it is as high as 30 percent. If this is the case, and who would know better than guys who work out with, spend time in the locker room with, and more importantly, are, NFL players, then why have only a few players been charged?

Major league sports organizations know that they are selling a spectacle. They can’t make the players donate to charity, give autographs, or even acknowledge a fan’s presence. What they can do is provide an awe-inspiring show of athletic ability, strength, and power of the human form.

While it may be cynical and jaded outlook on sports, sooner or later this performance enhancing drug situation is going to have to be hit head-on. Were PEDs to be regulated, at the very least fans wouldn’t have to wonder if they’re favorite players were secretly juicing. They would know that they were, and they would know that they were only doing it so that they could compete in a league where everybody else is doing it.

Then, more focus could be spent on keeping PEDs out of player’s bodies at the collegiate and high school levels, where the love of the game and the purity of the sport outweighs the love of money and marvel.

It will also make the players who voluntarily refuse to take PEDs look like heroes, as opposed to singling out a few villains in a league where every player could be harboring the same dark secret.

Just my two cents, hate away. I know you want to.  

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