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George N. Root III
GEORGE ROOT: Counterpoint: Steroids ruined baseball
I promised Bob Confer I would not let him get away with it, so here is my response to his argument for the use of steroids in baseball. My job is to point out why steroids has ruined baseball, and why baseball should be ashamed for allowing it to happen. I like Bob, so this is nothing personal. He knows that. But to the players and administrators who have ruined baseball, this is very personal.
The arguments by baseball fans are plentiful. They range from “Well, steroids were not banned in baseball, so it was OK to use them” to “Well, if everyone was using them, then it is not cheating.” My God, people, think about what you are saying.
One of the best signs I have ever seen at a baseball game is the famous sign displayed to Barry Bonds a couple of years ago that said, “Hey Barry, the Babe did it on hot dogs and beer.” That is the core of the argument against steroids, and why those athletes and administrators who allowed steroids to poison baseball should be thrown out of the game for life. Baseball used to have a fun aura to it, and that is gone.
First, let us dispel a rumor right now. Major League Baseball knew the players were doing steroids, the players knew what was going on and the teams all knew what was going on. There is no innocent babe in the woods on this one, all parties are guilty.
Baseball used to be about heroes, characters and personality. Even the ballparks themselves are allowed to have their own personalities. No two Major League ballparks are alike, and that is part of the appeal of baseball. To young people all over the world, baseball players were larger than life. Having Mickey Mantle’s rookie trading card meant something, and catching a ball blasted over the Green Monster by Ted Williams was a life-changing experience.
Then steroids came along. Mark McGwire was getting bigger every year, and that skinny Bonds kid suddenly looked like Hulk Hogan. What the hell was going on? Baseballs were flying out of ballparks, and suddenly the records held by heroes such as Maris, Ruth and Aaron were being shattered. But were they?
This argument is more than just some emotional argument from someone who hates Bonds and everything Bonds has done to ruin baseball. It is about being fair, it is about our children’s heroes setting good examples to our kids and it is about the all-American game that is getting taken over by countries such as Japan and Mexico.
The argument that steroids were OK because baseball had not banned them is weak. Steroids were illegal, and I may be mistaken here, but if something is illegal in the real world, then it is illegal in baseball. Last I knew, the batter could not carry a loaded AK47 to first base with him to waste the first baseman as he settles under a fly ball. Steroids were illegal then, and they are illegal now, because they are dangerous. How many more athletes have to die way too young before we realize how dangerous this stuff is? If you don’t want to punish the players in the context of the rules of baseball, then fine, have them arrested.
Now children are looking at their baseball heroes and starting to take up the needle to be just like A-Rod. That should make a parent sick to their stomach. The fact that it does not enrage every parent shows how low our morals as a country have sunk.
Age-old records set by premier athletes (yes, for what he did, Babe Ruth was a premier athlete) are falling to people who are cheating. Take McGwire, Bonds and Sosa out of the record books and give Roger Maris his record back. Leave Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record alone. It is a record that no real athlete could break before, and it should still stand as a record that no real athlete has broken.
Major League Baseball has sunk its own battleship on this one. David Ortiz admitted to being juiced on steroids when he played in the 2004 playoffs for the Red Sox. I am a Red Sox fan and that hurts. It taints something that Red Sox fans have been waiting decades for, and it brings everything into question.
Baseball could have stopped steroids when it started. They were testing and they knew. But they did nothing. Now baseball is refusing to do anything about steroids in the record books because of all that is affected by it. That’s just too bad. Baseball should have done the right thing when it had the chance and it didn’t. Now maybe it should have to live with the consequences.
George N. Root III is a Lockport resident. His column appears every Wednesday. Contact him at georgeroot@verizon.net.
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