Today's long awaited release of the Mitchell Report on steriods for Major League Baseball has caused a lot of controversy, brought up some new names and raised even more questions.
The biggest names that came out today were Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte. (I've always had a big dislike for Clemens as he's such an asshole. ) Most people have realized that Barry Bonds was one of the biggest (and most successful) offenders for a long time. Many of us who have been baseball fans have long realized that steroids have been used by hundreds of major league players - to not see that you pretty much had your head buried in the sand.
I first realized the problem many years ago when I was living in San Diego and my old summer league catcher Tom Lampkin was traded to the Padres. Although he was never a star big leaguer, he did have a solid career as a back up catcher for about six different teams. When I used to know him (until he was 19 or 20), he was just a skinny kid who could hit singles. When I saw him playing in the bigs his arms had grown as big as my legs. That just does not happen naturally or by weight lifting alone ... BTW - It really kind of sucks when somebody makes "The Show" and then won't even talk to their old friends ... I really admire people who remember where they came from and have no respect for those that don't.
As far as the big backlash of the steriods report, I hope that baseball can put it in the past. My personal opinion that any record by someone proven to be a steroid user should have an asterisk next to it. Whoever is proven to have used banned performance enhancing drugs (while they were banned) is a cheater, and should be banned from baseball, the record books and the Hall of Fame. If the drugs they were taking were not banned at the time, I don't think we can or should hold that against them. I would probably have done the same to get any advantage possible - or to simply keep up with the competition.
No comments:
Post a Comment