Roid Rage

Even though I’m a little late on the subject I feel I need to give my opinion on the topic. What is the topic? Well its steroids and more specifically Mark McGuire’s not making the hall of fame.

So why does everybody care that baseball players use steroids? There are generally two answers put forward. One is that it is against the rules and the other is that because baseball is such a statistical game it is unfair to compare players from the past to the players of the present.

First things first steroids is against the rules and players should not be using it and should be disciplined if they are ever caught using it. Other players however also cheat. From pitchers throwing spit balls to players using corked bats and no one has ever disallowed them from making the hall of fame because of it.

The second argument of how it is unfair to players of the past. Well I’ve got news for everybody there’s new weight lifting supplements coming out every year that are perfectly legal and safe that older generation players never had, just check out www.bodybuilding.com. There’s better nutrition information, better training methods and better medical procedures than in the past and this is a good thing. We’ve made technical advances as a society; we’re bigger, stronger and faster. Oh yeah there was also steroid use happening in the seventies so that era isn’t clean either.

Now specifically to the case of Mark McGuire. His numbers are clearly worthy of being a first ballot hall of fame player and he wasn’t voted in because there is suspicion that he used steroids. That's right suspicion. Absolutely no proof whatsoever. In a country that preaches innocent until proven guilty they are certainly letting him hang out to dry.

Let it be shown that other players have actually tested positive for steroids and don’t receive a hundredth of the bad press that he does. Let it also be shown that players like Shawne Merriman test positive for steroids and then are voted to the all pro team probably by the same reporters who refuse to vote McGuire into the hall of fame. Before we all crucify McGuire and Sosa and Bonds I think we need to take a look at the big picture and not view everything in a vacuum. Reporters need to get off their high horse and stop trying to protect something that was never theirs in the first place.