Baseball Cheaters

I will preface my remarks with just a brief history of my background in regards to baseball, specifically the Major League of Baseball. I was like any other red-blooded American boy... I loved baseball. I played baseball, I watched baseball, I had favorite teams and players, I collected and traded baseball cards...I loved baseball. Then the strike of 1994 came, the cancellation of the World Series and the resulting 'settlement' all occurred... since 1994, some 11 years now, I have not had near the passion for the MLB that I once did. The MLB is, in my opinion, a joke now. The Yankees are the World Champions...or whoever beats them - since 1995 the, only the '97 Marlin championship team is the only team that didn't beat the Yankees to win the World Series (or go on to win the World Series). Not that I hate the Yankees, I hate the structure of the league that allows a team to essentially be the best team on the field before a pitch is even thrown each season... it's almost comical to think that some of the small market teams are even in the same league as the big dollar, large market teams.

So my sourness towards the league is established... well to now to add to this sourness is the whole steroid issue. There is little doubt in my mind that many a player used steroids and for the most part, it appears as if owners, players and the league itself did nothing to prevent the widespread use of steroids....and possible in an effort to try and lure many of the fans back. And I'll admit, during McGwire and Sosa's homerun derby in 1998 it perked my interest and I, like the rest of America, began to allow baseball - to some degree - into my life. And now - and really for the past couple of years - steroids is being attached to all these players that seemed to have these outrageous statistics, totally tainting everything that was being used to lure myself and other disgruntled MLB fans of the past.

I think any and all statistics from any steroid user should at the VERY LEAST be asterisked, but I am hardcore... if I was associated at all with the game and had any say in the matter the players entire career would be stricken from the books. MLB shouldn't have this wussy 'random' steroid check right now...it should make every effort to get this sport cleaned up NOW rather than later...all players should take a drug test right now and any indication of steroids should mean a ban from the league forever.

Barry Bonds should be banished from the league forever. His records stricken from the books. In fact, in my eyes, Roger Maris is the only drug-free homerun champ that I know, so the single season homerun record to me stands at 61 and until the MLB at least tries to accommodate my feelings, I am going to go back to not caring about a league that seems to have no regard towards fairness and its fans...