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This is the archive for February 2009

The Needle And The Damage Done

Well, it looks like Jose Canseco was right. Again. Christ, could it be that the guy who wrote the modern-day Ball Four is also the same asshole who took pictures in a fishnet shirt, was on The Surreal Life, and boxed with Danny Bonaduce?

I think I just had a brain hemorrhage.

You know what? I'm fine with this. (I mean the message, not the messenger. Jose Canseco? Really? Who knew he could even read, let alone have someone ghost-write a book for him!) So A-Rod did steroids; big fucking deal. When it comes to baseball, and evaluations, I'm done worrying about who did what and when, or who tested positive for what and when. Barry Bonds? McGuire? Sosa? A-Rod? Brady Anderson? Hulk Hogan? Fuck it, let them all into the Hall of Fame. The notion of purity in baseball is as antiquated as the usage of stirrups.

As of right now I'm going to operate on the suspicion that everyone in baseball has done performance enhancing drugs. Everyone in baseball history, that is. In 1807, endurance racers used opium. The Tour De France has a long history of riders using every type of drug available. Dock Ellis did pitch a no-hitter out of his mind on LSD. David Wells pitched one drunk. For all I know, Hank Aaron ate greenies every game and Willie Mays ran through more grass than a lawnmower at a golf course.

You can't look back at someone and say that they did this or they did that without proof. Even if there is proof, what about all those cheaters who do it for months or years and escape notice by the pee cup brigade? Or what about the fact that everyone who played in baseball from 1980-2004 probably did steroids or some kind of performance enhancer?

Baseball has the dead ball era and the live ball era. We may as well go ahead and accept the steroids era and let those who deserve to go into Cooperstown go into the Hall based on their merits against their peers. When everyone's on steroids, nobody has an unfair advantage.