Venezuelan Ozzie also a musician and artist

I watch the game of baseball to be thrilled. I take each play as part of the entire experience and the sport never lets me down. Excitement rages through each and every game. Every second of the game can produce something magical; each player can turn ordinary into extraordinary. One of the most exciting players in the game, one of the most talented to ever play, Omar Vizquel can make the impossible, the possible and the ordinary, the incredible.

Every time I see a Giants game, wherever I sit, Omar is always a focus of mine. I know if I take my eyes off the game, I could miss a play that can only cement himself even more as the greatest shortstop to play the game. Nothing is out of his range. His creativity turns impossibility into just another night. He never seems to lose a throw to a speedy runner. Never panicking, he beats all base runners by the same half-step, over and over again. He has it all in his arsenal. The backhand pick, the barehand pick and the glovestop make the game look good. Turning two has never been more of a piece of artwork before. Laying out on crushed brick and backhanding the ball never looked better. Sprinting full steam into the shallow outfield and then pirouetting and slinging the ball across his body to get the runner at first was never more exciting. His footwork is quick, his dives effortless. No wasted motion or energy seems to come out of his play. Everything has a purpose, to get the runner.

He makes baseball beautiful by playing his position the way it's supposed to be played. His glovework is incredible. He has hands that one can only describe as heavenly. At times, it seems to me like he plays without a glove, the fielding, the transition and the throw. The fluidity is beautiful. He is as graceful as a ballet dancer and as elegant as a ballroom dancer. Unselfish, team-oriented and damn good. I'd pay money to see him play.

Overlooking the Dominican Dandy

Juan Marichal, for all his esteemed accomplishments, the great numbers he has set, may be underrated for a hall of famer, if there is such a thing.

Often overlooked during his career for certain awards, he took it all in stride and continued to dominate the NL West despite heavy competition from the great Sandy Koufax. Many don't consider him one of the greatest pitchers of all-time let alone one of the greatest post-world war II pitchers. His high leg kick was often surpassed by the feats of Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens during the 1950s and afterwards. Because he pitched during a very deadball era and pitched during the same years as the intimidating Gibson and the much praised Koufax, Marichal never won Cy Youngs and often lost out in postseason races to the Cardinals.

Upon closer inspection, his stats were as good as Gibson's and his demeanor on the mound, equally intimidating. When asked whether to face one or the other, the choice is impossible. Both were known not to take anything from anyone. Due to rough luck, he was always one to finish runner-up in any sort of race. He lost six times in close Cy Young races, thrice to the Dodger lefty, once to Dean Chance, once to the Cardinal great and once to the Met, Tom Seaver. He was never able to come away with the trophy. I think it must have been very tough for him to always finish behind someone else. It takes not only courage to continue working without ever being truly rewarded, but persistence and determination. His grittiness also shows me he played the game because he loved it and enjoyed it, not letting second-place be a deterrent. His devotion to the game is missing in many players today.

As such, with the lack of hardware to prove his feats, many don't consider him to be on par with some of the greatest of all-time. Rest assured, in my opinion, he is. Often considered second string to others in estimation in the Hall of Fame, his high leg kick will always be considered one of the best in my thoughts.

For the love of the game

To save the game of baseball from its current state, full of players on steroids, it will require players to take it on themselves to clean the game. These players make millions upon millions of dollars. They need to play the game, the way it was meant to be played. Today's players are lazy, resort to cheating and petty demands for an extra 30 million dollars to satisfy themselves. Anyone doing this for a career should be happy enough with the job they have. They are doing what millions of kids can only imagine of doing for life. They play a game that is part of American culture and are a privileged few.

A player today needs to show grit, determination and full effort whenever they step on the diamond. Any less is an insult to those watching and the fans who truly enjoy the game. Players like Alex Rodriguez, while he did work out a contract outside of Scott Boras, are being paid yet often fail to hustle and show the sportsmanship. Americans give these players the right to play the game. We watch them and let them entertain us because of the gift of talent they have. They do not have the right to sit on the sidelines demanding money or complaining because of any faults on their team or of their teammates.

A player I admire is Grady Sizemore, a player who plays the game the right way. The sport of baseball is in lack of such talent and such heart. He plays with full effort no matter the situation and no matter the point in the season or game. You don't hear complaints or demands from this kid. He harks back to the days where guys needed to keep a second job during the offseason to stay afloat. He plays because he loves the game. He realizes he's privileged, and he plays to entertain the crowd. He dives because it's fun; he runs because he wants to make that extra effort. I'd rather have one of him than ten players of Alex Rodriguez's attitude and talent.

Just scratching the surface

Today's game is riddle with drug abusers, HGH users and other anabolic steroid users. The recent Mitchell Report only has scratched the surface of what is no doubt the most damning part of the game. The report by the owner and senator, however, was unclear in its determinations, weak in citing sources and lacking in actual cold hard facts and straight forward answers. It neither gave real reasons for the cause of the many problems in today's game, nor did it give real solutions. In the end, more questions were raised and left unanswered than ever before.

My approach to cleaning the game is four-fold.

First and foremost, the commissioner of the Major Leagues must be removed from his position. His tenure as both an owner of a club and as the head honcho of the Major Leagues leads to inevitable bias and one-sidedness in his approach to problems such as steroids. No matter what he says, bias is existent. He treats the game as a business and rightfully so. While his approach to raising money and improving fanfare of the game is working, the national pastime should not only be treated as a company that raises revenue, but as a special business. It is a game Americans cherish. If the fans lose their trust in such a sacred part of American history, not only is it bad for business, it is bad for American culture. His approach to removing steroids from the game and implementation of stricter testing policies have been insufficient. It took him way too long to place a ban on HGH, and while I applaud him for doing so and realize that nothing can be done for a past mistake, testing is still not strict enough.

Secondly, the US government should not be standing as idly as they have recently. Though this Mitchell report is a start, too much money was spent inefficiently in this report. The report failed to produce results or solutions. The game is cherished by fans and it has taken its place in American culture, embedded forever as our sport. The government should be more proactive, telling baseball to clean up the game, placing pressure on Bud Selig and his crew. The approach that needs to be taken by the senate and house should be along the lines of, "clean up your game, or we'll come over there and clean it up for you." American culture is being eroded by illegal usage of steroids.

Furthermore, testing policies need to be much stricter. A long 162-game season is plenty of time for players to juice and avoid being caught several times throughout the season. Monthly testing should be arranged for teams, by teams. Surprise off-season testing should be much more applied. The game has raised enough money through fan revenues that they have the power to implement such a system. Next, punishments should be stronger. Following the three-strike system of baseball, each offense should account for more. The first time around, a half-season ban, 81 games should be placed on the player. A following offense should account for an entire season ban, and lastly a third offense should be a permanent ban from baseball.

Lastly, I feel more research should be placed into determining whether or not a player is illegally enhancing his game. A huge amount of money is going to study of sports medicine and enhancing the body, but it is unequal to counter efforts. This is a key to ending steroid cheating. More and more, players are turning to improved systems of hiding the fact that they are enhancing their game. Those who keep track of cheaters need to be on the same page, and not enough money is being poured into counter-research. Baseball has a lot on its plate to clean. With the system they have in place currently, players will continue to cheat and the steroid era will never end.

Barry Bonds: Polarizing the game

Barry Bonds is the most polarizing player in the game of baseball since Pete Rose and his gambling controversy. Most fans of the game believe that Bonds neither deserves his records nor does he deserve a spot in the Hall of Fame. My opinion on him and this issue is that Bonds not only deserves his records but also a spot in the Hall of Fame as a first ballot inductee.

Barry Bonds has had his reputation placed on a stake and burned. Some consider it racism, but whatever the actual reason, he does not deserve having his name dragged across the mud. Barry Bonds accomplished a great deal with or without the help of steroids. Nothing gives the public the right to insult him and tear his name apart.

In my opinion, the Major Leagues is now on a new level of competition. Those who do not take steroids are falling behind. So many of the game's best are already juiced and to say that all of Barry's records are irrelevant because of this fact is not fair. The only fair way of clearing the record books of Barry's accomplishments is to toss out all of the records of the new "steroid era." If you say Barry's records are tainted, you must then include that all of the records from this era are tainted. Barry's seven MVPs are in my estimation no different, now, than any of Clemens's Cy Young awards.

The most educated of the game's followers will take these numbers and at the same time consider the era in which these records were accrued. Asterisks will not taint his record, they will taint the game forever. To those casual fans, who believe a star is needed next to all of the juiced, do not understand the game. There is no fair way to compare records from era to era. Even if they never took steroids, this era is an offensive era. Barry Bonds would not have accomplished the offensive feats he has in a more pitcher friendly time. This era should and will go down as the steroid era. A true fan can take these numbers and his knowledge of the time and accurately compare them to records and accomplishments from times like the deadball era or the post-war era.

I do not consider Bonds to be the greatest offensive player of all-time. I found it difficult to label any player in such away. Instead, however, I consider Bonds the greatest offensive player of his generation from the mid '80s to the mid '00s.

Those sports writers who vote on the Hall of Fame eligibility of each player should not take into account anything but accomplishments, records and numbers. Seven MVPs and all the new homerun records speak for themselves. His induction would only be fair to him and his fans. If such outside considerations were taken into account by many of the voters, I feel they are too biased to fulfill their duty. Voters should take information as it is and take what matters into account. Numbers and accomplishments bring players into the Hall of Fame. Numbers and accomplishments should be all that keep a player out of the Hall of Fame.