Alex Rodriguez was supposed to save all of baseball. He was the one hope to many fans in the steroids era who didn't believe in Barry Bonds being the true home run king. He was going to topple it Bonds's record and give the record back to the fans where it rightly belongs. But it won't happen now. Along with the rest of the "heroes" of the hitting intensive era, he will have an asterisk next to his name.
So what's next? The next closest player on the home run list that's still active is Ken Griffey Jr. and he's in essence, done for his career. Will it be that in ten years time or so, the top two home run hitters will not only be from the offensively-charged steroids era, but will have asterisks next to their names as well? As Jamie Moyer eloquently put it, "He's got no credibility." I'm thinking that it's time to put that past just players, but all of baseball. I don't think anything they say is true anymore. Lost in the rhetoric of improving baseball and cleaning the sport, is the truth of it all. Bud Selig can claim he is doing all that he can to do what's right for baseball. Players like Alex Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte can claim they're clean. But all of baseball has lied. What makes them think we'll ever believe them again?
Following a year in which the word steroids was not widely thrown around (and home runs seemed to have disappeared) as in recent years past, it has suddenly returned. It has returned in all it's horror and publicity, in all the congressional hearings and possible jail time. The stigma is still there and always will be there. Cleaning up is now up to Bud Selig, something I don't have the confidence in him to do. To say that he didn't know any of this was going on would be like saying Bush didn't know torture was occurring.
Now what about baseball as the National Pasttime? Well, if the game can get past the Sox scandal and return to ever greater popularity, if the game can get through two world wars and the Great Depression, it'll get through this. But don't get me wrong. This is something totally different. There is nothing in the history of sports that can possibly match up to the era of baseball we are currently in and hopefully near the end of. It's not simply the cheating of the game and of the fans, but it's the attitude baseball has taken to the problem, the lying that seems to have become commonplace and accepted.
As spring rolls around, all I can say is they should just play. I'll watch, like I always do, because I love the game. It's tainted and dirty, yes, but there are sparks of excitement and even truth that can make me trust and believe, if only for a second.
Pic courtesy of NY Daily News
