Pelletier's Perspective 2.18.09: A-Rod or A-Fraud?

Posted by Justin Pelletier on 02.18.2009

Baseball season is officially here but nobody seems to care about pitchers and catchers. All the talk surrounding baseball is focused on performance enhancing drugs. But should it be? Join 411's Justin Pelletier as he takes a look at baseball's Steroid Era in the latest edition of Pelletier's Perspective.

Pitchers and catchers reported this week. That was trumped, however, by Alex Rodriguez's "admission" that he has used performance enhancing drugs which has created a three-ring circus smack-dab in the middle of Tampa, Florida. Talks of pennants have been supplanted by talk of Primobolan.

The fact that Rodriguez, and countless others, have hijacked baseball and turned it into Court TV angers me to no end. The fact that these millionaire meatheads play semantic word games with reporters like a president defining the word "it" is beyond ridiculous. The fact that they're selfish and refuse to admit that they cheated means the Big Top won't be closing any time soon. And that's a shame.

However, for those of you who are appalled that these men would ruin the sanctity of baseball need to shut up. Those of you who believe that the commissioner should make some sort of unilateral move to exile the juicers need to get the facts before spouting off. And those of you who believe that all records of "juicers" should be banished need to die.

First to those of you who take the moral high ground, the bottom line is that as long as there is competition there will be people trying to get an advantage, unfair or otherwise. Like the late American philosopher Eddie Guerrero once said; "If you're not cheating, you're not trying."

Now please don't spew upon me your Little League dad and Soccer Mom rhetoric about fair play and honesty. I'm a father too, and when my daughter gets old enough to compete in sports I'm going to teach her about fair play and honesty and I truly hope that she will always make the fair choice.

But we're not dealing with children here.

We're talking about multimillion dollar athletes. When we're talking about that kind of money and dealing with ultra-competitive athletes, nothing surprises me.

On to those of you who live under the belief that Bud Selig should take some sort of autonomous decision to suspend users for a year (or even ban them from the game), I have a piece of advise for you. Go buy a clue.

That can't happen the commissioner does not have that kind of authority. There is a little thing called a union he has to deal with. And by "little thing" I mean the best union on the planet. He can't make outlandish penalties. The Players Association wouldn't allow it. The only leverage Selig has to impose an even stricter policy would be a work stoppage. There is no way he will force a strike, or lockout, during the most prosperous eras in baseball history.

Baseball now has a very strict policy (50 games for a first offense) that will act as a giant deterrent. And suspending some poor schmuk who bought a tainted supplement isn't going to change the fact that our all-time home run king, along with a third of the all-time top 15 were on ‘roids.

Finally on to those who claim that "All records set by users should be marked with an asterisk" or even worse those who want the records stricken completely. You people make me want to sit on tacks.

First and foremost, none of these players (with the exception of Rafael Palmeiro) have ever tested positive during a time with Major League Baseball had policy in effect. Rodriguez's situation is close but he failed a baseline test that was promised never to be reveled.

That would be like if your local police sent a survey to your house asking where you most often speed so they can police problem areas more effectively and then, five years later, sent you a ticket.

So who gets an asterisk?

Palmeiro? Oh course he does! He tested positive! But wait, how many of those was he juiced for? And better yet, how many jacks did he plant of ‘roided hurlers?

The same goes for Bonds, Sosa, McGuire and Rodriguez, except none of them ever actually failed a legitimate MLB drug test.

What about Ken Griffey Jr., Jim Thome, Frank Thomas or Gary Sheffield? They're all in the top 25 and played in the Steroid Era. Shall we stricken them with any inclination of guilt (with the exception of Sheffield) simply due to their association?

It's a slippery slope to say the least and one that none of us have any business going down. Leave the record books alone.

The Steroid Era happened. Live with it.

Please don't get me wrong. I hate the fact that the Steroid Ear happened and I hate the fact that I'm writing a column on it during the beginning of a season where my Mets look as strong as ever.

I like records as much as the next guy but we can't act like large chunks of history never happened simply because we don't like the way it played out. If that were the case I promise you the George W. Bush presidency would never see the light of day.

When it all boils down baseball is still baseball. Either you're still in or you're out. If you're in, you need to get past the whole steroid thing.

Feel free to boo A-Rod out of the park, not because he's one of many who juiced but, simply because he's a Yankee.