Rant On
Okay, this whole steroid thing has just gotten utterly ridiculous, now with the new A-Roid news. I'm only hoping that one important change will come of it - that the BBWAA will lose the right to vote on the Hall of Fame, because of what they've done to Mark McGwire these past few years.
The story is simple. Yes, in the mid-90s and early 2000s, TONS of players were using steroids. Yet these hypocritical fatasses feel that they somehow can divine which players "we know are guilty" and which ones are completely clean. Of course, A-Rod was one of the completely clean crew at the time.
Which of these players is on steroids - the one who at age 37 is 50 pounds over his 25 year old playing weight and hits .370 with 117 runs scored and 110 RBIs, or the one who is 50 pounds over his 25 year old playing weight and hits .372 with 97 runs scored and 119 RBIs? Is it the pitcher who at age 39 pitching for the Yankees goes 20-9 with a 3.37 ERA, or the one who at age 38 pitching for the Yankees goes 20-3, 3.51?* The guy who never, ever missed a game for like 15 years (Cal Ripken Jr) was "obviously" clean? Ricky Henderson didn't take any drugs to hit .315 with 37 SBs and 89 runs scored at age 40?
*The players, as anyone could look up, are in order Barry Bonds, Tony Gwynn, Mike Mussina and Roger Clemens.
The point is that a bunch of out-of-touch middle-aged and older journalists, who practice hero worship for the clean* players of their era, are not the ones who should be able to pass judgment on the players of the steroid era. When it comes down to it, it's unfair to compare players to anyone of an era other than their own. It's not like there weren't both pitchers and hitters taking steroids.
*Clean obviously not including the greenies present in every clubhouse, or any steroids players may have taken then since we now know the San Diego Chargers were taking them as early as 1963.
Baseball players have been cheating since time immemorial. Bill James has an article about Babe Ruth's corked bat in his Baseball Abstract. Gaylord Perry lived on the "hard slider", aka the spitball. Most of Ed Delahanty and Sliding Billy Hamilton's outrageous seasons from the 1890s came because the Phillies were stealing signs from center field.
But wait, what about statistics? Baseball is a game that loves its statistics. Barry Bonds made a mockery of the home run numbers!
Somehow this is more of a mockery than what the mound and strike zone rules did for hitting stats from 1963-1968? Worse than some of Cy Young's 511 wins coming from when he pitched at 50 feet and started every other game? Worse than Ty Cobb's .368 career average and Ruth's 714 home runs never once being accumulated against a black pitcher? Worse than Chuck Klein and Lefty O'Doul's insane 1930 numbers coming because they played in a joke of a ballpark (ditto for Larry Walker, Vinny Castilla, Andres Galaragga and Dante Bichette's numbers in the 90s)?
There is no doubt in my mind that Mark McGwire cheated. What he did was EXACTLY what the players in Jim Bouton's Ball Four did, take something that was illegal (steroids vs amphetemines) but not banned by baseball to enhance their performance on the diamond. To for some reason hero worship one group and claim to be a paragon of virtue keeping the other group out is simply hypocrisy that cannot be spoken against strongly enough.
The story is simple. Yes, in the mid-90s and early 2000s, TONS of players were using steroids. Yet these hypocritical fatasses feel that they somehow can divine which players "we know are guilty" and which ones are completely clean. Of course, A-Rod was one of the completely clean crew at the time.
Which of these players is on steroids - the one who at age 37 is 50 pounds over his 25 year old playing weight and hits .370 with 117 runs scored and 110 RBIs, or the one who is 50 pounds over his 25 year old playing weight and hits .372 with 97 runs scored and 119 RBIs? Is it the pitcher who at age 39 pitching for the Yankees goes 20-9 with a 3.37 ERA, or the one who at age 38 pitching for the Yankees goes 20-3, 3.51?* The guy who never, ever missed a game for like 15 years (Cal Ripken Jr) was "obviously" clean? Ricky Henderson didn't take any drugs to hit .315 with 37 SBs and 89 runs scored at age 40?
*The players, as anyone could look up, are in order Barry Bonds, Tony Gwynn, Mike Mussina and Roger Clemens.
The point is that a bunch of out-of-touch middle-aged and older journalists, who practice hero worship for the clean* players of their era, are not the ones who should be able to pass judgment on the players of the steroid era. When it comes down to it, it's unfair to compare players to anyone of an era other than their own. It's not like there weren't both pitchers and hitters taking steroids.
*Clean obviously not including the greenies present in every clubhouse, or any steroids players may have taken then since we now know the San Diego Chargers were taking them as early as 1963.
Baseball players have been cheating since time immemorial. Bill James has an article about Babe Ruth's corked bat in his Baseball Abstract. Gaylord Perry lived on the "hard slider", aka the spitball. Most of Ed Delahanty and Sliding Billy Hamilton's outrageous seasons from the 1890s came because the Phillies were stealing signs from center field.
But wait, what about statistics? Baseball is a game that loves its statistics. Barry Bonds made a mockery of the home run numbers!
Somehow this is more of a mockery than what the mound and strike zone rules did for hitting stats from 1963-1968? Worse than some of Cy Young's 511 wins coming from when he pitched at 50 feet and started every other game? Worse than Ty Cobb's .368 career average and Ruth's 714 home runs never once being accumulated against a black pitcher? Worse than Chuck Klein and Lefty O'Doul's insane 1930 numbers coming because they played in a joke of a ballpark (ditto for Larry Walker, Vinny Castilla, Andres Galaragga and Dante Bichette's numbers in the 90s)?
There is no doubt in my mind that Mark McGwire cheated. What he did was EXACTLY what the players in Jim Bouton's Ball Four did, take something that was illegal (steroids vs amphetemines) but not banned by baseball to enhance their performance on the diamond. To for some reason hero worship one group and claim to be a paragon of virtue keeping the other group out is simply hypocrisy that cannot be spoken against strongly enough.