Today in an interview with Peter Gammons, Alex Rodriguez confirmed that he had taken steroids from 2001-2003.
I used to get angry when these stories came out. I hated Bonds, Giambi, and Sosa for cheating the game of basbeall and the sanctity of a game that takes numbers very seriously. But after years and years of exponential steroid stories, I'm drained, jaded and just sad. I barely even blame A-Rod. It's tough to blame players for just trying to keep up with the status quo of pitchers and hitters juicing up to improve their game. I mostly just blame Bud Selig, the players union, and the game of baseball for turning a blind eye to this in the 90's and early part of this decade and not cleaning this up sooner. Stories like today are the price that baseball must pay as more and more stars and more numbers become tainted.
Baseball is probably the most important for stats and numbers. It was the first sport to become popular in fantasy games (although you can argue that fantasy football has passed it in terms of popularity). We used to hold these records as something truly special. Maris' 61 home runs, Aaron's 755, Dimaggio's 56 game hit streak. Now every single stat from 1987-until A-Rod retires (because he'll likely break a lot of major records) will be completely tainted.
It makes me sad for the sport I love. I remember getting caught up in the '98 home run race with McGwire and Sosa. Now, that memory means very little. Now even some of my favorite players, like Jeff Bagwell, and David Ortiz, certainly fall under the suspicion of steroids at the very least. Roger Clemens was one of my favorite pitchers when he rocked out the '04-'06 seasons with the Astros, and now I know it could have all been a lie. Those memories are tainted. This is just another case of professional sports spitting on its fans. As ticket prices soar while the economy plummets, we can really see that pro sports care little about fans. MLB turned a blind eye and implicity encouraged steroid use in the 90's because of the simple reason that HOME RUNS MADE MONEY.It's the fans that suffer for this.
Maybe one day Major League Baseball will have some credibility again and we can take records and numbers seriously again. I hope that day comes.......someday. Until then we're just going to have more days like this as more big names come out.
40 days until Opening day........and it can't come soon enough.
