Guilty until proven innocent.

With all of baseball now talking about Alex Rodriguez recent admission of steroid use, I have no choice but to join this fray. This is truly a sad day for me. A-Rod is not only one of the best players in the planet, but also one of my favorites. I have all his rookie cards, and I have followed his entire career with excitement. The steroid monster strikes again. Soon after that, in another twist, Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada is now pleading guilty to charges from Washington that he lied to federal investigators about his own substance abuse. So much for the end of the Steroid saga. Those are two former MVP players. Since everyone is weighing in on this here is my take. I applaud A-Rod for coming clean so soon after Sports Illustrated published a report that he tested positive for steroids twice during the 2003 season, one of his MVP seasons, instead of letting it drag on through Spring Training, and I respect him more as a human being for admitting his mistakes. I feel like I understand him now, since there was a time in my life where I was also young and naïve and made some bad choices. Don’t we all? We seek forgiveness and vow to ourselves not to get down again, and I’m sure he regrets this choice. He realizes now that it wasn’t worth it. All those people who are understandably angry at him need to give him another chance. I got another chance.
There is more to this though. A-Rod was only one of 104 players that tested positive for steroids in 2003. That was the first year that major league baseball implemented a random drug test, and if more than 5% of the players tested positive that year they would continue but with penalties (104 players is roughly 14%, almost three times what MLB thought). There were no repercussions if you used prior to 2004. Curt Schilling suggested that the rest of the list be made public, and I agree. If they don’t it would be unfair to A-Rod and it would cast a shadow of doubt to every player that played in that era. Looking back at this “loosey-goosey” era, say from 1996 to 2003, there are a lot of players who might be in that list. I looked at some of the players who had career year in between those years and see if there might be a connection. There is Luis Gonzalez, who from 1999 to 2003 his numbers stand out dramatically, including a 57-homer season in 2001 when his Diamondbacks team won the World Series. On those 5 years he averaged 34 homers a season. In all his other years he averaged 14 per season. There is also Tejada who was an iron man in his Athletics days, playing in every game and winning the MVP in 2002. Ironically his production has decreased ever since Rafael Palmeiro implicated him in this scandal. Talking about former Orioles, do you remember Brady Anderson? In 1996, this leadoff hitter hit 50 homers, 26 more than any of his other seasons! Another former MVP, catcher Ivan Rodriguez, won the award in 1999 after hitting a career high 35 homers to go with a .332 average. His name is also in the Mitchell Report. Eric Gagne saved a record 84 consecutives games between 2002 and 2004 and won the Cy Young in 2003. He's been a bust since. How about Randy Johnson and Schilling himself? I mean, besides being teammates with Gonzalez in Arizona, they matched each other pitch by pitch. Between 1999 and 2002, Johnson won four consecutive Cy Young awards, winning 81 games against 27 loses. He reached over 300 strikeouts in every one of those seasons and averaged 257 innings pitched per season. Oh, and by the way, he was 36 in 1999. His names has never been brought up in this scandal, and believe me, I hope it never does. I wouldn’t be surprise though. Schilling finished second in the Cy Young voting in both 2001 and 2002, both to Johnson, and was a close friend of his. If you look at the MVP winners in this era you can see players that might also be in that list: Juan Gonzales, Chipper Jones, Jeff Kent, Larry Walker, Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds. Were they all juiced up on their MVP campaign like A-Rod and Tejada were? Who knows? Unless the list is released every player should be guilty by association.

The end of the Steroid Era?

With recent news about Barry Bond's perjury case and his steroid scandal, I couldn't help but be taken back to the time when the home runs where flying out the ballpark in record numbers. I remember vividly the summer of 1998 when Sammy Sosa and Mark Mcwire were going back and forth trying to break Roger Maris record of most home runs in a season. For the record, Mcgwire finished with 70 to Sosa's 66. I remember in 2001 when Bonds hit 73 o f them! (Number 70 was against my beloved Astros in their ballpark, then Enron Field) Nobody seemed to question where those guys where getting their power from. Fans were loving it. Owners, I'm sure, were loving it. Heck, even I was amazed. At the time I was sure I was witnessing something of historic proportions. Something I could brag about to my kids when they get older. Since then, names of iconic baseball players have been falling out of a hat, one after the other, accused of using steroids: Bonds, Mcgwire, Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Miguel Tejada, Jason Giambi, Andy Pettite, Roger Clemens. To a lesser extent but still damaging to the psyche were the likes of Eric Gagne, Chuck Knoublauch, Paul LoDuca, David Justice, Kevin Brown, David Segui, Mo Vaughn. All of them and more listed in the Mitchell's report will now be known as the poster child of the Steroid Era.

A lot of memories are now marred by this report, and with a former teammate of Bonds, catcher Bobby Estallela, now posed to testify against Bonds with damaging evidence, who knows? Maybe we can finally find some closure to all this. Wouldn't it be nice NOT to hear about steroids on sports radio for a change? But baseball will always survive. I get excited seeing the next wave of steroid-free superstars that are developing into future hall of famers. Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter, Ryan Howard, Dustin Pedroia, Miguel Cabrera. These are the kind of guys that we need to root for. Players who represent the true grit and spirit of the game of baseball. The new generation of baseball players. The New Era.