Everyone Gets to Make One Big Mistake
The men who saved baseball...and destroyed it by doing so
Everyone gets to make one big mistake. Sammy Sosa made it. So did Mark Mcgwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Manny Ramirez, Eric Gange, Paul Lo Duca, Barry Bonds, Troy Glaus, Jason Giambi, and about 95% of all the other baseball players that have played since 1993. And you know what? I’m over it. So should everyone else. It’s time to move on, to stop dwelling on it. I don’t want to hear anymore cries about how we were lied to in ’98 when Sammy and Mark were supposedly “saving” baseball. You know what, whether they cheated or not…they did save baseball. People don’t remember how screwed this sport really was. We were still feeling the repercussions of a nasty strike in ’94. If you ask most people, they couldn’t tell you what happened from the span of 94 to 98. Because NO ONE CARED! Don’t get me wrong I’m not defending steroids here, I’m just saying let bygones be bygones. We don’t need to hear about how Sammy Sosa did steroids six years ago, or how Arod is one of 200 players to test positive in 02. I just don’t care anymore.
The fact is, you can’t even really call it cheating. It’s more like, leveling the playing field. You want cheating? Go talk to the spitballers, and the scuff throwers, and the bat corkers, that’s cheating. That’s more cheating than steroids is, yet no one ever made a big deal about it, it was just “part of the game”. But when everyone decides they need to step up their workout routine with PEDs it’s cheating. Seriously think about that, everything that was done on the field is part of the game but off the field is cheating? It’s just ridiculous.
The sport of baseball is again on the brink of destruction, and it’s not because of players using PEDs, it’s because of the media blowing it up every time it happens. I can’t possibly be the only person who avoids sportscenter these days because he knows there’s going to be a 20 minute discussion on how bad steroids are. We know they’re bad, most people have always known they’re bad. So is cocaine, so is heroin, hell so is alcohol and cigarettes. And those last two are legal! The point is there are things that are bad for us, and they come across our lives on a daily basis, if someone chooses to do something harmful to them, it’s their choice, and no one is perfect enough to tell someone else how bad they are. Everyone has their vices, media, just remember that, you’re not better than the people you tattle on.
Last thing, I would love to talk to the people who keep leaking this supposedly confidential information. Who are you? What gives you the right to tinker with another man’s world like so? You think you’re doing the world a service, but your really just hurting a lot of people. But I guess everyone gets to make one big mistake…
-Glick
Nick Kim
putcoopsdodgerhaton
Nate Rosenbloom
sportsyente
cglick16
clippers23fan
gliffmann
giroth7
orenkrollzeldin
wleivenberg
CG-
I am mixed about your comments here. And to be honest, I always mix myself up with all the shit I say about steroids and baseball, because I have both formed my own opinions as well as heard great insight from other friends and columnists…but I will try anyway.
Before I begin ranting I do want to share an article that I believe is very pertinent–giving us a different view on baseball and steroids: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090507&sportCat=mlb
I have bitched and moaned about steroids more than Steven A. Smith does about his “New Yooork Knicka-bockas.” I hate them. I hate them because they have contaminated, polluted and corrupted baseball. I can’t look at baseball the same way. Now I have to ask if guys like Pujols is next in line for PED’s? WTF. That is not how baseball should be. I want to be able to enjoy the game and how the players play and not worry about whether a guy’s home runs are tainted. So what really are PED’s? Now I have to wonder…did Cal Ripken Jr. really play in all those games without any form of steroids? Are amphetamines, that were widely available in clubhouses in the 60’s and 70’s, considered steroids because they enhance performance by allowing players to play in a 162-game season? Is Red Bull because it gives you wings? How bout Gatorade? How bout fucking coffee–I mean it does have caffeine right…that’s a drug. Muscle milk? Protein powder…where does the line have to be drawn?!
Now I know I of all people have a tendency to be…dare I say be a bit melodramatic (like I do above). But honestly, you can’t tell me it isn’t disappointing to hear about guys you have idolized your whole life, using something unnatural to enhance their play. Sure, steroids do not make you hit the ball (most likely the hardest thing in all of sports); you still have to have great hand-eye and overall balance and form to be a great hitter. But they sure as hell give you endurance and strength to crank a ball out of the park easier.
Sure, maybe these guys did save baseball. But that save, should have an asterisk. A big *. They didn’t save it purely or organically. And don’t anyone give me this bullshit, “well they took steroids, but you have to work 5x as hard in the gym to see results.” Drop the roids, and work that hard regardless. Get better and hit jacks or throw 95 because you ran more or took more soft toss. It is a piss, poor excuse that people step up their workout routine by taking PEDs–that is bullshit.
I agree with you CG: I should get over it and not be so hung up on it. Let it go and focus on the next generation; the current phenoms: The Longorias, Brauns, Lincecum’s and Mitch Jones’ (jk-but congrats on his first major league hit!). But one of the great aspects and features of sports, is the feeling you get by remembering players, seasons, games and statistics. I mean shit, how many times do we all as dudes, sit around talking about the 4th quarter by Lebron in the Eastern Conference finals against the Pistons a few years back or Kerry Wood’s 20 strikeout game, as a rookie, when he 1-hit the Astros…in 1998.
1998 might have been the coolest MLB season of our generation. When I was younger, I’d collect newspaper stories and put them in a file folder, so that in however many years later- I can read them and admire the players and how it affected that time in my life. 11 years later, when I look back on my folder of an LA Times on September 28, 1998, by Ross Newhan, to see a headline, “70; Leaving His Mark; McGwire Puts Record Into the Stratosphere With Homers 69, 70,”–how am I supposed to feel? Let it be alright? For some reason, I can’t seem to find closure with steroids. These guys made choices to fuck a sport that they were already good at in order to do what–pad their stats? To save baseball? Not a chance. They did it for that extra cash guys. They did it because our generation of sports has officially become firstly the business of sports and secondly the enjoyment of them.
Jay-Z once sang “And no, I ain’t perfect – nobody walkin this earth’s surface is.” Charlie I agree with you here man–everyone has their vices, and I know everyone in the world is on their own form of a MItchell Report. So, yes–once again, today, I will attempt at putting away my boxing gloves when it comes to steroid talk and I will give baseball and its players a “clean” slate. But just remember: to take a substance that these players know in their right mind is illegal and have been told will not only hurt the game’s rep, but their own physical health–well that’s just one big mistake I don’t know that I can get over…
[...] League Baseball came great financial gains for the players, organizations, and the league itself. As described below, the power numbers generated in the steroid era saved Major League Baseball. Bud Selig and [...]
MLB: Sport? Sports Business? Just Business? Corrupt Business? « WEspn said this on June 19, 2009 at 5:15 PM |
So steroids SAVED baseball? Wow! Sounds like a conspiracy initiated by the marketing department to me: “Hey the sport is dying. Let’s get these guys to take drugs that pump them up into monstrous ball destroyers who will break all of the records and draw large crowds.”
Sorry, but they dont get a pass unless the MLB decides to rule that they all get a pass…acknowledge that everyone made a mistake – players, management, media, the league – and then start over again after an amnesty with a strict rule that anyone who gets caught using is out for one year…caught again and banned.
enuf is enuf.
1998 just didnt make sense if you were a fan. How in the world could it be? It had to be fixed…and it was. Poor Roger Maris…fucked over again…this time by a bunch of wanna-be baseball stars.
Manny is coming back! Whoopee. Be careful what you wish for. Giants, with a great staff, is lurking; Rockies, which some mountain magic, is always trouble. Dodgers better not think they have it all just become manroid is back in town. Could be a good September for baseball.
Interesting post.