Releasing complete steroids list makes sense
Kevin Bonneville
Despite another great year on the baseball diamond, the talk is not about the play on the field, but rather the steroid talk off of it.During late July, the New York Times reported that both Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, the two best players on the championship Red Sox clubs of 2004 and 2007, tested positive for performance enhancing drugs during the 2003 season.
The two testing positive left those two magical championships tainted in the eyes of many, myself being included.
Ramirez’s test didn’t come as a surprise. He had just gotten off a 50-game suspension in the beginning of July for testing positive for a substance that helps players get off of a steroids cycle.
Ortiz’s test was a surprise to many in the Red Sox Nation.
Ortiz has since came out to say that he bought and took over- the counter supplements during that season, but never any performance enhancers.
According to some doctors, it is possible that the supplements could have been laced with something that would have triggered a positive test.
However, can we really believe what Ortiz and many of these players are saying?
For the most part, many of these players are remaining adamant in saying that they are clean and never cheated even though evidence proves otherwise.
The players who have admitted to using PED’s, such as Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte, all current or former Yankees remind you, are looked upon more favorably because they admitted to what they did and what exactly they took.
For a guy like Rodriguez, who is arguably the best player of his generation, speaking openly about the situation will do him wonders with the Hall of Fame voters.
Guys like Ramirez, Ortiz, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Roger Clemens who have the complete opposite, not so much.
Except for maybe Clemens, none of these guys will have a shot at Cooperstown, despite putting up some of the games greatest numbers, unless they begin to talk.
There are still many great players who have the cloud of suspension over them because their name has yet to come out on the 2003 list.
The games greatest player, Albert Pujols, is the main one that comes to mind.
Many in the media and baseball fans alike are asking for the complete list of players from that year to be released, but it isn’t that simple. Legally, Major League Baseball can’t do it.
The result of releasing the names would result in several lawsuits and offer more bad publicity to the league that has had its fair share over the past decade.
However, it is getting tiresome to see Bud Selig and members of the league’s Player Association protecting the guys who cheated the game, but not those who didn’t.
Don’t the guys who played the game the right way without cheating deserve the cloud of suspension to be lifted from their heads? I’m sure Pujols feels that way.
For years, Selig, players, owners, the Players Association and even fans have turned their eyes away from the clear signs that players were getting bigger and stronger while hitting home runs out of the park, at a pace like never seen before; but it’s time for everyone to change course.
It is time to release the list, whether there’s 104, 96 or 83 guys on it.
Myself, as well as many other fans are getting frustrated by seeing a big name coming out every three months on who cheated, and we don’t even know what substance they tested positive for.
Why not release the names as well as what they tested positive for all at once so we can begin to move on from the darkest era in baseball history? It only makes sense.
If that time does come, let’s just hope for the sake of the game that Pujols isn’t on the list.
A positive test for the games greatest player and possibly its kindest person could devastate baseball for years.
