'Roids & the Mitchell Report, Part 1 (a short essay that may bore you to death)

For the past couple years a senator by the name of George Mitchell has been compiling a list of names of suspected steroids users by interviewing various Major League players, clubhouse attendants, trainers and doctors. That report will be released in about an hour and already there is a bit of an uproar. For the past several years Barry Bonds has been the face of alleged steroid use in baseball. Though I am not a huge fan of his I do believe that he has been a scapegoat for the lax baseball drug policy and a "win at any cost" culture that baseball owners and managers have perpetuated. Barry states that he "did not knowingly take any steroids" but the pictures and contextual evidence indicate otherwise.

Bonds, 1984
Bonds, 2002.

Until today, Barry was the name and face of steroids and his legacy was (and most likely still will be) tarnished with asterisks, rumors, and rampant speculation. However, on the eve of Mitchell's press conference and the announcement of 60-80 names of alleged juicers, the pressure is off Barry for a bit. When I talked to people about the release of the report I said that the one "big name player" that I thought would be included was Roger Clemens. Turns out I was right. Barry Bonds is and has been a jerk to the media, his teammates, and pretty much everyone else he has encountered. He hit a lot of home runs and was an easy target because he was so disliked. Roger Clemens, however, was fairly amiable to the media and was generally liked by other players (except maybe Mike Piazza). However the guy got enormous in his late 30's and in to his 40's and only got better with age.

Roger Clemens, 1983
Roger Clemens & Andy Pettitte, 2005

Clemens will now face similar, if not the same, judgment and criticism that Bonds has endured since 2002. The cloud of steroid use now rests on another superstar, a white pitcher. I don't think that the players should have an asterisk on their statistics or their name revoked from the record books. We are on the tail end (hopefully) of an era where most, if not all, players used some form of enhancement, be it steroids, lasik eye surgery, greenies, et al. Juiced up pitchers were dealing fastballs to loaded up hitters. They were on an evenly uneven playing field and it was fun to watch I suppose. Managers, owners, and fans turned a blind eye. Until now. Even I tried it for a bit (didn't help my baseball skills):

Dan Bowen, 1987.
Dan Bowen, 2007.

People will eventually move on and forget about many of these allegations. All that to say, many of these player's legacies will be tarnished and many will not make it to Cooperstown who otherwise had Hall of Fame careers. At the end of the day I will still be a baseball fan and if Bonds plays for the A's this year I will root for him. The good news is that we can now excuse Clemens for throwing a bat at Piazza. Dude was dealing with 'roid rage. We've all been there. Let's just hope Tate can abstain:

Tate Bowen, 2007.
Tate Bowen, 2029?