Steroids. Now What?

Did you hear? Steroids were and may still be a huge part of Major League Baseball. Shocking I know. After the admission by Alex Rodriguez, I think it’s safe

Did you hear? Steroids were and may still be a huge part of Major League Baseball. Shocking I know. 

After the admission by Alex Rodriguez, I think it’s safe to say, no one is safe and everyone, like it or not falls under the umbrella of suspicion of using steroids. 

That being said, it was a welcome consolation to actually hear Mr. Rodruguez say that he had in fact used the banned substance and he takes credit for his mistakes. 

But now what? It’s not like we haven’t known for some time the widespread use in the game, or that several players have tested positive or that probably even more are lying or not telling the truth about their use. So what can MLB do? What legal implications lie ahead? And should we even care?

Legally, it seems nothing will be done. The problems of Barry Bonds’, Roger Clemens’ and now Miguel Tejada stem not from their use, but rather of them potentially lying about it in under oath.

Those who have already been identified as users and admitted to their mistakes have seemingly avoided all threats of legal action. And to take it one step further they have already avoided the convictions from the all important court of public opinion. Any fan would love to have the likes of Petite or Rodriguez or even Giambi if they could help their team this year. 

Statistically, baseball will not in all likelihood make the accomplishments of those who have been found to use steroids during their playing careers null and void.

While it might makes sense to possibly disbar their statistical achievements or put an asterisk by their names, it’s much more complicated than that.

In order to do this, MLB would have to release every single player who has ever tested positive or a banned substance, steroids or HGH. Guess what? That will never happen.

They have tried to be so tight lipped about this whole situation, full disclosure seems more far stretched than steroids just being an isolated incident. 

So here’s what we know. It doesn’t appear that legal action will be taken by those who used. And it doesn’t appear that MLB will take any action in the forms of punishment or statistically because their lack of transparency throughout this who era would become blatantly obvious. 

What this means for fans is that you probably will not ever notice the effect steroids have had on the game. Sure we’ll reference it, know some of the players that did it, and guess even more of the players we think did it; but will we ever really know?

From here on out, it’s my guess we’ll hear about hundreds of players who tested positive during the “steroid era". If you are expecting much after that; don’t. 

Whether we like it or not, we were all fooled by the steroid era. As the big boppers were knocking out home runs we praised them. As our teams won because of it we, cheered them. And as fans filled the seats they, once vacated after the lockouts, owners were happy. So rather than stop players from reaching new levels, fans cheering again, and owners putting money in their pockets, Major League Baseball did nothing. And by doing nothing again, they will get away from their negligence. 

 

Click here to say where  you see the steroid era going next?