The Baltimore Sun asks how fans will judge the player's names, that will emerge from the Mitchell probe of MLB steroid/PED use? The Sun feels Mitchell will eventually release the names of steroid using players.
Many major leaguers are squirming like fish on a hot dock, having learned that Kirk Radomski, the ex-New York Mets clubhouse attendant who admitted selling steroids to ballplayers over a 10-year period, has implicated them all to the Mitchell investigation. It won't be long: One way or another, the names will be made public and the culture of the syringe will finally be exposed for its sleazy ethos.
The obvious question, of course, is what commissioner Bud Selig intends to do with the guilty players. Baseball's image has already suffered, and the commissioner walks a fine line between punishment and outright destruction of the game. A more poignant question, however, is what the public will do with these revelations.
It's one thing to bash Barry Bonds, a despicable man who clearly cheated his way to the all-time home run record. But what happens when you find out your favorite player is on Radomski's list? Then what?
The Sun assumes that offending player's names will be released, something no one in the MLB front office ever assured the press or fans would happen. Would the MLB Player's Union allow their member's names besmirched? Will Commissioner Selig react harshly against users (we doubt it):
If there's a groundswell of revulsion, Selig will have no choice but to someday affix an asterisk upon the entire world of cheaters. Just call the 15-year window the steroid era, not unlike the dead ball era of the early 20th century. No need to remove or reverse anyone's records. Simply let it be known, by official decree, they were set against a backdrop of rampant cheating.
Metboy Kirk Radomski's testimony, done to save his skin from a lengthy prison sentence, appears to the be the linchpin in all this:
We might well discover that every major milestone in a 15-year window has been soiled -- or just plain spoiled -- by players who were artificially strengthened by steroids. Not just personal achievements, but entire pennant races won and lost because certain teams had more steroid users than the others. We could find out that "stand-up" players who've been honest and forthright about everything else, taking responsibility for the errors they've made or the home runs they've surrendered, were hiding a darker truth: They were cheating you, the public, all along.
If Radomski has given an accurate account of who's who and what's what in the steroid world, we're all in for a lousy September. According to SI.com, people are going to be "very surprised" by how much information Mitchell has gleaned. The former Mets employee is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to distributing steroids, and recently met with Mitchell to repeat to baseball's chief investigator what he told the feds.
(more after the jump)
If indeed names are published, and if Radomski emerges as the major pipeline to MLB PED use, then how will the public react? More:
But the game's popularity has been based on its honesty and integrity. Until now, the steroids fallout has been confined to a few, convenient targets. Every once in a while you hear about some idiot in the minor leagues who's been caught, but the mainstream major leaguer appears clean. But that's about to change.
If there's a groundswell of revulsion, Selig will have no choice but to someday affix an asterisk upon the entire world of cheaters. Just call the 15-year window the steroid era, not unlike the dead ball era of the early 20th century. No need to remove or reverse anyone's records. Simply let it be known, by official decree, they were set against a backdrop of rampant cheating.
The revolution begins now: We're about to hear about the scores of baseball cheaters, the ones who couldn't resist the shortcut to bigger home run muscles, faster home-to-first times, improved radar gun readings. The juice turned good hitters into very good ones, allowed power hitters to become monsters. A former major leaguer once told me he took steroids a decade ago because, aside from the obvious strength enhancement, they allowed him to see the ball better.
We would suspect MLB fans can come to terms with steroid users, just as fans accept the sins of the game in the past: segregation, cheating, Pete Rose. However it is time to clean up MLB, then move on to cleaner records.
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