It's the average guy, not the record book, being cheated by sports dope

Barry Bonds is sure to pass the Babe on Major League Baseball’s homerun list sooner or later this year. Good. When he does, we probably won’t hear from him again until he approaches Hank Aaron’s record or he retires. There are a bunch of reasons not to like Barry Bonds. Chief among them for many baseball mavens is the fact that they believe he is a doped up cheater.

Well that is only recently the case. Major League Baseball, until recently, had no steroids policy. So Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa et al could make runs at Aaron, Ruth and Maris with the help of andro and other now banned substances. The only penalty in MLB for steroid use was the long term affects such drugs will have on their bodies - ask McGuire.

I’m of two minds on this issue. If a professional athlete wants to destroy himself chasing uncertain short-term gains with the near certainty of long-term deteriorating health, that’s his choice. I could care less about all of the purity of the game crap. The game is not pure – designated hitters, mound changes, inter-league play, juiced balls before juiced players, mindless league expansion diluting the talent pool, legal sports medicine, equipment changes and training have combined to make today’s baseball unrecognizable from Aaron’s, Ruth’s and Maris’ baseball. Some call it progress.

Bonds, McGuire and Sosa were/are great players without the dope. The dope makes their run on the record books possible. Who cares? Of more concern to me are the average players - a couple of .250 - .280, 15 - 20 homers a year guys. One decides to juice up goes from .250 to .300 and from 15-20 homers to 30-35 homers. What’s the other guy to do? Well it’s professional sports and we pay to see the best being the best they can be. So the professional player can decide on his own.

Now, take the same scenario down to the college and even high school level. Amateur sport has got to have a zero tolerance on drugs. But big money in college sports makes the urge to cheat nearly irresistible. College scholarships, fame and the lure of a professional contract puts the pressure on the kids even at the high school level. It’s another fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into.

Gifted players will always have a spot on the team. It’s the average guys getting screwed by all this drug business. Guys who would have made the team and played a bit don’t anymore because some other guy willing to wreck his body cheats and gets the spot. And that’s a shame.