Part 2. Baseball...

Before I go on, a disclaimer. I’m not, nor have I ever been, a Giants fan. I think the Giants are a poorly run team. I do not like Barry Bonds, I think he is aloof and arrogant. I bleed Dodger Blue and think the Oakland A’s are the best run team in Baseball. Any of you who really know me understand the above to be true.

In Part 1, we established the successive eras of “competitive advantage” in Baseball. This cumulating with Baseballs focus on home runs after the 1994 lockout. In the book ‘Game of Shadows” the authors identify Barry Bonds’ jealousy of the attention McGwire and Sosa received during their home run chase as his reason for PED use. They use this fact as an indictment of his action, when in reality Baseball created a culture in which PED’s were encouraged. For players (including Bonds) to receive accolades, and sign the most lucrative contract, required using PEDs. Just being a 50/50 guy (50 home runs/50 stolen bases) wasn’t enough, you had to be chasing a record.

Pitching wasn’t immune to PEDs. There are many cases of starting pitchers having their best years in their early 40’s, or relief pitchers run off long strings of saves when they had previously been no more than average. Couple this with 150 lb second basemen hitting 40 home runs a year and it becomes obvious what was going on. If you don’t think this is true ask yourself some questions. Since Baseball started testing for PEDs; ‘What happened to Brett Boone?”, “How many saves has Eric Gagne recorded in the last few years?”, “What happened to Juan Gonzales?”, “Why did Sosa take a year off and then fail on returning?”, “What happened to Kevin Brown?”, “What happened to Giambi’s production?’.

What Baseball, Management and the Union, needs to do is admit their complicity in PEDs and move forward rather then single out individuals, like Bonds, for ridicule. It should contract with an independent, outside agency to provide drug testing to remove any question of impropriety. It should then define 1994 through 2005 as the “PED Era” leaving the players from this time to be judged against their contemporaries. The “PED Era” tag should extend to Hall of Fame plaques, thereby removing the need for Baseball Writers to consider PED’s when evaluating candidates.