The Juice Ball Era

Last week the Mitchell Report concerning the use steroids and Human Growth Hormone was released and much of the sports world has gone into the vapours concerning the allegations.

It was a given that Barry Bonds was a juicer. and that Mark McGuire was pumping the stuff. But when it was charged that Roger Clemens, Andy Petitt and Eric Gange had been using either steroids or HGH many of the sports writer were "shocked, shocked," while the remainder claimed to know that such nonsense had been going on for many years. In either case, the sports writers have proven themselves to be craven in either claiming not to know while actually knowing, or knowing and not reporting because they didn't want to burn their sources.
Whatever the case, baseball has been regarded the sacramental sport in the United States. Certain eggheads have even claimed that in order to understand the United States one must understand baseball. But, of course, that was said before so many players were recruited from the Caribbean. But there is a certain mythic quality to baseball that must at least we must pretend to exist -- the late spring afternoon played in a newly mown field by farmers' strapping sons or hardscrabble coal miners' sons making the professional league because of their strength and talent.

The great game, unfortunately, has long gone beyond those myths (not unlike the old Playboy myth that the centerfold is a graduate philosophy student at Oxford who poses nude in front of a camera just for the hell of it). But one finds oneself hoping that the players will at least play without the help of steroids and HGH in the same way that a young man hopes that the figure of a Playboy center fold is natural and not the result of implants or air brushing.

The difference, of course, is that baseball has always held itself to be a reflection of truth, justice and the American way. Playboy has held it's photographic endeavors as representations of "the girl next door", which is great unless it is your daughter who is the girl next door.

But to get back to cases, there are men in baseball who have used steroids or HGH. Some of them have been named. Major League Baseball has not condemned them. The owners have not condemned them. The players union has not disowned them. No player who has been named has had a Marion Jones moment. And those players who have admitted to using HGH (never steroids) have claimed that they only used HGH to recover from an injury (ask yourself this question: have any of your co-workers been prescribe HGH to recover from an industrial injury? Your co-worker lost more, percentage-wise and in real terms, more money than the recovering baseball player, as did your co-workers' employer due to his absence).

The juicers have tainted baseball, the Great Game. And as much as the protest that they haven't been goosed by a hypodermic needle, they have wrecked the image of the game. Let's face it. Politicians are expected to be rotten, cheats and corrupt. We, the populace have no choice but to pay them through our taxes. But the pay of ball players is based on our disposable income. We have, in theory, control of the game, and we have been led to believe that the game is clean. There may be drunks or womanizers or just plain jerks, but on the field we expect every player to play without performance enhancing drugs. Is it not a strange thing that Babe Ruth, a known souse, knocked in so many run runs, while Barry Bonds had to surpass his record while using steroids. Hank Aaron managed to break the record on his own talent.

Many years ago Brett Butler of the Los Angeles Dodgers was sidelined by throat cancer. At the time it was assumed that his cancer was caused by the use of chewing tobacco or Copenhagen snuff. The result of Mr. Butler's malady was that the use of chaw or snuff in the major leagues was pretty much ended in favor of the use of sunflower seeds. MLB did not want to be associated with a substance that might (and very rarely might) be associated with cancer. So instead of players perhaps getting cancer from chaw or snuff, they have deigned to use a substance that will more likely give them cancer later in life such as steroids and HGH.They have not learned the lesson of the NFL players, such as Lyle Alzado and John Matuzeck, who, being steroids users, succumbed to cancer at early ages. Chaw and demon rum are benign compared to the wonders or modern chemistry. The chances of a player getting cancer from Red Man or Meyers' Rum are much less than his getting cancer from a Balco product, but since the the effects of chaw or booze ( spitting or stumbling) are not as apparent as steroids. MLB has ignored the use of the Juice because an uneducated fan base expects home runs instead of good in the park ball and homers make money while getting upset over an honest brown stream of tobacco juice spit over home plate that results in no improvement of a player's performance.

Let's face it. Baseball will never be what it was or what we hope it was. There have always been cheaters in baseball and there always will. But we, as fans, can shun or shame the dirty players. Can you imagine what a bunch of fans would do to Roger Clemens by shouting "Juicer!" the ext time he goes on the mound?

Kudos to Curt Schilling, a truly honorable and ball player with heart (remember his World Series victory pitching while bleeding into his sock) who has called out the juicers. If only more players had his sense of honor.