Barry Bonds Home Run #756

 

Where is the Fun?

  Epidemic is what I would call it. The sport of baseball has been watered down for quite some time now. It has only recently found new legs with the young new stars of the sport. Prior to that though was what was considered the steroid era. It was a time when baseballs routinely left the yard and mortal men could wield lightning bolts in their hands. One can never say never, but it’s hard to believe that there is any chance of 762* being broken or even 73* being broken (the record for career and single season home runs respectively, both Barry Bonds records). His spot in the hall of fame should be a certainty, not the question that the baseball writers of today try to make it out to be. It is a travesty to the longest running, oldest sport in our nation's history that two major statistics are attributed to a man that many see as a pariah and someone unfit for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. These people are dead wrong. All that needs to be looked at is the rapid rate by which people cheated in years gone by. In a recent "Thirty for Thirty" titled Doc and Darryl, Darryl Strawberry, the Mets all-time home run leader admitted to using amphetamines to enhance his ability to hit the ball. From this, it is safe to assume that many other athletes from that era were also users. He stated "There was a bowl at the end of the dugout" and that he would take them as if they were "M&Ms".

     The Hall of Fame is not without fault. IT has let these people with suspected asterisks next to their name just waltz on through the door like their proverbial "you know what don't stink". This is an obstruction of justice. Many of the people that hold the records in baseball such as some of the career home run leaders or the single season home run leaders are of ill repute but deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. You can take as many steroids as you want, but if you can’t use your skill to hit the ball it doesn't help you. Barry Bonds was also a great base-stealer, but because of the steroid stigma no one will see that other side to him that was there before the steroid tag was placed.

     Barry Bonds isn't the only man with an asterisk attached, there have been plenty of these abusers of the rules in baseball and the alarming thing about it, is that it has been so easy to get away with. A league that didn't institute real testing for steroids and other substances that other leagues; such as the NFL and NBA had already banned. What did they expect was going to happen? You have people whose livelihood is baseball and all they need to do to get better at it is just use steroids. Does anyone really blame them for taking the opportunity? If a situation arose where the baseball writers, that decide the fate of these prospective Hall of Famers, had the opportunity to take a substance or to use any unauthorized means to gain a competitive edge over their competition, how would they say no? The greater than thou complex is alive and well in this situation because these writers couldn't possibly understand the position that a steroid using baseball player might have been in.

Batolo Colon Defensive Juggernaut

Bartolo Colon Silver Slugger

     You still have to hit the ball. This all comes back to that idea that you still have to throw or hit the ball to be good at the sport. These mechanics aren't aided by performance enhancing drugs. There is no drug that causes your pitching motion to become that of Bartolo Colon or your swing to become that of Bartolo Colon or your defensive ability to become that of Bartolo Colon (I think I have a problem, also to clarify the Bartolo love, he is a known steroid user). These things still take immense practice and should still be rewarded, not taken for granted. These things take god given and worked for kind of talent. No syringe could afford these people their respective abilities only aid the things you can't see. 

Bartolo Colon CY Young Award Winner

     So why am I giving a history lesson in baseball and substance abuse? Because i want it to be LEGAL. Players should be allowed to do whatever they want to get a competitive edge. Bryce Harper made a statement earlier this year that coincided with Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again". He said "Make Baseball Fun Again". It took me a while to understand that concept and there are many different ways that a person could understand it, it's very complex. I saw it as let the players play and let them be free. "According to Nielsen ratings, 50 percent of baseball viewers are 55 or older, up from 41 percent 10 years ago. ESPN, which airs baseball, football and basketball games, says its data show the average age of baseball viewers rising well above that of other sports: 53 for baseball, 47 for the NFL (also rising fast) and 37 for the NBA, which has kept its audience age flat". That is alarming and the only way i believe that it is salvageable is that we take away the drug testing (on performance enhancing drugs, for some reason they still don't test for cocaine) and make baseball fun again. Through this we can justify the baseball players like Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez getting into the Hall of Fame. These guys need to be included and baseball would benefit greatly from the change. 

(All .gifs were found here )