So Mark McGuire has come clean. Finally. As if it was a great big surprise. Instead of a collective gasp heard round the world, it was more like a collective "No shit, Sherlock" heard round the world. Really? You were Roiding? Really? Wow. I'm... I'm... stunned.
What bothers me about steriods is not really about the individual numbers of the perpetrators. What bothers me is how it effects everyone else. It isn't just about McGuire and his home runs. It's about all of those pitchers who served up those home runs. How much better would their stats be if baseball had been clean of steriods? It's about all of those minor league players who would've made it up to the big leagues had they not been competing for roster spots with guys who were juiced. It's about guys like Ken Griffey, who will get his due credit eventually, but took a back seat through all those years to names like McGuire, Bonds, and Sosa. Griffey's a clean player, and spent a better part of 1999-2003 on the disabled list because he refused to cheat. How much better would guys like John Kruk, Jay Buhner, and Paul O'Neill have been had they not been hitting against pitchers who were juicing like Roger Clemens and Andy Pettite?
So many questions.
Hall of Fame? Absolutely not. McGuire, Sosa, Bonds, and all the rest should be left out and have asterisks put beside their names in the record books.
