As an avid Giants fan, I was thoroughly disappointed when Barry Bonds’ grand jury testimony leaked, and it was revealed he admitted to “unknowingly” taking the “cream” and the “clear.” Barry Bonds had been steadily marching his way through baseball’s recordbooks, passing the game’s past greats as if they were standing still before hitting a wall himself. The game’s most intimidating presence finally had a chink in his armor, and this time he could not lean back in his clubhouse recliner and keep it to himself. His quiet, standoffish demeanor was of no use to him anymore. His story was out, and so began the cleanup, or rather the takedown, of the game.
Accusations began swirling throughout the sports world. Starting with revelations by Ken Caminiti and Jose Canseco, people finally began to take notice of a problem that had been plaguing America’s pastime since the 1980s. The ball wasn’t juiced; the players were.
Now I can only sit back, watch, wait and applaud as Mark McGwire, Bud Selig and others descend upon Capitol Hill today to speak of something which has been kept secret for too long. The steroid controversy started out as a little pain in the side of baseball and eventually grew into a benign tumor. Everyone turned a blind eye as long as baseball’s popularity skyrocketed, especially after the strike of 1994, and the owners kept filling their pockets. Eventually that tumor turned malignant, and the steroid revolution drove players’ salaries too high for owners to sit back idly and watch.
Now, the best solution for cleaning up the game that has taken so many “hits” has arrived. Random and unannounced testing is all gravy, but revealing the facts to the court of public opinion is the true answer to the problem. With the breaking of basball’s “unwritten code” of secrecy and the emergence of so many dirty secrets about the game, fans are undoubtedly going to take everything that happens on the field from now on with a grain of salt.
I can only applaud Major League Baseball for finally stepping up to the plate and realizing that the problem they helped create needs to be dealt with, not internally, but publicly. Submitting 400 pages of documents and appearing before Congress isn’t the first step, or the last, but it is immensely important. It’s going to seem like another episode of As the World Turns when McGwire and Canseco take their seats next to each other today, and Jose speaks of his bathroom stall exploits with his former bash brother by his side. Somehow, though, I doubt there will be any “forearm fives” between Big Mac and the “Godfather.”
Testing will never be 100 percent follproof. There will always be some new BALCO concoction that cannot be detected by a simple urine or blood test. It is unfortunate, but for this reason it is good that a cloud of suspicion hangs over the game at the present moment. In our society, what others think of you is the biggest determinant of your actions. Baseball players are no different from normal people, and the ‘roid problem can be eliminated as long as people lose their ignorance, blindness and apathy to the issue.
