Steroid Era in Baseball

I guess I expected some of our heroes would have attained some of their greatness with the help of steroids, but I am still saddened to hear the report exposing evidence that Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Eric Gagne, Paul LoDuca, among many others used performance-enhancing drugs.

Is this evidence enough to confirm their usage beyond a reasonable doubt? Is there any chance these guys may still be innocent?

Is any of these allegations simply the result of angry and/or direputable people? So many people say things which aren’t true out of jealousy or anger or vengeance. For example, where did the other list which named Albert Pujols, Jason Varitek, Nomar, among others that circulated come from?

Perhaps there should be no asterisks on these records because people taking steroids were playing against people taking steroids. I would imagine it was harder for Barry Bonds to hit home runs off Kevin Brown since they were both on the juice. I think we all knew this was going on as our favorite players started looking more and more like Hulk Hogan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage.

Certainly I am disappointed at the players who chose to cheat to get ahead and to extend their careers, but I am really frustrated with the players’ union and MLB too. How can we be upset with players who were taking supplements which weren’t forbidden at the time? Even now, apparently “the World Anti-Doping Agency lists 60 stimulants as banned substances, only half of which are recognized by Major League Baseball.”

I sure hope MLB can get its act together before all the players start looking like this poor guy.