Baseball Superstar Tests Positive for Performance Enhancers; What’s MLB’s Role In Steriod Era?

By Javi

Wow! Was the first word I uttered when I heard SportsCenter report that Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games for testing positive for a performance enhancement drug.

‘Damn’ was the next one, because I’ve always been a huge fan of the Washington Heights born slugger and always thought he played clean. Unfortunately, I was naïve – how silly I was to think that any player smacking 30-plus homeruns a year deep into their 30s in the decade after the last MLB strike.

Truth is that after the last players’ strike in 1994, professional baseball was in dire straits to reinvigorate its fan base, which were sick and tired of the work stoppages and weren’t exactly rushing back to stadiums. All of a sudden there were new stadiums going up with the outfield fences in closer, making it more conducive to the home run ball.

Shit, experts even theorized that baseballs were being strung tighter, therefore, resulting in the dramatic increase in the long ball. It wasn’t until an Associated Press reporter noticed a bottle of Andorstenedione in Mark McGwire’s locker that anyone began to question steroid’s potential impact on the game.

Truth is Major League Baseball executives had to had known that even with the smaller fields and expansion, it was unnatural for older player to continue growing in mass and hit more homers later into their careers than they had earlier on. In my estimate team and league officials are complacent in the whole “steroid era” that is ruining historical records like Roger Maris’ single season homerun record and Hank Aaron’s all-time homerun record.

In the larger scope, Congress should be subpoenaing more trainers, managers and front office executives about their role in the whole fiasco because they purposely turned a blind eye to Barry Bonds increasingly growing neck and head. However, the chances of that happening are little, if at all, because at the end of the day Major League Baseball is a multi-billion dollar business that generates tons of monies for the government.

Instead Uncle Sam will handle it the way it handles every other quagmire, they’ll blame it all on the petty users and punish them with jail time while the big willies at the top skate free without being held accountable – it’s America’s pastime.