The time has come to forgive the baseball players who used drugs and were banned from baseball and its Hall of Fame…
Some of the biggest names from the 80’s into today’s game have been kept out.
They include Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco and Alex Rodriguez to name a few. However the punishment has varied from player to player . There were long suspensions and loss of pay for some like Rodriguez, and all are not being allowed into baseball’s Hall Of Fame – not yet, anyway.
Yesterday it was announced that Jose Canseco would be a broadcaster for Fox and the Oakland A’s. Mark McGwire has been with the St. Louis Cards as a coach and Alex Rodriguez was allowed to come back to the Yankees and finish his career with a nice payday.
It’s also clear that Roger Clemens was baseball’s best pitcher during his era, yet he is not being allowed into the Hall owing to steroid use.
The problem is clear, over the many years since all the noise about steroids, it’s been discovered as many as 50% of all players used some type of illegal drugs to enhance their strength and ability to keep playing the game. Most were not caught or punished and perhaps several players who used are in the Hall today.
While use of steroids was a monster, and we saw home run hitters going over 70 a season with many others hitting 50 and 60, for some reason or other NFL players were somewhat overlooked on the issue.
Yes, a few had some suspensions but nobody is being kept out of the NFL Hall of Fame. As far as we know.
And how about the NBA? The PGA?
Today, it appears that steroid use in MLB is way down, with no more 60 plus home run hitters. In fact if somebody hits 40 plus they’re likely to be the home run leader for the season in any league.
Now baseball has forgiven players like Canseco and McGwire, rewarding them with jobs after their playing days have ended.
Haven’t they been punished enough?
I believe they have and keeping players like Roger Clemens out seems unfair.
Of course, there’s always the Pete Rose argument about his betting on his own team to win games in Las Vegas and beyond!
How about Pete? Isn’t it time to move on?
I believe it is, what say you.
The NFL punishes players too. Terrell Owens comes to mind. Chris Carter, Ken Stabler and Paul Hornung having to wait so long, comes to mind. And of course Alex Karras is still being punished from his grave because of his gambling and financial interest in Lindell AC Bar in 1963.
People have made arguments saying the reason why Lyle Alzado isn’t in the HOF isn’t because he wasn’t a great player. No it’s because he told the truth about the NFL’s roid problem before he died. Kind of like Jose Canseco.
Go Glazer, MLB isn’t the only sport to punish it’s players from the HOF.
Any personal stories experimenting with HGH or Steroids?
You mean like from Craig?
“Haven’t they been punished enough? What say you”
– no way, Jose*… ditto all the rest, CG. ‘Punished?’ ‘Enough?’ Reaping benefits their cheating: ill-gotten reward$, illegitimate accolades given for tainted records stolen in lieu earned, bold-faced lying Bonds*, Sosa*, Clemens* and McGwire*, as well finger-wagging ‘have no shame’ incredulity a Palmiero*… he looked to have studied another phony of renown, William Jefferson ‘Bill’ Clinton (can’t forget hildy-beast, too.)
Hey, who cares about a little druggin (aforementioned players), gamblin (Rose*) and cheatin, otherwise? Just win, baby. Well past the days ‘Jack Armstrong All-American Boy’, find ourselves but left the aforementioned, likes same a Lance ‘The Gold Medal Standard Bearer for Cheating Extraordinaire’ Armstrong. So this the legacy wrought, century 21. Once upon a time, sports was an escape from reality… today, mimics said.
‘Everybody was doing it’? No, they weren’t… even had they been, would not have made it any less wrong. Kerouac doesn’t care how much ‘times change’ – integrity never goes out of style. If a person’s ‘word’ isn’t good today, wasn’t good yesteryear nor will it ever be good… just hollow words. Can’t trust an athlete, a politician, a spouse? No problem.
Nod EM Cioran: as the flesh, the lack of integrity “spreads, further and further, like a horrible gangrene upon the surface of the globe. It cannot impose limits upon itself, it continues to be rife despite its rebuffs, it takes its defeats for conquests, it has never learned anything.”
If cheating were analogous girl-watching, this analogy: ‘every time you say to yourself ‘there goes the prettiest girl in the world’, along comes another even prettier’; Kerouac prefers watching girls to suffering cheaters, sports or otherwise.
Not about being a saint: Mickey Mantle wasn’t hindsight, Charles Barkley pleaded he wasn’t a role model. Who or what then, emulate? Anyone? Anything? No standards at all? Everything goes? Athletes, musicians, preachers, teachers, police officers, parents as assorted and sordid others humanity every corner the earth no road map integrity –
God, help us?
Vince Lombardi – Catholic and Saint the gridiron, minimum – is remembered for this quote:
“Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well that we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But, we’re going to relentlessly chase it because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good”… if only that same attitude/effort applied integrity, including athletics.
🙂
Some of the best words I have seen printed on this site I do believe. But sadly Kerouac you know as I do that common sense has never been the most pushed agenda around here.
To answer your question, yes I used HGH and testosterone for several years to improve my workouts and stay in good shape. They are legal and were given out by a doctor here in KC. I wasn’t a pro athlete so it didn’t matter. As I’m sure you know when a doctor gives it out, its totally legal and used by many thousands of men nationwide.
I hated Pete Rose as a player but mostly because he wasn’t a Royal. For years I was hoping he made it in the Hall of Fame because he earned it on the field but the last few years he has done everything he could to stick a thumb in baseball’s eye. Watching him during the World Series last year was extremely hard…the guy is really an idiot. Side note: I was playing Black Jack at a $25 dollar table on a cruise a couple of years ago and some hanger on with Jose Canseco came over and ask me if I would leave the table as Jose wanted to play by himself. I told the guy he could play with himself anywhere he wanted but preferably in his cabin. Canseco was glaring at me and I waved hello. Bigger asshole than George Brett if that’s possible.
Hah, I shared a suite with him downtown KC when he was playing here years ago…he was in one room I had the other side…just per chance…he got into it with his girl and oh boy…so I hear what you are saying…