Baseball Stew: Barry Bonds, other cheaters, beware

Nobody likes a cheater— at least nobody should (even though in cities such as San Francisco fans lustily cheered for the exploits of Barry Bonds). But simply put, I detest the entire PED scene and the egocentric cheaters who often contend that they love and respect the game of baseball, but who actually care much more about themselves than the team (focus on team, not individuals) sport once proudly hailed as our national pastime.

Every time I hear of a cheater such as Mark McGwire getting hired in any capacity in organized baseball, I cringe. This is the man who had the temerity to use drugs, and then, after artificially breaking baseball’s coveted record for the most homers in a single season, unabashedly going up into the stands to embrace the family of Roger Maris who had established that record cleanly.

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What nerve it must have taken for him to do that, and for him to accept the praise and congratulations of the Maris family, all the while knowing he had cheated this family out of something precious. Then he still had enough chutzpah left to smilingly face the media and speak of his accomplishment as if it wasn’t performed while cheating. Apparently he was able to delude himself that he deserved the record— either that or he had no sense of shame at all. And he deserves to still be in baseball?

Likewise, last summer, as Luke Meredith of the Associated Press wrote, the Cubs hired Manny Ramirez as a “mentor.” The two-time offender of the rules relating to PEDs became a player-coach for the Chicago Cubs’ Triple-A team in Iowa. When asked what advice he would have for players, he said, “Do the right thing, bro. Follow the rules. That’s it.” This was an apparent case of, “Do as I say, not as I did.”

I also found it ironic that this man with a reputation for being scatterbrained (remember how he felt that as a left fielder, he was supposed to be a cutoff man for his center fielder?), was written about in a headline in this fashion: “Ex-Indians Star Excited to Share His Wisdom With Cubs Prospects.” Frankly, I never expected to see the word “wisdom” used in reference to Ramirez. And, again, this is a man being paid by baseball when he should have been banned for life.

I don’t know about you, but nowadays every time I hear of a player accomplishing some remarkable feat or record, I don’t find myself in awe as I would have been prior to the wave of PED usage. Instead, I find myself asking questions—here’s one as an indicative example, “Could it be that Albert Pujols was able to string together all those consecutive seasons of 100+ runs and ribbies with all those home runs because he, too, cheated?” Before Jack Clark apologized for having made allegations about Pujols using PEDs (and before Pujols dropped his lawsuit against Clark as a result), I leaned toward believing Clark. I still have serious doubts.

Due to how baseball has been so infiltrated by cheaters, I still can’t help wondering about staggering achievements of Pujols and others. That’s how badly, how permanently, baseball has been tarnished in my mind. In fact, the widespread cheating has turned many of us into cynics, skeptics, or perhaps into realists.

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In many cases, we’ll never know if any new records are legitimate or not, and that’s a pity because the doubt which has set in casts an ominous shadow over virtually any player who achieves something incredible. The word “incredible” actually can be chopped up into three parts which basically translate to “not able to be believed,” and that’s what many of the records of men like Bonds are— unbelievable, at least under normal circumstances.

When a record like Babe Ruth’s season record for homers stands for decades then gets broken by a mere one home run (by Maris), that’s understandable. However, when players, mere mortals like a Maris, come along and shatter such long-standing venerable records by a slew of home runs, it’s just not natural. The media and fans alike should have been suspicious once they saw home run fly out of parks frequently and far, as if they were helium-inflated. After all, come on— nobody, nobody hits 70+ home runs. Ruth couldn’t do it. Neither could Hank Aaron or Willie Mays.

Like so many people, I was duped by men such as McGwire, and I don’t want to invest my admiration in current players because I could very well wind up feeling like a fool if I did so again only to learn that a so-called hero was yet another cheater.

The PED scandal has caused the emotions of true baseball fans to run from anger and resentment to sadness. For instance, the roster of great sluggers has become so polluted that the 500-home run club has become bloated with members, all too many of whom are undeserving of membership. Putting the names of men such as Bonds and Sammy Sosa up there with Ruth, Mays, and Aaron is tantamount to committing a mortal baseball sin.

Finally, consider Pete Rose. He is a pariah, out of the game forever, but I think the PED users have put a much uglier, much more injurious stigma on baseball and it’s supposed honesty and integrity than Rose ever did with his gambling issues. For this very reason, if I had baseball autonomy, I would also strip cheaters of any honors and records they set. Take away Ryan Braun’s 2011 MVP and award it to second-place finisher Matt Kemp who was correct in his thinking that he had truly earned that honor— why punish him for being honest? And, of course, strip Bonds of his home runs records. Virtually any expert worth, say, his medical degree or his PhD in baseball history, believes Bonds’ feats of power were as phony as they were enhanced by drugs. How I wish Mountain Landis was around today.

I realize I’m a dreamer and that cheating will continue to take place, but if there’s ever an election for the office of the commissioner of baseball, please keep my name in mind.