The Steroid Era

Today Manny Ramirez, arguably baseball's best home-run hitter of the last few years, was suspended for 50 games for violating

MLB's substance abuse policy. I like Manny but it didn't break my heart to see him punished. He broke the rules plain and simple but the punishment goes much farther than just missing 50 games. Rameriz will now be grouped with living legends such as Clemens, Bonds and ARod who have all been accused of cheating with steroids in the past three years. This accusation brings with it a lifetime of negative speculation and almost no chance at the Hall of Fame.
Although extremely selfish,we are finding out that taking steroids over the last 15 years was just something that everyone of prominence did. They didn't have to, but they had to be exceptional. There are so many arguments out there that are against the use of performance enhancing drugs... but couldn't you argue that it has helped the game just as much it has hurt it? I know I may be in the vast minority here but hear me out.

In 1993, 70 million fans came out to ballparks contributing to the highest attended year in the sport's 120 year history.
But, the 1994 strike shortened season severed baseball from its fan base. The 1995 attendance numbers were down a record 20 percent to just 50 million; it's lowest total since 1986. Baseball was in trouble and desperately needed a hero to save our national
pastime. The first was Cal Ripken Jr. and his pursuit of Lou Gerhig's consecutive games played streak. During Ripken's magical run, the fan base slowly returned to a respectable 60 million in 1996.
Home-runs had steadily been on the climb since 1992 when there were 3,038 to 2006 when there were 5,386. From 1990-1994 the home-run leader each season was averaging 38 home-runs. From 1995-1999 the average went up by 21 homers to 59 per season. Those are some amazing stats.

June of 1998 was baseball's biggest chance to regain its popularity. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa stole the hearts and minds of sports fans across the world by putting on a nightly home-run spectacle.
An all-time attendance record was set that year at 70,601,147.
Sosa hit a record 20 homers in June giving him 33; just four behind McGwire's 37. The nation watched as on August 19 Sosa overtook Big Mac as he hit #48 of the year. Not to be outdone McGwire retook the home-run lead later that night when he hit his 48th and 49th long balls of the year. McGwire would hit 23 homers over his last 39 games and average a home-run once every 10.61 at-bats in 1998.
Over the next three weeks the two sluggers would garner more attention than any other duo before them. They traded leads back and forth but McGwire would ultimately win out hitting his 62nd home-run against the Cubs in St. Louis on September 8,1998. Over 20 million viewers tuned in to watch the historic record fall- nearly five times their average audience. I would say then and there baseball was back.


Over the following years, attendance and ratings for would continue to climb as we watched Barry Bonds break McGwire's home-run record as he hit 73 long balls in 2001.
But now we look at these players who revived our greatest pastime as criminals because they have been linked to steroids.
My question is where were these tests in 1998 or 2001 when the entire sporting world was on there doorstep?

The answer is simple. MLB turned a blind eye to this issue because they needed these icons to succeed. Just as we as fans wanted them to conquer those records because it was magical.
The fact is; I don't care if players take performance enhancing drugs to hit the ball farther because they know the risks. Who doesn't love home-runs? I know I do.
I don't care if Barry Bonds takes steroids to hit the ball 500 feet because it's entertaining and that's the most important thing to me. It sounds selfish but it's true. There are fans just like me everywhere. I know that steroids are dangerous but these are grown men making a decision that could negatively effect their lives. But that's not my problem. Baseball is game centered around numbers and records. And that's exactly what baseball traditionalists are worried about- records. They don't really care about these players; they care about marketing. I don't blame them because everybody wants to believe in something magical. Remember using this stuff was not banned it was simply frowned upon in 1998. So you could say that these guys did nothing wrong. But let me ask you this. If the players in the 1990's used performance enhancing drugs to get a leg up on the competition, don't you think players such as Ruth, Mays and Aaron would have taken them too? Just as people say if Jack Nicklaus would have had the club technology that Tiger Woods has today he would have won 25 majors. It may be true but we'll never know.
Bottom-line, sports is entertainment so let them entertain. We shouldn't be blaming these players from the past 15 years for the current state of baseball because without them who knows where the game would be today.