Just Say No

I have pretty strong opinions on things involving baseball. I hate steroid use. I hate people who use steroids and destroy the integrity of the game. And yes, when you take steroids, you're destroying the games' integrity. A fundamental part of baseball is the comparison of current players' stats to the statistics of former players. So, for example, when Barry Bonds chose to shoot his butt full of performance enhancing drugs and became the League's Home Run King over a player with uncompromising integrity, he tainted baseball. When A-Fraud chose to pump his system full of the same steroids because he was "under a lot of pressure" he broke the trust of the people (like me) who were rooting for him to break Barry's record so that it could be proven that you didn't have to be juiced to be successful.

For the life of me, I don't understand why Major League Baseball didn't put a stop to this sooner. This is the same organization that clung so tightly to the legend of Babe Ruth that they chose to place an asterisk next to Roger Maris' record of 61 home runs in a single season (another record that has been broken thanks to the use of steroids).

Unlike a lot of fans, I don't forgive athletes who apologize for using steroids. I don't think admitting to it is a sign of strength or humility, and I don't like what it does to the game. I have a little boy who is in love with baseball, and he's only 23 months old. What does it say to him that to be successful you need to pump your body full of unnatural substances? What does it say that money is so important that you need to taint a game that you love, and a game full of absolutely amazing players, to be the best? Steroids disgust me.

On a lighter note, I've decided that I'm going to teach Wyatt that drug use of any kind is not acceptable at an early age. I figure a good starting point is to make A-Fraud a joke, not a hero. I'm taking his Rodriguez shirt out of commission and we're using it as a dusting rag.

He can wear his Jeter shirt as much as he wants, but he will NEVER (even if A-Fraud hits a walk off home run in the World Series, which is unlikely to happen since he does nothing but choke in the post season) wear an A-Fraud jersey again. I won't let him be a hero to my kid. I'd rather put a Youkilis jersey on him.