And Yet Pete Rose Can't Be in the Hall of Fame
Steroid Report Names Star Players
Panel: Baseball Union, Commissioner and Owners Share Blame
By Dave Sheinin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 14, 2007; Page A01
NEW YORK, Dec. 13 -- A 21-month investigation into use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball concluded Thursday a culture of secrecy and permissiveness gave rise to a "steroids era" in the game that included some of its biggest names, most prominent among them superstar pitcher Roger Clemens.
The long-awaited report by George J. Mitchell gave a detailed account provided by a onetime team trainer who told the panel that he injected Clemens -- a seven-time Cy Young Award winner regarded as the greatest pitcher of the last half-century -- with steroids and human growth hormone while he was with the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. Clemens was one of 91 players named in the report, a list that included 33 all-stars, 10 most valuable players, and two Cy Young winners.
_____________________________________________________________
I don't personally care what sports figures are 'on' when they compete--mostly because it's such a slippery slope of testing inaccuracy and altogether too much a game of 'gotcha.'
One still has to slide into 2nd ahead of the tag, hit a 98mph fastball or throw a perfect sinker that just catches the outside of the plate. Win the Tour de France on something? Yeah--why not?
Because of the 'integrity' of sports? Give me a break. $250 million for A-Rod and you're going to preach to me about integrity?
"Selig repeated previous assertions that baseball leaders did all they could do to fight the steroid problem," except of course to set down their major stars like Clemens. Baseball 'leaders' have taken the sport to fraudulently financed mega-stadiums, impossible salaries and ticket prices that keep a dad from taking his kid to see a game.
There are no 'leaders' in major-league baseball--just co-conspirators.
And, in the face of all this dancing around the issues, Pete Rose--one of the game's most outstanding players--is kept out of the Hall of Fame. Because he bet on his team to win.
The likes of Bud Selig and George Steinbrenner have put the entire game on steroids, financial steroids. In the process they've taken away from the fans one of America's (formerly) greatest sports.