The sordid details of his steroid use with the Texas Rangers have been well documented, and the public scrutiny has been expanded to include ESPN's Peter Gammons' softball questions and lack of follow-ups. Now A-Fraud is accusing Selena Roberts, one of the Sports Illustrated reporters who broke the story last weekend, of stalking him and trespassing on his property. And there's the possibility that Gene Orza, one of the MLBPA chiefs, may have tipped players off that they were about to be drug tested.
Major League Baseball ran amok for a very long time without any acknowledgment of wrongdoing, be it with steroids, amphetamines, or any other illicit behavior, because revenues were up, new stadiums were being built, and the owners were getting richer. Now we're finding out just how many blind eyes were turned, and the outrage will only get worse. Baseball was in such a hurry to erase the stink of the 1994 players' strike and get fans back in the stadiums and interested in the sport again, that they let the inmates rule the asylum. It made national news when Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive games-played record late in 1995, but it wasn't until the Mark McGwire / Sammy Sosa home run battle in 1998 that baseball truly became relevant again. Who knows what the two of them, and how many others, were really taking?
If the BBWAA is as truly outraged as their lack of support of McGwire's HOF campaign indicates, there will be a severe lack of inductions of players from the steroid era.
I'll get off my soapbox now . . . that is all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment