Tarnished? Juice and Major League Baseball
May 19, 2009 • written by Cory Hunt
I was recently watching the Twins game against the New York Yankees, when I saw something that made me question the game. In the bottom of the 11th inning, Alex Rodriguez belted a two run shot to end the game. As soon as my friends and I saw this we instantly said, “What a juicer.” To myself I thought, “How many has this guy actually hit on his own without the juice?” Don’t get me wrong A Rod was a good player in Seattle before he joined the Rangers and started taking the juice. So why did he choose to? In his words, it was to live up to the expectations and get that big contract.
Many of these up and coming players right out of high school see all the stars in the game today and say, “How can I be like him and get that big contract?” Many do what is right and work hard and make their way through the farm leagues. But some, like A Rod choose to take the lower road. There is an unprecedented amount of pressure on these young players to make it in the “Bigs”. This is not a small problem that started recently; this is a huge problem that has been going on since the 1980’s and has not been taken seriously until fairly recently.
Since the days of Jose Canseco, this has been a problem that, until recently, has been ignored completely due to the fear of tarnishing the game. Back before baseball started making a feeble attempt to toughen toughening the regulations of drug testing, players were known to take steroids in the club house. It was kind of an “I know nothing” kind of thing. No one wanted to rat out their teammates, and no one wanted to acknowledge that it was a problem. Finally a sorry excuse for a Commissioner Bud Selig addressed the problem by hiring Senator George J. Mitchell to make a report that took him 20 months to complete. In spite of the fact that it did not hold an incredible amount of surprises, this 409 page report helped expose the problem in baseball. By the way, if you have the time and attention span I suggest reading this report; it is worth the time.
What this report did was to help baseball start taking steps to refurbish the image of Major League Baseball to the world. Along with this report came stronger punishments. In 2005, Rafael Palmeiro was suspended just ten games for testing positive for a banned substance. After the report and the new guidelines, first time offenders are now given fifty games for their first offence. The biggest player to see this handed down to him is Dodger’s outfielder Manny Ramirez. An interesting comment from former Yankees pitcher David “Boomer Wells, who pitched a perfect game against the Twins hung-over. “I think that would be great. No 50-game suspension. Ban them right away,” Wells said. “That would stop it in a heartbeat, especially with the money they are giving out today. It would be incredible if they did that. You wouldn’t have to worry about steroids or HGH.” This is almost a good idea except for the fact that baseball would be ruined if they lost their star players because of steroid use.
In my opinion, the best thing for MLB to do is give out the suspensions, take classes on steroids, have players forfeit their pay checks for those games suspended, and have an asterisk placed next to their name when Hall of Fame voting comes around. With a new exhibit in Cooperstown called “Wall of Shame,” come see your juicers. Usually for the players who don’t have a huge ego unlike A Rod the embarrassment of being associated with steroids is enough for them. So the next time you see someone cranking the ball 500 feet out of the park think, “Hey is this guy a juicer?”
Interested in Learning More? Check out the following books:
- Juiced by Jose Canseco, he tells it how it is, believe him or not.
- The Mitchell Report by Sen. George J. Mitchell, it gives you an insight on what was going on and some possible solutions to fix it.
- Game of Shadows by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, gives you the inside look of Bonds, BALCO, and more.
If you have any comments on Mr. Hunt’s article or on juice use in the Big Leagues, drop a comment below. We love hearing from our readers
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