Investigation next step in steroid debate, By: Dan Farrand
April 5, 2006
The steroid issue is a cancer that has been consuming Major League Baseball since the eruption of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) investigation in 2002. In the last four years steps have been taken by the MLB and the Players Association to restore integrity to baseball.
The stricter drug policy announced in January 2005 instituted random drug testing and an unpaid 10-day suspension for first-time offenders. A second positive test would result in a 30-day suspension, a third-time offense would warrant a 60-day suspension, and a full-year suspension for a fourth-time offender.
The media and Congress glorified the new program. It sharpened the MLB’s set of extremely dull knives used to carve out steroid users.
MLB Commissioner Bud Selig was ready to move on. Forget the newly dubbed Steroid Era and refocus baseball on its players rather than their urine samples.
So why does the steroid cloud still hover over baseball, dampening the spirit and excitement that should surround opening day.
The answer can be found in two words, or rather one person: Barry Bonds.
The recent publication of Game of Shadows—a book written by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams tracing Bonds’ extensive steroid use from 1998 through 2005—exposed Bonds for what he truly is: a cheater, a liar, and the heart of the tumor that has plagued baseball.
The book, which also implicated several other players in connection with Bonds and his trainer Greg Anderson, has also forced Selig to confront the one thing he fears the most: the past.
Selig announced last week that the MLB will launch a massive investigation into alleged past steroid use by its players, particularly those related to the BALCO investigation. And although he refused to name names, the focus of the investigation clearly centers on the man currently trying to supplant legends Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron as the greatest slugger in baseball history.
This investigation sends a clear message to Bonds: Disappear.
Selig was willing to play dumb with Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, and even Rafeal Palmeiro. Why? Because they removed themselves from the game; Bonds, however, remains. He has already set the single season home run record at a ludicrous 73 jacks and is now challenging baseball’s most heralded record.
In Selig’s mind, however, Bonds is threatening more than just numbers; he’s attacking the game’s integrity.
Bonds sits just six four-baggers behind Ruth and 48 below Aaron, and if he’s smart, that’s where he should stay. The 40-year-old has even had Aaron and his godfather and baseball legend Willie Mays speak out against him. Aaron called for an asterisk next to any record Bonds holds, future or current.
The most successful method of treatment for a malicious cancer is removal. Chemotherapy can be successful but causes damage to the benign surrounding the destructive. Selig’s investigation will do exactly that: damage the entire game. It will be a spectacle of suspicion. The good will be pulled out with the bad, and the image of the game will suffer.
Quickly removing Bonds, however, will be the dramatic step necessary to eliminate this plague from baseball. The media will finally report on baseball’s triumphs, not scandals, and the fans outside of San Francisco will cheer rather than jeer.
