Is There Anyone Left?

Another day, another legend down the tubes.

This is the environment we've all been conditioned to live in. It's not a great time to be a baseball fan. It's not a great time to be a sports fan. As face after face of America's pastime gets associated with cheating and lack of organic numbers, there's only one clear loser here: the fans.

You could argue, as I might, that Barry Bonds is one of the "winners" today. This guy has born the brunt of the steroids discussion for so long it's just absurd. It was the to the point where I think the majority of people actually believed that outside of BALCO, there wasn't much steroid use in baseball.

As we can see now, that was simply not true.

I know there are a lot of Red Sox fans who will be on the defense for the next few weeks trying to defend the '04 championship. And realistically, it's going to be a tough argument. But it's not just the Sox; it's every team in the Major Leagues. You just happened to win the World Series; just like Bonds happened to hit 73 home runs.

It's not the Sox' fault. I personally don't believe they cultivated a steroids culture to obtain success. However, you could argue that without performance enhancing drugs, the Sox never win the World Series, never recreate Red Sox Nation and never ultimately receive the ultimate fandom that gives them so much money and power in the MLB.

Look, the Red Sox and the Yankees have the most money. When you have the most money, you can sign the players that put up the biggest numbers. The Sox got Manny and the Yankees had Giambi. Whether Manny turned Ortiz on to roids or whether it was someone in the Twins' organization, we don't know yet. I'm sure Selena Roberts can do some digging and find out (As a Twins fan, I really hope he wasn't on roids when we had him because his numbers suckkkkked).

And to be fair, the Sox and Yankees and Dodgers and all the other big market teams went out and signed the biggest players with the best numbers. It's what anyone would have done. We didn't know the extent of steroids use in 2003 (and for argument and sanity's sake, let's assume GMs and owners didn't either) and therefore, it's not unreasonable to assume they thought these players were putting up gigantic numbers legitimately. When the Yankees signed Giambi, they didn't sign him with a caveat suggesting he needed to continue taking steroids and HGH and the Clear while he was on the team. The numbers were just expected to show up.

When the Red Sox signed Manny to his deal and when the Yankees signed A-Rod to his deal, it was likely not expected these players would continue to pump their bodies full of chemicals to continue putting up big numbers and putting asses in the seats. Presumably, their teams are as shocked by the testing results as much as us.

But here's the point: you should be angry. It's not an excuse to say that everyone was doing it. You should be angry that we were all duped. We all watched the long balls fly out of ballparks all across the country and we were all too stupid to realize what was going on. When Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa went bananas, we all watched. We didn't ask questions. We just loved Big Mac Land and the Sosa Hop.

When David Ortiz started "pulling the ball for the first time," we didn't ask questions. When A-Rod put up season after season of incredible numbers, we didn't ask questions. Even when relief pitchers were throwing 98-99 and reviving their careers at age 33, we didn't ask questions.

The difference? There's no victory for us as fans. We didn't get to make the millions of dollars that all the other players did. Look -- I'm not blaming Ortiz or Manny or Sheffield or Giambi or Bonds or Benito f***ing Santiago for taking 'roids. They were available, they made you better and, more importantly, they made them a ton of money. But it's ridiculous. Think about it logically.

Let's assume, for argument's sake, that some people didn't take HGH. If that's actually true, then how unfair were the contracts everyone else got? I will personally never believe a player when they say they're clean. If you're putting up big numbers (and we're all staring at you, Albert Pujols), you're on something. Plain and simple.

Because here's the truth of the matter: What they've done is just not possible. The astronomical numbers. The record breaking seasons. It's not true. None of it is true. The numbers we know -- 755, 56, .406, 61 -- there's a reason why those numbers are records. Obviously, .406 and 56 haven't been broken yet. But what this has proven to me is these numbers are actually untouchable or close to it. Bonds broke Maris's record, McGwire's record and Aaron's record. And only because he cheated.

The Sox and Yankees scoring 900 runs a season. Joe Nathan becoming a dominating closer after an injury-riddled history. Did Nathan get there because of HGH or the Twins' "velocity development program"? I don't know for sure.

I've always made a joke out of steroids because I argued it was so fun to watch the players. You think about Sosa, Bonds, Manny, A Rod, McGwire, Sheffield; these are some of the most exciting swings and athletes in the major leagues. I loved watching Clemens throw heat at age 44. It was really cool in a way.

But now, as more of the list tumbles out, I'm beginning to realize our generation doesn't have a Ted Williams or a Joe DiMaggio. I was devastated to read the other day that Bill James is convinced Kirby Puckett and Gary Gaettti (two key cogs in the Twins' first World Series title in 1987) were on steroids. But they probably did. Puckett's numbers were incredible and he died young.

What we're getting at here is the ugly truth: it's not BALCO. It's not just Bonds and the Giambi brothers and Ortiz and Randy Velarde and Ken Caminiti. It's everyone.

All the players from your generation. The ones who graced the walls of your room and received the largest contracts in the history of the sport cheated their way to the top. And the worst part of it all is the ones who aren't implicated are probably just not guilty yet.

You think Jeter was clean? We don't know for sure. He put up some huge numbers in 1999. Nomar? Probably on steroids. Tony Gwynn? Cal Ripken Jr.? Go up and down the list and you can make a case for almost anyone.

Hell, Rickey probably juiced.

Baseball is supposed to be pure and I think we all recognize that. With everything in this world that's stupid and unfair, we should at least have some semblance of fair play in between the baselines. But what we've realized over the past couple years is it's not an even playing field.

The majority of players get ahead and get rich in sports by cheating. And that sucks.

-Anthony "Balla"