I hate to say, I told you so, but today investigators are saying Jason Grimsley has alleged that Roger Clemens and several other prominent players used steroids.   Earlier this year when I wrote several posts on Roger Clemens using steroids, many said that there was no evidence that he used these banned substances.  People have no problem believing a man in his forties can pitch with the dominance Roger has possessed over the last three years but balk at Barry because he can still hit 30-40 HR a season.  Well maybe Roger performed so well because he was taking HGH as well.  Maybe Roger is good, but not that good without the juice.

Many people believe Barry should have an asterisk by his name in the record books while others think he should not hold any records.  They believe he should never darken the steps of Cooperstown.  So should Roger hand back all of those Cy Young’s?  Should his teams forfeit the wins in which he pitched?  Should the Yankees have one of their World Series titles stricken from the record?  Should Clemens be a sure fire first ballot hall of famer? 

Along with Clemens, Grimsley has identified Miguel Tejada.  This is the same Tejada who injected Raffy Palmeiro with “vitamin B-12”, or so that is what Palmeiro believed was being injected into his derriere.  Maybe Raffy was telling the truth and it was Tejada on the juice.  Andy Pettite is also named as an athlete who was taking steroids.  Maybe Jose Canseco was right when he said over half of MLB players are taking steroids! 

For me, it does not really matter.  I believe the only way to rectify the records is to put an asterisk by every record set in the nineties; pitchers as well as batters.   My contention has long been that those who condemn hitters give pitchers a free pass.  Well tonight we see that two very respected pitchers are being accused. 

For those who say it is just accusations, remember the words of Palmeiro who said, “I have never used steroids.”  Barry has been accused but never tested positive.  If you want to wait for a positive test on Clemens, then give Barry the same latitude.  I have laid out my arguments in prior posts.  Clemens weight gain, no loss of velocity on his fastball, and ability to pitch into his forties are all signs of potential steroid abuse.  You may not want to believe that Roger Clemens is guilty of steroid use, but there is an old saying in the south, “Where there is smoke; there is fire.”  Right now the Astros dugout is a raging inferno.

 SoCalSportsFan

“Sports” is all about the rules.  I remember as a child when we would go across to the ball park and play a game, you first had to establish the house rules.  Without rules it would be chaos, but as long as there has been a competition athletes have been trying to skirt the rules in order to gain an edge.  Is this right?  Of course not, but it is a natural part of the game.  Scuffing balls by pitchers, using corked bats, steroids, and who knows what else maybe illegal in the near future.  Where is the line drawn between enhancement of performance and what is cheating.  We all know about the steroids which are banned, although many still consider the fact that they were not banned until 2003 and were not even tested for until 2004 irrelevant, I am going to focus on external enhancements in this post.

There is a player by the name of Brian Roberts who up until last year had a career .255 average.  He had hit as low as .227 and as high as .273 and then last year he magically jumped to .314.  What was the secret to his hitting success?  Roberts is one of the first to use a new type of contact lens designed by Bausch and Lomb and marketed by Nike to aid a batter by helping him to see the seams on a fastball sooner.  (Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Timlin, and Danny Almonte also used them.)  The lenses are red and when on your eyes make you look a bit like a demon, but they filter out certain shades to allow you to see the seams on a fastball.  The idea is that if a batter can pick up the ball as it leaves the pitcher’s hand he will be able to follow it sooner and react to it more quickly than he otherwise would be able to do.  Does it work?  Well of the players who used them, they all agree they can see the ball sooner and they had improved batting averages.  These lenses are not only for baseball players but Bausch and Lomb are making them for golfers too so that they can read greens better.  Justin Leonard says he can now see every blade of grass on the greens.  Is this a fair enhancement for batters?  What if these are outlawed in the near future?  Would that mean you have to throw out Brian Roberts accomplishments from the record books?  Would his stats be tainted?  Where do we draw the line on personal enhancement tools?  Are nightvision goggles soon to be allowed.?

How about batting armor?  I have to say that I think all the padding that players are allowed to wear gives these batters a mental edge when they step up into the plate.  The old school pitchers would throw in very close to move batters off the plate.  This was their defense.  Today with the array of pads some batters choose to wear, i.e. Barry Bonds, pitchers have lost that advantage.  This brings me to another point, the mental advantage!

A large part of any game is mental.  Many physicists have written papers to prove a corked bat does very little to enhance the swing speed of a bat.  So how does it help?  The consensus is that it gives them a boost in confidence while they are at the plate.  Confidence can do strange things to a player.  When I was in HS and I was confident, I could drain long range basket after long range basket, (There was no three point line when I played and I am still bitter about that!)  PGA golfers who have confidence say the cup looks like a huge hole in the ground when they putt.  So how does this apply to enhancements?  What about the sports psychologists that many pitchers bring to the games to help them perform?  You say you don’t believe that is relevant.  Ask the players that employ these guys.  Players are by and large a very superstitious lot.  They go through the same routines before games, wear hats that have not been washed in years and even dirty socks that are lucky.  The mind is a powerful tool and learning to harness its positive vibes gives players an advantage.

Lastly, I can not end this post without mentioning my personal favorite, cortisone shots.  Cortisone is a steroid that is derived from cortisol which is produced in the adrenal glands during moments of high stress.  It aids in the healing process and is used in pain injections for athletes.  Who can forget Curt Schillings performance during the World Series?  There is no way he could pitch without a performance enhancing shot into his ankle.  Should this be legal?  In my book it is a performance enhancing injection and should not be allowed. 

Just some thoughts about where is the line drawn.  We all know about the lines in taking banned substances, although new substances are added all the time as we develop new enhancements.  I still think Raffy tested positive because of all the Viagra in his system, and rumor has it that it did help his BAT.