Just being involved and playing the game that you loved was all that mattered. If your team succeeded and maybe you won a championship here or there, it would make all that hard work worthwhile.
Now, however, that hard work has seemingly turned into cutting corners and quick solutions.
The steroids epidemic that has captured the attention of a nation, of a commissioner, and subsequently, the United States Congress, is a problem that is relatively new, yet immensely controversial.
The problem has come up in many of today’s professional sports, but none more frequently than the sport of baseball.
Hall-of-fame-caliber players like Jose Canseco, Mark McGuire, Rafael Palmeiro and Ken Caminiti (who died of drug-related heart complications in October of 2004) have been placed under the microscope and interrogated about whether they used the illegal substances or not.
Most recently, San Francisco outfielder and third all-time homerun champ Barry Bonds has been subject to major investigation.
In the upcoming book “Game of Shadows,” by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, Bonds’ innermost secrets revolving around performance enhancing drugs, are seemingly revealed.
It is reported in the book that during the year Bonds broke Mark McGuire’s single-season homerun record, he was using at least two designer steroids at once, not to mention insulin, a human growth hormone, a fast-acting testosterone and trenbolone, which is normally used to develop the muscle quality of cattle.
His daily routine would be part of a three-week cycle, which Bonds would demand be ready in advance so that no doses were missed.
The doses would come in every form imaginable, including injections, pills, liquid drops and even topical creams, which is the basis behind the BALCO, a performance-enhancing drug, scandal.
With the potential to break the all-time homerun record this season, Bonds could go down in history as one of the sport’s most storied athletes, in both a positive and negative manner.
Trailing the almost angelic in comparison, Hank Aaron by only 47 round-trippers, it shouldn’t be a surprise to many if he actually breaks the record, considering how he has played in recent years.
It is also apparent that after all the illegal activities that Bonds has allegedly been involved in, his body is beginning to break down after his 19 years in the league. In 2005, Bonds appeared in only 14 games and swung the bat 42 times because of nagging knee injuries.
If Bonds does break the record for most homeruns in a career, one can’t help but wonder if his name will be followed by an asterisk because his performance wasn’t all his, like his predecessors.
Posted to the web by Brian Coary
