Soon Aaron Judge will break Roger Maris’s home run record for the Yankees.
Some are touting it as the real record for home runs in a season – 62.
They believe that Barry Bonds is not the true owner of the major league record for home runs in a season – 73 – because he was allegedly doing steroids.
They are wrong.
Barry Bonds is the legitimate owner of the major league record for home runs in a season on two levels.
First, the executives of Major League Baseball looked the other way during the steroid era. They knew that the players were doing steroids; they didn’t want to know that the players were doing steroids. They looked the other way because they liked the attendance records that the home runs were bringing in.
By looking the other way, by saying nothing, they gave approval to the use of steroids. By their silence they legitimized steroids. They can’t have their cake and eat it too.
The fathers of Major League Baseball would like you to forget their role in the steroid era. They denounce players like Barry Bonds, and they now try to walk away from him and the other steroid users.
They bar them from the Hall of Fame through their sycophantic baseball writers.
Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. They don’t get to do that.
By saying nothing about the steroids, they hopped in bed with Barry Bonds (and the others) and legitimized their use.
Secondly, there’s nothing wrong with steroids in professional sports. If we are going to allow players to improve their vision with contact lenses, then steroids are just as legitimate.
If we are going to allow players to get ACL repairs and UCL reconstructions, then steroids are just as legitimate.
One set of cells in the human body does not have special rights over another set of cells.
If I am a baseball player who has excellent vision but average muscle strength, why am I not allowed to pump up my muscles to the level of Mickey Mantle?
Why is a poor-sighted player with natural muscular strength allowed to improve his vision, but another player with perfect vision is not allowed to improve his muscles through steroids?
Why does one set of cells in the body have greater privileges than another?
If we’re going to dismiss Barry Bonds’s record, then we have to dismiss all of Mickey Mantle’s records. From what I’ve been able to read Mickey Mantle would get loaded and drunk the night before the game, then he would take uppers before the game began.
Well, my friend those uppers are performance enhancing drugs. For that reason we have to throw out all of Mickey Mantle’s records.
Mickey Mantle cheated.
Is that what you want me to say?
I didn’t think so.
Sincerely,
Archer Crosley
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