Mitchell Report

Ball or Strike:

Sen. George Mitchell's report on performance enhancing drugs in baseball has been out for over a week now and I am really getting tired of hearing all these people defending players, damning players, defending the use of steroids, etc. Here's my take:

IF the players named actually can be confirmed users beyond all reasonable doubt, they should suffer the same consequences that Pete Rose did. Ban them from baseball, no hall of fame. Pete was one of the greatest hitters of all time, no questions asked. He gambled, he had a gambling addiction, he messed up, and he did it so that he could make a few extra bucks. Did his gambling affect his play? Who knows. Players who use steroids do it for the same reason Pete gambled; to make a few extra bucks. They broke the law, their punishment should be no different. Sure, Barry Bonds was a good hitter before he started juicing. Was he a 750 HR+ hitter? No way. When he was with the Pirates, he had 2 seasons out of 7 in which he hit more than 25 HR (one of which was his last season there), and his career high was 34. Since going to San Francisco, he's had only 1 season out of 15 in which he's hit less than 25, and he only played 14 games that season. He's had only 5 seasons out of 15 in which he's hit less than 35 HR, 7 in which he's hit 40+HR. Carry out his averages in Pittsburgh over the 22 years he's played, and he would've hit 553 HR by now. Hall of fame career, for sure, but not enough to break Hank Aaron's record. If Roger Clemens used, would he have won 354 games without it? If he didn't, put him down as one of the greatest.

I'm not saying that the juice would make any average player into a Hall of Famer, but it obviously makes the good great and the great greatest. It's enough to make a 93 mph fastball pitcher into a 96 mph fastball pitcher, a career doubles hitter into a career home run hitterd. It won't make anyone see the ball better, swing sooner, locate better, or break the curveball off harder. Baseball is not learned, it's perfected.

That said, MLB needs to make an attempt to verify the claims made in the Mitchell report. For the sake of the game, the fans, and the players who remained clean throughout all of this. And they need to make HUGE strides to make sure that this doesn't happen again! If they do, this is a strike in my book. If the game turns away and ignores the past, ball.