A Real Record Book

[DOUGHBOYS]

Alex Rodriguez is the all time rbi leader in the American League.
It bugs me.
It bugs me like when he passed Gehrig for grand slams.
And when he passed Mays in home runs.

Al Leiter says that Rodriguez has 'paid his pennance'.
He hasn't.
I know that players protect other players. It is some kind of code. And to tell the truth, sometimes it makes the MLB Channel almost impossible to watch. Marcus Semien is NOT a Major League shortstop. Fellow players say, 'He's having problems.'
Instead of saying the truth, they use a generic, 'He's having problems'.
Ugh.

Anyway, the dictionary describes penance as...
'voluntary self-punishment inflicted as an outward expression of repentance for having done wrong.'


Nothing about what ARod did after his scandal was 'voluntary'. He also has no 'self-punishment'. The punishment was doled out by Major League Baseball to Alex Rodriguez who was spitting out the bit the whole time.
Rodriguez still has never been caught cheating by MLB. He just associated with fellas who let other fellas know that he was using their steroids.
I would bet that he is using them right now and that he has never NOT used them during his professional career.
My post, my opinion.

Baseball is ok with only punishing the steroid users by suspending them and keeping them from the Hall of Fame.
That's it?
An analogy for this is that a billionaire CEO is caught insider trading and is told to go home for six months and that he probably will not be listed as one of the best CEO's ever.
That's it?

I don't care about the Hall of Fame.
To me, they have screwed that thing up so bad, that it has only become source of news for the MLB during cold months.
Personally, I can never forgive them, as a whole, for what they did to Ron Santo and his family.
Truly unforgivable in my eyes.
They do not have 100% baseball people making decisions.
Inexcusable for a shrine.

For me, I can't stand looking at steroid era fellas in baseball record books.
I don't know how good ARod is. I do know how good ARod is on steroids.
I do know how good Barry Bonds was. Pre-steroid, he was a very good player. Not a Superstar.
But, a very good player.
On steroids, Bonds was the best.
Better, probably, than any other hitter in the history of baseball.
And we, at the time, were enjoying the stats.
We were drinking it all in as if baseball was a new drink that we couldn't get enough of.
Now, we realize that drink is soylent green.

Records like Bonds and Rodriguez pollute our record books.
And baseball record books are as hallowed as it gets in sports.
Do I have a solution?
Sure. But it is one that most would not like. Because it is not fair to some.
Some players played the steroid era without using steroids. We don't know who they are.
We have opinions, but we really don't know who they are.
So, guilty by association....a little like the Hall of Fame is treating that era.
Statistics from known users and also any stats from 1996-2004 as non-existent.
They become like stats from before 1900.
We don't use stats from before 1900. They had different rules and it was a different era.
And so was the steroid era.
They would be there to look at like pre-1900 baseball, just not intermingled with statistics past 1900.

In this way, everything is as it was. The way it should be.
Aaron, the home run king.
Maris, the single season record holder.
'Real' home run and rbi records untouched.
When a computer screen comes up with each page of statistics, it omits that period.
Unless the user requests that time period be included.

Of course, this will never happen.
It is unfair to some. We have a players union. We have an America who cares as much about perpetrators as victims.
At least, the press and unions do.
Some revere Rodriguez, loving that he is passing Lou Gehrig. They cheer the feat.
Paid his penance?
Really?
The America of yesterday would say, "Cheaters never prosper".
Those days, most decidedly are gone.
For a reminder, open any baseball record book.

100 years from now, a kid named little Billy will say, "Golly Pops (I believe that 1930's lingo will be the rage in 2115), that Alex Rodriguez sure was a swell ball player!"
And with the little that baseball has done to deter him from cheating or penalize him in the aftermath, little Billy's Dad will smile, tussle little Billy's hair and say, "One of the best, little Billy, one of the best, just look at the record books."
And somewhere above a grave in Colorado, some earth will move.