The year was 1998. Baseball was still reeling off of a strike-shortened season that cancelled the World Series just 4 years before. Loyal fans were still struggling with the idea that these players, who were already making more money than old Mr. Potter, could completely betray the fans in hopes for even more money. You could make the case that the game was at a lower point than ever before.
Then, as if by some miracle, two players came along that seemed to be the superheroes we had longed for, and despite being from 2 completely different backgrounds, they both offered equal promise to the struggling game. Mark McGwire was the 6 foot 5 mammoth who seemed like he just finished his day shift as a lumberjack to come play a game of baseball that night. On the other side of the tracks was Sammy Sosa, the lovable right fielder from the Dominican Republic whose smile was so infectious it helped you ignore the fact that his head was bigger than a 4th of July watermelon.
And so it went, for the summer of 1998 we did just that, we ignored the obvious signs that something was not right and we joined these 2 men as they took us on a journey towards the infamous single season home run record of 61, which was held by the deceased Roger Maris who set the record all the way back in 1961. We ignored the elephant in the room that these two guys together looked like they could be a tag team in the WWF (that’s what it was called at the time), while the man whose record they were chasing, looked more like ‘that guy’ who works a few cubicles down from you in the office. We ignored this because we felt like the game owed us something, since it bailed on us just 4 years before.
So we all watched, and on that humid St. Louis night on September 8, 1998, it happened. McGwire hit his 62nd home run of the season 37 years after Roger Maris had his incredible summer of 61, and who better to be there to witness it than Sammy Sosa in right field. The two hugged after the home run, the game ended, and baseball finally took its place back in the hearts of Americans. Sosa eventually broke the record as well, and the summer ended with McGwire belting out an astonishing 70 home runs, with Sosa right behind with an equally impressive 66.
However, it was something else that happened on that September night that planted the seeds for the trouble that would come over the next decade. The family of Roger Maris was in attendance for the game, in order to symbolically pass the torch of the record their loved one worked so hard to achieve. When McGwire finished his triumphant trot around the bases, he eventually made his way to the family, and it was in this moment that we all should have been alarmed, but were too caught up in the moment to think much of it. During the exchange between McGwire and the family, the Maris family had a look of utter bewilderment on their faces, like they knew something wasn’t right about what was happening. Roger had broken the record simply by smoking more cigarettes than Don Draper. Nothing was too fishy about that. Now, we had two guys who fit in with our superhero culture. Guys we felt we could relate to, except they were doing almost supernatural things on the baseball field. We didn’t care if things didn’t seem all that legitimate because, again, the game owed us something.
Those suspicions that something was wrong came to a head in the summer of 2001. A new ‘superhero’ came along, but he seemed more in the form of a super villain. Barry Bonds, a man with an ego almost as large as his hat size, decided he would take whatever steps necessary to take the record for himself. However, he didn’t have the likability that Sosa and McGwire possessed, and the simple fact that he was chasing a record that had stood for a measly 3 years despite standing for 37 just before, was concerning to say the least. We had all but ignored the chase and written it off, when the terrible tragedy of September 11, 2001 occurred, and once again, baseball seemed to be America’s form of escape. We didn’t particularly enjoy watching this egotistical jerk whose personality was about as endearing as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, but we felt like it at least gave us something else to watch rather than the awful footage of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers. Still, Bonds finished with 73 home runs and the baseball world seemed corrupt.
Time passed and the taste in our mouths grew more bitter. The 2002 World Series featured Barry Bonds’ San Francisco Giants and the Anaheim Angels. Both teams had numerous players having career years that seem impossible when looking at what became of their careers. Despite the fact that the two teams provided one of the more entertaining World Series in recent memory, it felt tarnished and by 2003 it became apparent that steroids had become too large of a problem in the game of baseball to continue to ignore. After all, the other 3 major sports had already tested for the drugs long before, giving them a greater sense of authenticity in our minds. We began to look back at the 90s in a different light, and it became obvious that many of the accomplishments were tainted. The famous example is Brady Anderson’s 1996 season when he hit 50 home runs, 26 more than he had ever hit before. However, there were other red flags as well, including the same summer of 2001 when Luis Gonzalez hit an incredible 57 home runs while looking more ripped than Apollo Creed. It was clear that this era was tainted, and it even began to be dubbed as ‘The Steroids Era.’
So what does this all mean? We are at a point now when it seems like the steroids are under control and the game is a little bit more pure. The problem is, it seems like about once a month we find out another one of our ‘heroes’ was actually a user of steroids. We learn this because in 2003 a test was administered to the players of Major League Baseball with the understanding that the results would be kept anonymous. However, in ways that no one really understands, names continue to leak from this list.
The most recent duo of names to be leaked was David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, two integral parts of the 2004 World Champion Boston Red Sox team. This becomes the prime example of how we must view the Steroids Era in a different light. Here we have an example of team who took baseball’s top prize by using players who cheated. Do we simply turn the other cheek the same way we did in 1998 and excuse it by saying ‘everyone else was doing it’? Do we take more extreme measures and place an asterisk next to all achievements that were accomplished during the Steroids Era? Maybe the only thing to do is clean up the game as much as possible and let history decide what to make of the records. After all, when looking back at the times, the ’98 home run chase or the ’04 World Series, along with all of the other achievements of the era, aren’t the questions of legitimacy in the minds of baseball fans punishment enough? Won’t there always be a mental asterisk in everyone’s head when they talk about them? And when the dreaded time comes when they must explain to their children what happened during this era, won’t the pain of explaining how it all played out be torture enough? Can we even fix anything anymore? We are officially at a time when we have more questions than answers.
So who exactly is to blame for all of this? Is it simply the players who disregarded the purity of the game in order to put up superhero-like numbers? Is it Bud Selig, the commissioner who saw all of the corruption but never acted until it was too late? Is it the fans, for turning the blind eye and accepting what these guys were doing, even though we knew it couldn’t be real? Call me crazy, but I cannot place too much of the blame on the players. Sure, we like to believe we would all have respected the game more than these ‘cheaters,’ but I find it hard to believe that if you told the average person they could take something that was NOT BANNED AT THE TIME to improve their profession and, in turn, earn them more money, they would not do exactly the same thing. Again, the majority of steroids were not banned at this time. For this reason, I place the majority of the blame on the commissioner. This man has not really done anything too miraculous during his tenure as commissioner, and this steroids mess sure taints his legacy beyond repair. He was the one who could have put a stop to it before things got out of control and it was too late. Instead, he was reaping the benefits of baseball getting back on its feet after the strike and failed to recognize the problem before it backfired right in his face faster than one of Eric Cartman’s plans. However, not all of the blame falls on the commissioner. We as the fans are not innocent either. We ignored what was right in front of us because we wanted to believe players could actually transform into the superheroes we read about and admire. We actually believed these guys were just more talented than an entire century of players before them, all because they worked hard. However, we are past the point where the blame game means anything. The more important question now is ‘where do we go from here?’
The best solution would be release the list, deal with the legal ramifications (i.e. lawsuits from players over their names being released) and move on. The Players Association would be irate that a ‘confidential’ list would be released publicly, and rightfully so, but the fact that some names have already leaked makes the whole thing incredibly controversial. We have come to a point where sooner or later, the names will get out, it’s just a matter of how long the soap opera will run. The game needs a drastic move, and I believe that starts with finding a new commissioner. The owners love Bud Selig but the problem is he has done more harm to the game than good. With a fresh start up top, the older players who played during the era can play out their careers and we can judge them how we see fit, while the younger talent matures and baseball is restored to its old form.
Ultimately, there is no real explanation for this era, and that is perhaps why it is so sad. No one knows if baseball can ever become America’s true sport again, since football has unofficially taken that crown. However, as long as there is an effort, by the players, the coaches, the owners, the COMMISSIONER, baseball will get its second chance. After all, it may not be America’s sport anymore, but it is still truly American, and in a country full of second chances, the game that has helped Americans through so many difficult times deserves one, if not for any reason other than the fact that we are all humans looking for greatness in its purest, most simple form.
Leave the hard stuff for Superman.
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