Let's first go back to 1989. Sammy Sosa was just breaking into the league as a skinny, over-matched outfielder with the Texas Rangers. He was a domincian version of my friend Erick Weinstein. Skinny, weak and not much else. He broke into the majors a relative unknown. 1989 was the same year that fellow "Bash Brother" Mark McGwire was struggling with his swing. He was the anti-weinstein. Standing 6'5 (Weinstein would die for that kind of height) and weighing somewhere around 210, McGwire blasted a rookie record 49 homeruns just two years prior, but his batting average dipped into the .230's.
Fast-forward to 1998. The "Summer of love" for us America at the time. It was a reinvention of a classic game. The 1994 strike harmed the game. But this summer would bring it back. Everyone was glued to a TV set and their heads in a newspaper, just watching, waiting, for Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire to do the unthinkable. Both would shatter the old home run record set by Roger Maris. 61. Big fly numbers were on the increase in the mid-90's, but nobody thought anything of it. This year would be the apex of the home run hitting in baseball history. Forget Barry Bonds in 2001 with his 73 long balls. During the "Summer of Love" as we should now call it, 13 players hit 40 or more home runs, including gentlemen such as Mo Vaughn and Greg Vaughn. Christ, even Dean Palmer hit 34 home runs and knocked 119 runs that season. It was a statisticians dream. It was an American dream. America's Pasttime was on a new level. And we fell in love with the game.
Keep going to 2007. We are now embroiled in controversy surrounding the so-called "Steroid Era." The 90's were the peak of this, with home run records being shattered and people injecting themselves with performance enhancing drugs. As we can see by the Mitchell Report, which reared its ugly head in December of '07, there is a long list of players who are in some way tied to the use of steroids. Some players weren't great, some were better, and some were Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire.
They can't get the votes needed to make the Baseball Hall of Fame. Here is Baseball loses me. For starters let's go out on a limb and say Commissioner Bud Selig new a little something about the use of performance-enhancing drugs within his game. There had to be one or two times he heard those words being used. He realized a good thing when he saw it. Attendance was booming due to "The Chase." People were falling in love with the game again. And the good, old American dollar was being pulled in by MLB. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were directly responsible for saving the game, in my mind. Major League Baseball cashed in on them. So now, they deserve better.
In no way am I condoning the use of drugs. I've never smoked a joint, or tried any kind of drug in my life. I know where I stand on that. But as far as looking at the numbers put up during that time; at the turnstyles and on the back of baseball cards, we should not deny these men there chance at the Hall. If Major League Baseball was so eager to make money off of these men, and let the drug use slide, then they should turn an eye for a second time and put them in the Hall. Players such as McGwire, Sosa, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Gary Sheffield should have their face hanging on the walls of Cooperstown. During a time when it's safe to say drug use was prevalent, these men still put up worthy numbers.
We will never truly known with 100 percent certainty that these men used performance enhancing drugs. Public opinion has already deemed these men guilty, and perhaps rightly so. But the Hall of Fame is not a beauty pageant either. Was Ty Cobb the greatest person in the world? Most say no, he was a drunk and a sleazebag. I'm sure there are countless other assholes enshrined. The fact of the matter is, numbers don't lie. We may think of these men as scumbags for using drugs to become better players. But wouldn' we all like a leg up if it means a promotion? As the old adage goes, "if your not cheatin', youre not tryin'." Well these men cheated and will pay for it down the line. But put them in the Hall of Fame. The game of Baseball used these men for a profit, so they are just as guilty. Put them in, put an asterisk next to their name, but realize that the numbers don't lie. They helped save the game, so show respect even though what they did may not have been morally correct.
So these baseball players may have transformed themselves from a Weinstein to a wrestler, but give them credit for helping to keep the game afloat. What they did was wrong, but in the end, it was still good for the game. If Baseball was allowed to exploit them, then in my opinion, let them in.
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