Let me get this right.  A professional baseball player used performance-enhancing drugs?  Wait, it was Alex Rodriguez?   Mr. Baseball?  Mr. Clean?  The “monument” of the pin stripes?  Alex Rodriguez, who is arguably the greatest baseball player ever to play the first seven innings of a game, admitted to using steroids in 2001 through 2003 while playing for the Texas Rangers, but that is not the most shocking and disturbing part of the story.

First of all, I don’t think any athlete should use steroids unless for a seriously legit medical reason.  With that being said, let me just say that it is not shocking to hear about another professional athlete being caught using roids, especially a baseball player.

It is the new culture of baseball.  No longer is it an issue confined to the Mark McGwires, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosas and the other monster home run hitters of the early 2000s, but it is now an issue that affects the Chuck Knoblauchs, Denny Neagles, and Paul Byrds, who are as imposing as the roco-slide in the elementary schoolyard.

It is not only the culture in baseball, but also in America.  It is no longer acceptable to be good at what you do; you have to be the best.  In all actuality, we are quickly moving beyond the need to be the best, to the desire to be the “greatest of all time.”  A-Rod quite possibly was on his way to becoming the G.O.A.T., but now he might just become the goat in another steroid scandal.

The drive of an athlete to excel beyond the natural is most likely what makes them great.  So, I can’t really be shocked to hear a professional athlete uses performance enhancers to move beyond the realm of excelling.  However, the most shocking part of this whole development is the free ride given to the owners, the Players Union, and MLB.

The steroid era in baseball began well before 1995 for sure, if you believe it coincides with the steroid era in football.  However, I believe that 1995 was the pivotal moment in baseball when the owners, the union and MLB turned their back on the obvious signs of a tainted game.

It began with another black eye on baseball when the remainder of the 1994 season, including the playoffs and World Series, was cancelled due to the players strike.  The fans were frustrated at all parties and the popularity of baseball was at its lowest, leaving the 1995 season and ultimately baseball itself, with a huge question mark.

In order to bring the fans back to baseball, the long ball was highlighted–because chicks dig the long ball.  Now, this wasn’t a conscious decision by the brass but it is evident in the new and considerably smaller stadiums, and the acceptance of the use of steroids.

The McGwire/Sosa chase for Roger Maris’ single-season homerun record (61) in 1998 officially put baseball back on the map in the minds of fans.  Three short years later, Bonds blasted 70 homeruns and the owners and MLB raked in the revenue as stadiums were full, merchandise flew off the shelves, and people tuned in to see these records shattered and fallen by the wayside.

It wasn’t until the fans grumbled about the possibility of tainted records and the congressional “day off” from running the country to conduct hearings on steroids, that MLB reluctantly stepped in to address steroids in baseball.

Even in 2003, MLB with the union’s approval allowed an anonymous steroids test to determine if there was a problem in baseball.  If MLB was truly worried about the sanctity of the game and its hallowed records, they wouldn’t need a preliminary testing; they would institute testing whether there was one person or 104.

Now that baseball is back in the good graces of the fan and the owners’ wallets are fat, including baseball commissioner Bud Selig, who pulled in over 17 million this past season, they can take a hard stance on steroids.  For the owners and Selig to claim ignorance of players, specific players, use of performance enhancers is reminiscent of the whopper A-Rod told Katie Couric.  But how can they tell us the truth, if they are lying to themselves?

But more deplorable than the actions of the owners and MLB is the actions of the MLB Players Union.  In 2003, when they half-heartedly agreed to the anonymous testing for steroids, the union made some major missteps, causing grief for A-Rod and sleepless nights for the 103 others.

If the test was to be anonymous and carry no suspensions for positive results, why was there a need to name the samples?  The union should have fought to keep all the samples from being attached with names.  The purpose of the testing was to see if there were over 5 percent using performance enhancers, not which 5 percent were using.

The testing samples with names were still chillin’ in the lab four years after the test.  The union should have sent one of its six-dollar-an-hour interns to the labs to destroy the samples four days after the test.  Granted, the union wanted to retest the samples to claim there were false positives but do that in a timely fashion.  Their ignorance has brought trouble on one of the players they are supposed to protect.

Their mismanagement leads us to where we are today, which is the following:

1. Sleepless nights for the 103 other players who tested positive in 2003.
2. Another spring training so over-focused on steroids that it actually brings legitimacy to spring training.
3. A ton of useless chatter about who should and shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame.

The weeks to come will be interesting steps once again for baseball and another chance to make it right, but history shows that baseball will once again make decisions based on greed.  So, here is what needs to happen:

1. The Players Union and MLB need to do everything they can to keep the remaining 103 names concealed.  Allow the government to get the information needed for their BALCO investigation, but destroy the remaining samples as quick as possible.
2. A-Rod needs to bring a lawsuit against the Players Union and MLB for violating his Right of Privacy.  The medical test results were under the guise of anonymity and Rodriguez has a right to keep that record private.
3. MLB needs to begin the process of building a new wing in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.  This wing should be huge and daunting to symbolize the steroid era, and be reserved for all the upcoming Hall of Famers who are associated with steroids.  All admission fees should be donated to a steroid educational program for youth.
4. MLB and the union should do an exhaustive search for the leak(s) and then allow A-Rod to hit grounders at them.
5. Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, should be fired for his gross mismanagement of this situation in representing the players. Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the Major League Baseball Players Association, should be fired if it is proved that he was tipping players (any players) of upcoming drug tests.  And Bud Selig, baseball commissioner, should be relieved of his position due to his negligence in keeping the game free from steroids.

There comes a time when it has to be more than the players who are punished and held accountable for their actions with steroids.  The players, the owners, the Players Union and MLB have brought a dark cloud over baseball and it is only a matter of time until the fans demand more from the top down.

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J.David has never won an award for his writing, but he is a former collegiate athlete for a small college where everyone makes the team.  Currently, he is a grad student at the University of Southern California studying the archaic form called, Print Journalism.  J.David points to a hot dog at old Tiger Stadium as the birth of his love for baseball, and his walk-off homer against the Astros as his shinning moment as a little leaguer.

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