Hall of Infamous

Barry Bonds.

It’s not about morality with Barry in the slightest bit. It’s not that guys like Barry duped fans into believing they were heroes. It’s not that these guys brought shame to America’s past time.

I understand that Hall of Fame voting is partly determined by “character” but that isn’t why past steroid users should be kept out of the Hall.

This is about the question marks of their numbers. This is about the unknown, the unexplainable and the mystery. We have no idea what these all-time fakes would have done if not for their use of performance enhancers. The question mark surrounding what they have done is enough in itself to deem them unworthy of the Hall of Fame

I’m not exonerating the guys who cut balls with their belts, the spitballers and all kinds of other cheaters, but those guys are already in and that’s not going to change.

Steroid users gained a significant advantage. How significant is obviously up for debate but the uncertainty surrounding the level of significance is partly why these individuals should not be in Cooperstown.

People say that the “they cheated” narrative is simplistic and contrived.

Hardly.

I’m tired of the ol’ “everybody was doing steroids” narrative. Not everyone was on steroids. This article by Tom Verducci is a microcosm for the steroid era. A considerable amount of individuals were on the juice but there were also many who struggled immensely with the dilemma of whether or not to cheat. Whether or not to gain a significant edge over their competition.

Let’s assume for argument’s sake that the vast majority of players were on steroids. At least where I come from, majority doesn’t mean unanimous. The era was much more complicated than “everyone was doing steroids.”

Steroids skew the numbers. To illogically assume that everyone was juicing would be to ignore the historical aspect of the game, where numbers from eras past are still comparable unlike so many other professional sports.

Ken Griffey Jr. has never been associated with performance enhancing drugs. How does he stack up against the Barry Bonds’, Alex Rodriguez’s and Mark McGwire’s of the world? He stacks up incredibly favourably even when ignoring the possibility of PED’s. However, without steroids, where does he stand? It’s incomparable. I have no idea and neither do you. We could argue into the night but we wouldn’t get anywhere.

This is exactly the problem. Ken Griffey Jr. wasn’t doing it, at least we don’t think so. It isn’t fair to him that he is seen on a similar level to those who were clearly able to help their own cause through unnatural means.

What about Hammerin’ Hank? The Babe?

The dark cloud that hangs over those who have only been speculated to have taken performance enhancers should be enough in itself to keep a player like Jeff Bagwell out of the Hall of Fame. The absence of an outright admission or positive test doesn’t remove the unanswerable questions that will always follow that individual. For a player as good as Ken Griffey Jr. to have avoided any resemblance of a cloud over his head during that dreaded era shows that it wasn’t impossible to avoid that kind of speculation and the unanswerable questions.

How immense was the advantage of steroids? Do I really need to go over the same clearly inflated offensive statistics you have probably heard a thousand times again?

Don’t tell me that Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens would have been in the Hall of Fame anyway. You don’t know that. The fact that the numbers cannot be compared with former and future Hall of Famers because of the lack of knowledge surrounding the true effect of performance enhancing drugs is why no one can be certain of anything.

It’s not as if these individuals will be forgotten if they are not put in the Hall of Fame. Being such a big part of baseball history does not justify a spot for them in the Hall of Fame either.

It sometimes sounds like a segment of the people in favour of putting steroid users in the Hall of Fame want to do so only because they are tired of the debate. Personally, I don’t even think this should be a debate. Stellar careers were extended and made even greater into old age because of the technology. Fringe Major League players lost careers because other fringe players decided to go the steroid route.

I get that it must have been extremely difficult to choose the clean path. The best want to be the best and without steroids it was very hard to be the best during that era. Still, they knew what they were doing was wrong. Excusing them isn’t fair to those of the era who stayed clean and those in the past who weren’t exposed to the science of performance enhancing drugs.

Moreover, allowing the steroid era superstars into the Hall of Fame sets a terrible precedent. It opens doors that have no business being opened. No one seems to have considered the grave implications that admitting past steroid users could have on the inevitable future steroid users of Major League Baseball.

Melky Cabrera and Bartolo Colon have made it pretty clear that steroids are not out of the game for good. Technology is always improving and those who want to or feel as though they need to use will find ways to beat the system. What if a future Barry Bonds or Alex Rodriguez talent is found to have been using performance enhancers 30 years down the line? Welp, there goes your “everyone was doing it” argument.

The thing is, if you put the original Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens or Alex Rodriguez in the Hall of Fame, that means you have to put in the future all-time cheats of the world, doesn’t it?

It doesn’t have to be this way though. Don’t open Pandora’s Box.

It will only lead to no good.

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What to Believe?

How are we supposed believe anything anymore?

Performance enhancing drugs have seemingly taken over everything that is special in sports.

Melky Cabrera was suspended 50 games today because he tested positive for testosterone. Out of nowhere, the Melk Man had transformed himself into one of the game’s best players over the past couple of years. He currently leads the MLB in batting with a .346 average.

Steroids…of course.

That’s the easy explanation these days. Anytime something extraordinary happens, it can’t be natural. It is guys like Melky Cabrera that are making people lose faith. As expected, Cabrera was a fan favourite in his first year with the San Francisco Giants. No one could have foreseen him slashing .346/.390/.516 even after a career year with Kansas City in 2011.

I am not going to vilify Melky Cabrera. Oddly enough, he admitted to his wrongful use of performance enhancing drugs. Melky Cabrera is just another example of the sad truth of not only the baseball world, but the sports world as well.

We can’t believe anymore.

In all likelihood, Melky Cabrera isn’t the only star player receiving some sort of unnatural aid. There are others out there that haven’t been caught and will probably never be caught. The technology of the drug is always ahead of the technology to test for it.

The London Olympics brought awe-inspiring moments and moments that you will want to tell your grandchildren about. Seeing Usain Bolt dominant the 100 metre sprint was magical but it was as suspicious as it was magical. No one can be that good, can they? Despite being a 6 foot 5 freak of nature, running that fast with that much ease might be too good to be true.

Shiwen Ye, you know, that Chinese female swimmer who swam her final 50 metres of the 400 IM faster than gold medal winner Ryan Lochte. Ye beat a world record set by those fast swimsuits in Beijing regardless of the fact that she appeared to only swim her hardest for the last 100 metres of the race. Her performance was truly unbelievable but not in a good way.

These days, living by the innocent until proven guilty motto is about as realistic as communism being instituted into western society. It is impossible to have faith in athletes when we are constantly being reminded why we can’t.

Former BALCO owner Victor Conte said to the London Times that the more rigorous drug testing is easy to beat and estimated about 60 percent of the Olympic athletes at the London games were doping. Yeah, you read that right, 60 percent!

Steroids are supposed to be out of baseball yet two of the National League’s best players in the last two seasons have been found to have tested positive for a banned substance. One is being suspended and the other got off on a technicality.

The reason why sports are so appealing to the masses is that we can be amazed at the unbelievable. Most of the general public cannot fathom doing what these athletes can do on a daily basis. Special actions by athletes subsequently create special reactions from fans. However, the enchanting lure of the athlete significantly diminishes when the feat is accomplished through artificial means.

In 2012, the special has become the questionable.

We want to accept what we see as real but when we are given every reason not to accept, it becomes harder and harder. No one enjoys being deceived yet that is the feeling that surfaces every single time an athlete is exposed for using performance enhancing drugs.

I wonder how Cabrera’s legion of Melk Men feel now.

Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Marion Jones, Shawn Merriman, Bill Romanowski, Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, the entire cycling world.

It has never been harder to accept the extraordinary than it is, right now, in 2012.

There is only one first thought that comes to mind these days when anything special is witnessed in sports.

Unfortunately, it’s steroids.

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Agree? Disagree? You can also e-mail me at cross_can15@hotmail.com or reply in the comments section below.

It Keeps Getting Better

Making the playoffs just got that much harder.

That is, if your team plays in the American League.

The MLB non-waiver trade deadline continued the wave of talent heading out to the land where the pitchers do not pick up a bat and Adam Dunn can still hit bombs. Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols flocked to the superior league in the winter but the happenings over the past few days have, to put it simply, made things ridiculous.

The real losers of the 2012 trade deadline? Every American League team.

The better league got even better.

It is unquestionable that the American League is the superior league. Despite winning only 4 out of the past 7 World Series, year-in and year-out the AL features higher quality overall talent. The interleague records reflect that as the American League once again dominated the National League in 2012, finishing with 142 wins and 110 losses. In fact, since 2004, the AL has won 55% of its games in interleague play.

That doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon.

The Miami Marlins fire sale allowed the Detroit Tigers to pick up Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante. Ryan Dempster’s and Zack Greinke’s expiring contracts were dealt to the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels respectively.

While the National League dealt numerous significant players over to the other side at this year’s trade deadline, Travis Snider and Jonathan Broxton were the only notable Major League player to make the move from the AL to the NL.

Due to the addition of the silly one-game wild-card play-in game, the American League race is tighter than a hipsters skinny jeans. 8 teams are within 6 games of a playoff spot in the AL as opposed to only 4 in the National League. Even if the previous playoff system was in effect, there would still be 5 teams within 3.5 games of a wild-card berth in the American League.

Mix in the AL Central and West division races that just got even closer due to the acquisitions of Infante, Sanchez, Dempster and Greinke, and you see that we’re in for a photo finish to the season. The amplification of the close race at the deadline was to be expected by AL teams but the increasing competition not be what anyone wanted.

As the National League becomes more top-heavy, the American league gets more stacked than 1992 dream team…well maybe not that stacked but you get the picture.

From a fans perspective, it is bordering on devastating to have your team play in the American League. The MLB has had more parity in the last decade but to win the AL takes more than your average playoff team. For most teams, it takes more than just money. It takes more than a good farm system.

Easy games are, of course, more difficult to come by.

It is no longer just the AL East. The AL East has long been the poster child for stacked divisions across all sports and that hasn’t changed with the bottom feeding Toronto Blue Jays sitting 1 game below .500. However, the AL Central and, especially the West both have 3 very quality teams in their division.

No division in the American League is a 2-horse race as the amount of gimme intra-division games are diminishing.

In order to compete in the AL, more teams have to be willing to make bold, daring and present focused moves. That has been reflected in this past off-season as well as the trade deadline. Numerous teams were able to improve their rosters but, by doing so, are only maintaining the status quo.

Such is life as a franchise in the American League.

Also, please vote for me to become Canada’s Next Sportscaster! I am one of the 24 finalists and I need your votes. It only takes a few seconds. Just follow the link: http://www.drafted.ca/finalists/chris-ross/

You can follow me on Twitter @paintstheblack and subscribe to Painting the Black to get the latest posts. Agree? Disagree? You can e-mail me at cross_can15@hotmail.com or reply in the comments section below.

Cold Time Baseball

Some things are just so outdated. Bell-bottom jeans, the stay at home mom, saving yourself for marriage, Polaroid cameras. The list is endless.

You can add old time baseball to that list.

Apparently Cole Hamels did not get the memo because on Sunday Night Baseball, Hamels gave Bryce Harper a welcome to ‘The Show’ bean ball. He didn’t try to hide it either as following the game he told reporters “I was trying to hit him. I’m not going to deny it.” He went on to say that “I’m just trying to continue the old baseball. Some people get away from it.”

There lies the problem.

In a certain sense, Cole Hamels should be respected for the way he manned up to the situation. Unlike in the American League, Hamels had to come to the plate and was subsequently hit very close to his left knee. He wanted to make his point and understood the consequences.

However, the attempt to carry on the tradition of old time baseball for the sake of carrying on the tradition of old time baseball is nonsense. This is a different age and old time baseball has no place in the MLB anymore. Things have changed since the 1960’s in case Cole Hamels hadn’t noticed.

There isn’t any logical explanation for continuing the tradition of old time baseball. Old time baseball is assault with a deadly weapon. Considering how much we now know about head injuries, it is just silly to think that players still believe that there is a place for throwing intentionally at other human beings.

Hamels said that he’s “not going to injure a guy” but how can he be sure to prevent that. Does he realize he is throwing a baseball more than 90 mph from 60 feet 6 inches away? Bryce Harper got hit on the back but what if Hamels’ pitch had gotten away from him. Pitchers do not have pin point accuracy. Hamels may not have been trying to hit Harper but the risk of injury is still there. I don’t think Metta World Peace ever intended to hurt James Harden but look what happened.

What’s worse is that Cole Hamels hit Bryce Harper for absolutely no reason. Bryce Harper is a super phenom so Hamels felt it was his duty to send some sort of message. Too bad his message was in Morse code. His lesson to Harper got lost in translation. I can’t decipher it.

Maybe there’s nothing to decipher.

Hamels tried to justify his actions to the media. Apparently, this is how baseball is meant to be played and we should “let baseball be baseball.” Harper had done nothing to Hamels or the Phillies yet he believes that is baseball. Just because it was done in the past does not make it the way it should be now.

Slavery used to be an entirely acceptable concept in society. That’s the way it was. Times change.

Hamels said that he doesn’t “think umpires should interfere with it…I grew up playing the game hard and watching it, and that’s the way it was.” Yeah, last time I checked playing baseball hard doesn’t involve plunking a defenceless hitter. He also mentioned that “I’d hate for them to change it, which has kind of happened in recent years.” Truth be told, the MLB hasn’t done too much to prevent this. Both Hamels and Zimmerman stayed in the game after hitting their respective players. The umpires clearly decided not to interfere.

Contrary to what Cole Hamels thinks, the MLB should be doing more to protect their players. They are not doing enough. You might want to knock on some wood because it’s probably going to take a death or a severe brain injury before Major League Baseball takes a stance on this issue. Hopefully that day will never come around but this is an incident they can avoid before it happens if they so choose.

The whole idea behind old time baseball is about as wrong as Sarah Palin being Vice President of the United States. It’s not about a transition from tough to soft. It’s about a transition from stupid to sensible. The tradition adds nothing to the game of baseball except for unnecessary risks.

James Harrison can’t comprehend why Roger Goodell has cracked down on his behaviour with such force. It is for the greater good of the game and the safety of his colleagues. Harrison doesn’t see anything wrong with spearing Colt McCoy in the head.

Cole Hamels is “just trying to continue the old baseball…It’s that old school prestigious way of baseball.” The only place it should be prestigious at is the Graterford State Correctional Institution. Sadly, this wasn’t even vigilante justice from Hamels. It was an action without a motive that Hamels considers baseball.

Old time baseball is an archaic way of thinking and Cole Hamels, like so many, have been brainwashed into believing otherwise. There is no mutual respect for opposing players in the tradition. Attack for the sake of attacking. Our ancestors did it so there is no reason for us to question it. Tradition for the sake of tradition.

Give. Me. A. Break.

This wasn’t Cole Hamels taking care of business, whatever that business was.

This was Cole Hamels trying to perpetuate a backwards thinking style of baseball.

You can follow me on Twitter @paintstheblack and subscribe to Painting the Black to get the latest posts.

Agree? Disagree? You can also E-mail Chris at cross_can15@hotmail.com or reply in the comments section below.

America’s New National Treasure

Everyone wants a team who they can root for. Unfortunately, the majority of hometown teams just don’t get the job done. That’s what bandwagons are for. These days, the Washington Nationals wagon is more crowded than a McDonald’s on free coffee day.

It is quite fitting then that the team based in the nation’s capital is quickly becoming America’s team

Largely due to the nature of baseball’s non-existent salary cap, the villainous teams feature much more prominently. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are the driving force of the MLB with fans outside those respective cities rooting almost as hard for a Yankee or Red Sox loss as they do for their hometown team to win. Villains are fantastic for the narrative but nothing sells like a story where the good guys come out on top.

People love the feel good story. We’re suckers for them. That’s why it is hard not to be enthralled by the product the Washington Nationals are putting out right now.

Before they moved to Minnesota, the Washington Senators were known for their losing ways. Washington was “First in war, first in peace and last in the American League.” When Washington finally reacquired a Major League Baseball team in 2005, nothing much changed other than the fact that the losing happened to be in the National League. Washington baseball went with losing like hot fudge and ice cream.

That is, until now.

If you don’t know that the Washington Nationals are the must watch team in baseball, get yourself out from under that rock you have been living under for the past month. With a 15-9 start to the 2012 season, the Nationals haven’t just brought their franchise back to respectability but they have created one of the most marketable professional sports teams in North America.

The Nationals ability to lose, a culture that has long been associated with Washington baseball, didn’t hurt their cause.

Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg, both first overall picks in consecutive years (2009 and 2010), are the faces of this Nationals franchise. They also happen to be two of the most exciting players the MLB has seen in years.

Stephen Strasburg throws a 90+ mph change-up and can touch over 100 mph on his fastball. Despite undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, Strasburg has been absolute dominant this year with a ho-hum 1.12 ERA. Any game that Strasburg is pitching, the baseball world is paying attention.

Bryce Harper is the phenom. He has a hose in the field, power like Mickey Mantle and a swagger that just borders on being a bit too cocky. It has only been 3 games but Harper has shown that he is the real deal. This is the new Alex Rodriguez. Well, the A-Rod that people didn’t used to mind so much.

I’m not the first to say it but this is Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry all over again. The MLB might have its own personal Lebron James-Dwyane Wade duo for the entire nation to focus on. Except in this case, everyone is rooting for this duo to succeed.

It seems more than fair that the Washington fans get treated to something that has the potential to be the most exhilarating tandem in baseball. There is nothing to be jealous of. Most fans can relate to the endurance of perennial hardship and the Washington fans have had their share of hardships. This is a match made in baseball heaven.

The Nationals didn’t simply buy a team to compete with the ridiculousness of the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies. Fresh blood coming up through the draft is treasured by sports society, not condemned. The Nationals are exactly what the doctor ordered for Major League Baseball.

Superstars are the reason professional sports are so popular today. The hardcore fans will always be there but stars bring the casual fans. Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg have the god-given insaneness to show a person that maybe baseball isn’t too slow a game for them. It isn’t too difficult to get behind two guys who can, not preposterously, remind us of the good ol’ days of Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry.

So hop on aboard the Washington Nationals bandwagon. There’s more than enough room for everyone.

What else would you expect for America’s new team?

You can follow me on Twitter @paintstheblack and subscribe to Painting the Black to get the latest posts.

Agree? Disagree? You can also E-mail Chris at cross_can15@hotmail.com or reply in the comments section below.