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Public opinion these days seems to be swaying
towards an acceptance of steroid use in baseball. People are
not asking so much about if it is being done, but rather how
can you actually prove it. There is very little debate over
the consequences of being found out, this is a sport where
statistics are king. For the baseball enthusiasts, numbers
like 500, 30-30, 50-50, .300, .400 need no additional information.
We all know what they mean, and their significance is based
on the premise of fair play. Barry Bonds, the media’s
favourite whipping boy, is at the center of this controversy,
even if the recent hearing on this matter excluded him. Barry
Bonds has not only broken McGuire’s single season record,
but he is about 1 juiced season away from becoming the all-time
leader. There were allegations and positive tests before,
in newspapers and on television, but these rumours turned
into air after a few days since it was not considered cool
to go after Sosa and McGuire during their historic Maris-breaking
single season event.
McGuire himself is in the best position. He was only caught
taking Andro, a substance that was banned after the fact.
He has been out of baseball now for a few years, and there
is virtually no way to do any kind of testing that would conclusively
prove he was juiced during his Hall of Fame making seasons.
Voters who choose not to select into the Hall of Fame will
be doing so simply out of principal. In fact, if McGuire was
part of an ethnic minority, he could easily gain instance
entrance if he publicized the fact that the bias would be
based on race.
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