by Lynette Alice

Created on: January 08, 2007   Last Updated: March 09, 2009

There was a time when I remember a simpler game. I grew up a Yankees fan in the seventies. Not a bad time to be introduced to baseball. My first live game was Catfish Hunter -vs- Eckersley in Ruths house. Reggie homered, I was hooked. I was a tremendous fan of the late Thurman Munson and became a catcher to emulate him. I watched how he played the game taped from head to to with that wonderfully grumpy nature.

Over the next few years I had the privilege of meeting many players of bygone eras and even playing for a couple former pros down in Florida a few summers at a camp. I was taught to play hard, play smart, and above all play by the rules. I never watched Ripken, Randolph, Winfield, Henderson, or Mattingly and wondered how they did what they did year after year. I always assumed they were doing their job, one of the greatest jobs on the planet no less and doing it without steroids.

I never look back at guys like Jim Rice or Killebrew and wonder what supplement they used. Now when I watch a game, literally a couple of hundred a year, I have my doubts about far too many ballplayers. It's not fair as most are steroid free probably, but the fact is the seed has been planted. Once it takes root the damage is done.

Some people argue that steroids weren't illegal several years ago so the players didn't really cheat. Well that sounds nice to some I suppose, but steroids were illegal. They still are. The simple fact that the purchase, transportation and use were against the law should have been enough to dissuade anyone from taking such a risk yet it didn't. Technically the players that did that are criminals, but hey why bother? They are above the law right? Wrong! They aren't above the law or the scrutiny of the fans that pay their salaries and fuel their lifestyles. Ask Palmeiro or Sosa if there aren't repercussions. The game has been tainted and sadly who knows how long until we can watch a game again and think about what's happening on the field rather than behind closed doors.

It was painful to watch athletes from a titan like Mark McGwire straight through to Roger Clemens fumble through hearings in front of congress. With each new day a new revelation of performance enhancing substances surfaced. Baseball forums and chat rooms are bogged down with more talk of the steroids than the game itself. Speculation is rampant, in a very quick survey of the Yahoo Answers forum on baseball seventeen of the first fifty questions I perused dealt with steroids. Far more

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