by Peter F. Ravenson

Created on: August 22, 2009

Baseball will find a way back from scandal because it always does. If its not the Black Sox World Series scandal, its not having the World Series at all. If baseball has survived these hurdles, I highly doubt that they will come out of the steroid era with any major scars. All they really have to do is what they have been trying to do; don't ask, don't tell. Of course news reporters are still going to uncover the remnants of certain players, but if Major League Baseball can make a good effort to get their major stars on the up and up, the leads for these over zealous reporters and politicians are going to eventually dry up. As soon as there is no one left to be found, baseball will just do what they do best; recover. Its the sport that just won't die in America.

Even though statistically, in the United States, the National Football League kills them in ratings, Americans still show a passion for baseball. Of course things like steroid use stain the game, but sports fans are so much like toddlers, that all you have to do is hand them a lollipop and the temper tantrum is over, like it never happened.

The way that Major League Baseball has pacified the government and public eye by creating rules to appease them, has taken a lot of prying eyes off of steroids and back into the game. Unfortunately a lot of star players, who have been found with evidence of steroid use, slow down the process by living in their own fantasy world that denies steroids were ever used. Some of these players will admit to using them, but do a very poor job of letting the public know that they truly are sorry for tainting the game. If Major League Baseball was truly going to show the public that they did not approve of steroid use, they would give more than a lame, "shame, shame", to the players that were found to have done steroids five years ago and at least give a genuine public statement that shows their disdain for such an act.

The one thing that makes the steroid issue keep on lingering is that Major League Baseball refuses to take full responsibility for the actions of their players and does not seem to think that they should become apart of issues that happened more than a couple years ago. In doing so it puts a great distrust in fan's mouths, that is going to have to be washed out with lots of something, in order for them to totally get over the steroid issue.

Granted they do give stiff penalties to any players they catch using steroids now, but sweeping issues under the rug that happened during a time where home run production was at its highest around the league is just a bone headed move. Even Joe Schmo can put two and two together and understand that Major League Baseball is trying to get him to believe that the answer is not four.

Until Major League Baseball gives an answer that at least looks like the right one, they will have to deal with the steroid issue. Once they can weed out the majority of the steroid leads, the steroid issue will just become one of those issues that old timers bring up saying, "Remember when.....". As soon as that happens steroids will just become an interesting and scandalous story that baseball can add to its achives that keeps there fans interested in its history and in buying another ticket so they can make sure that they become part of its future.

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