by Biff McGregor

Created on: February 16, 2007   Last Updated: April 27, 2007

This week, ESPN.com published/is publishing a series of articles examining the connection between Hispanic/Latino baseball players and steroids. I am here to suggest that this is exactly the connection that makes people question baseball more than all other sports when it comes to steroids and other performance enhancing drugs.

I am not the first one to point out that there is a double standard in the world of professional sports when it comes to performance enhancing drugs, or drugs of any kind. Charles Oakley once claimed to play most of his games stoned, and no one batted an eyelash. Shawne Merriman was suspended for 25% of the 2006 NFL season for a positive steroid test and made the Pro Bowl, not to mention that he nearly won defensive player of the year. Yet in baseball, players are vilified when people even believe they have taken steroids. The most recent and obvious example is Mark McGwire, who should have been a no doubt Hall-of-Famer but instead has to deal with questions about whether or not he was clean. Sure, his arms were the size of hams. Sure, he was the poster boy for a power revolution in baseball. But outside of Jose Canseco's book (which everyone is ready to take as gospel after ONE PLAYER he named has since tested positive), there is NO evidence whatsoever that McGwire ever took anything stronger than andro, which was available at your local Rite Aid or GNC in 1998.

What I am saying, and I think (probably incorrectly) for the first time, is that the reason baseball is singled out is because of the massive Hispanic/Latino population within the game and its popularity in the Hispanic/Latino population. Now, I have no sociological research to back this up, no causal evidence, this is pure correlation. Nobody cares about NFL players taking all kinds of steroids and having life long health problems. Nobody cares about the stereotype of the NBA weed-dealing thug. But everyone seems to care about the Dominican juicer in Major League Baseball. Of course McGwire and Barry Bonds get all the attention, but what about Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro? Both of them are pretty much blackballed at this point. Does anyone think Sammy will be greeted with cheers this season? Heck, a Hispanic (Jose Canseco) literally wrote the book on steroids in baseball. In football, steroids gets tied to names like Shawne Merriman, Todd Steussie, Todd Sauerbrun, Bill Romanowski, and Dana Stubblefield. Does anybody care? Not really. Jose Canseco and Rafael Palmeiro come up dirty, and suddenly McGwire is dirty by association.

I came up with this because of the anti-immigration, anti-Hispanic, anti-Spanish language feelings that are sweeping through society. If you haven't noticed it, you just aren't paying close enough attention. Maybe what I'm saying is wrong, baseless, and sensationalist.

Maybe it's just something to consider.

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