Major League Baseball gets “BALCOed” right between the eyes

Fryingpan Sports

Major League Baseball gets “BALCOed” right between the eyes

By Bill Smith

Alex Rodriguez

The second worst thing that could have happened to MLB was that their all time home run king Barry “I never saw a steroid I wouldn’t use” Bonds was found to have gotten many of those home runs by use of the clear among other things. That put a whole new meaning to the phrase “juiced up baseball.”

Now the worst thing has happened—Alex Rodriguez has admitted he used steroids too. This is a horrible disclosure for a number of reasons. Baseball was hoping that ARod would pass the permanently stained Bonds to save baseball from the insult of having the top record in the game held by a drug user. As bad as things are now, they will get worse. ARod was one of 104 players that tested positive. You can bet that the names of the others will be leaked one or two at a time. SI has gotten the list and they will use it to sell as many magazines as possible.

It was bad enough when Jason Giambi admitted using steroids in May 2007 when he told USA Today he was wrong for using the “stuff.” Now things have gone from worse to irreparable. The admission by ARod has been the deepest possible wound to baseball. Many other stars have admitted or been proven to have used steroids as well.

The BALCO scandal has done what most baseball experts felt was the impossible—give credibility to Jose Canseco’s claims in his book Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big. With every new disclosure, Canseco becomes more and more believable. That is a scary thing for the sport.

But baseball didn’t do this all by themselves—they had help from the Players Association. The results of a “survey” of players in 2003 done by MLB to determine if a full testing program would be necessary were leaked to Sports Illustrated. In addition, the article that named ARod as one of the players on the list that was found to have tested positive for steroids claimed that the players were tipped off about tests ahead of time.

Monday, Donald Fehr, Major League Baseball Players Association’s executive director, said that the results were not destroyed due to a subpoena from a federal grand jury for the information. He also denied that the association ever warned players about tests.

So what if anything should be done about the official records surpassed during the Roids era by suspected or proven users? As always, I have an opinion. Don’t put an asterisk next to Bonds and who ever else has been proven to use juice. Instead use white out and wipe the record off the book entirely. In my opinion and that of many baseball fans, Hank Aaron is the all time home run leader. I don’t care if ARod or anyone else hits 1000 home runs—they don’t count for me and never will.

As far as the Baseball Hall of Fame, I am still willing to have ARod considered based on his play before whatever date the study finds was the real beginning of the steroid era. But no records should count. If you don’t do it honestly, you don’t get credit for it.

That’s what I think. Tell me what you think.

Bill Smith is a former coach of several semi-pro teams, has officiated both football and basketball, done color on radio for college football and basketball and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for and edits https://fryingpansports.com. He has also published several novels on and edits .

My email is [email protected].