Steroids in Baseball? But of Course!!

Tonight I saw something rather unreal. Actually, I have seen it more than once but it is still sickening and unreal. What I saw was the New York Yankees come back in the bottom of the eleventh inning, after going behind a run in the top of the inning after the second basemen of the Anaheim Angels hit a shallow single over the head of Alex Rodriguez to score a run to go ahead 3-2 in the game. Enter the bottom of the inning and none other than that same Alex Rodriguez comes up to the plate to lead off the inning, third pitch, up and away and BOOM! Over the glove of right fielder Bobby Abreu and into the first row of wet fans on a rainy night. That made my heart sink further down into my chest because it reminded me that the only reason why unreal comebacks like that occur in a single baseball game is because of the dreaded S word. Yes I do mean steroids! It has been an ongoing subject the last three straight years. We keep talking about it and talking about and going on and on about steroids affecting a player's batting stance, steroids affecting the mind set of a player bringing on mood swings in-game and making it so that freakish things can happen over the course of a single game. Since I am a local bay area boy born and bred, I can literally tell you that it was no surprise to me when Barry Bonds was in the news of suspected drug use because not only is he past the age of forty, but he was in really good shape and he was dinging the ball out of the stadium as if it was a whiffle ball. And we all knew that it wasn't a whiffle ball now didn't we? Hmmm, let's think here....Mark McGwire, 37 years old slugging the ball out of the ballpark as if it was the easiest thing to do, oh and hitting 70 home runs to boot. Sammy Sosa, treating it fairly easily and 66 home runs to boot. Then years later, Barry Bonds, the bay area's own son, hitting it like it was fairly easy (even though it isn't) and dinging 73 homers to beat McGwire's record who beat Roger Maris's record who beat Babe Ruth's record. So not only were these old fogies over the ages of forty making history all at once within a few years apart, but they were cheating history all at once within a few years. How crazy is that? Now because of the whole cheating scandal, all types of ballplayers are being shunned out of the spotlight, some forced and some voluntary. McGwire will not show his face anymore and Bonds cannot find a job anymore. Go figure! Finally justice in sports. Brings me back to the earlier Alex Rodriguez homer, reminded me of all the bad we had gone through as fans over the past few years. Him hitting that ball over the right field fence, made everyone, including some New Yorkers cringe with fear because of all that has happened to the game and sports in general so far. It is unlikely that people will get over this anytime soon but we can only hope that it gets better and the drug tests are much more full of clarity. We shall see, but as of right now I will still be cringing and for the next couple of days will be wondering what if! For baseball will always be apart of my life, but hopefully the purity and joy of the game remains intact.