Chick On Sports

In an entry on Curt Schilling’s blog, 38 Pitches, the former Red Sox slinger makes some good points on the issue of steroid use in baseball and, more specifically, on the outing and subsequent confession by A-Fraud that he did in fact use steroids from 2001-2003. 

First of all, Schilling gives A-Rod credit for doing what most others suspected of steroid use have failed to do, he fessed up and owned it. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens could face possible jail time, not because they may or may not have used steroids, but because if they did, they are guilty of purgery.

For arguments sake lets assume both Bonds and Clemens did take steroids. If they had told the grand jury the truth people would have been outraged and disappointed that two of baseball’s heroes took a short cut, but neither  would likely go to jail for using steroids.

A-Fraud will still always be linked to steroids but the story will eventually die down. The likes of Bonds and Clemens will continue to get the attention of the press because of the possible indictments that could be handed down over their false statements under oath. For players who want this whole scandal to just go away- if you did it, admit to it and then lets all move on.

Like Schilling I think Rodriguez made right in this particular decision. Here’s what Schilling had to say.

It doesn’t make him any less guilty, any less accountable or any less of a Yankee (subtle Yankee jab) but it’s refreshing as hell to see someone say “I f’d up, I made a mistake and I’ll have to deal with it”. He’s fricking human, he made a horrible choice and he’ll have to deal with it.

Do whatever you want, speculate on whatever you want but the guy ‘manned up’, admitted his mistake, that’s enough for me. Nothing we can do about it at this point but move on as fans and players.

Shilling doesn’t stop there. He goes on to call out MLB and the players association for letting this list of 104 positive test results to leak. When the players agreed to submit to the test in 03′ both MLB and the MLBPA gave their assurances that no one would be accountable for their test results, as there was no rule in baseball at that time banning steroid use. 

As it stands now A-Rod has been singled out from the list of positive results, which for him isn’t really fair. Maybe his result is the only one that the SI reporters could get multiple confirmations for, more likely, he is the biggest name of current players on the list thus his results will sell more magazines and get more press.

For guys who played during the 2003 season many have come forth and said that they would like the complete list of 104 names to be made public because until it is a doubt is cast over all of them.

The craziest thing of this entire steroid/HGH schamozzle??? Jose Canseco who spilled the beans early on (and profited from it via sales of his book, Juiced) turns out to be one of the most honest guys in baseball.