Judging by reaction around baseball, Sammy Sosa testing positive for steroids (just a report at this point, mind you) is akin to saying the Yankees have a big payroll. Is anyone surprised? Ummm … that would be a big fat no.
In fact, surprise was the word of the day. A sampling …
Lance Berkman is not at all surprised: "That's not that surprising at all. There are just certain guys that you pretty much know without coming out and making an out and out accusation, but it does not surprise me, not even a little bit."
Don't even try to throw a surprise party for Aramis Ramirez: "Nothing surprises me anymore. Everybody talked about it, but I played with him for two years here and I never saw him do anything wrong."
Joe Torre is surprised when his own player gets caught, but not by anyone else: "As far as being surprised, I was surprised with Manny. And after that, I mean, how can you be surprised anymore? After Manny, how can you be surprised?"
Lou Piniella is surprised you would even ask him about it: "I don't know that much about it. Maybe if managers had been trained a little more in these areas, I could answer better, but I don't know. I wouldn't know a steroid from a reefer."
After dealing with A-Rod and now Sosa, Rangers GM Jon Daniels seems to wish he could be surprised: "But it's the same reaction as I had with Alex [Rodriguez]. You hope it's not true. But, unfortunately, nothing would surprise all of us at this point."
Don Mattingly hopes these non-surprise surprises are going to soon come to an end: "I don't think it surprises anybody any more. I think it's good that we've got a policy in place. … "Obviously, there's a lot of guys. I'd just go ahead -- if there's 103 guys, let's get 'em all out. We'll know who's who and go from there. We'll get it over with."
White Sox broadcaster Steve Stone is surprised that Sosa drew attention to himself: "I'm kind of surprised that he came out for an official retirement, because sometimes when you do that and make a comment as he made, it has ramifications that you can't foresee and in this case, these are some of the ramifications."
And perhaps most surprising is the reaction of Angels reliever Darren Oliver: "Better him than me. He's the one who has to deal with it. It seems like if you are caught with this, you can kiss the Hall of Fame goodbye."
You want a surprise? Oliver might now have a better chance than Sosa at the Hall of Fame. I don't think anyone would have expected something like that.
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I have enjoyed this article. I am an avid MLB enthusiast. It is my hope that any player and manager of such player caught using performance enhancing drugs should be out of the game for life. This would stop the the ones who are responsible for endorsing the drugs and enticing the players for using them. It would not be worth the humiliation and loss of income for these drugs that are crippling players and sullying the name of Baseball.
I think it is naive to think that this would stop anything.
Cheating has always been a part of baseball.
Steroids is just the newest "cheat".
There is too much money in the game to stop people from coming up with new chemicals to enhance performance.
Pandora's box was re-opened a long time ago.. this time hope was lost as well.
As an avid fan of Major League Baseball I have enjoyed this article. My thoughts on how to deter this kind of behaviour in the future is this: Any player and his manager caught using performance enhancing drugs should be banned from base all for life. It is my opinion that one who cheats should not be glorified. Instead they should be made ashamed and shunned by the company of honest hard working players. Drug using is not only dangerous physically but it is teaching our youth to believe that cheating is a good thing. People who cheat belong in politics not Major League Baseball. Baseball Players are heroes to our youth and they now more than ever need to have some heros. God Bless Baseball!
Sosa suddenly puts on 45 pounds of solid muscle? In his thirties? His performance shows a near 100% improvement? He, Bonds, Palmiero, McGwire, all the usual suspects, should be excluded from the Hall.
And there are others that one can strongly suspect. Garciaparra shows up for spring training one year twenty five pounds heavier than the year before. Then gets hurt and stays hurt. Lenny Dykstra looks like a World's Strongest Man contestant all of a sudden. Kevin Brown turns into an NFL linebacker when he gets to NY. And of course, is immediately and permanently hurt. Bagwell in Houston goes from a solidly built guy to a behemoth. The late Ken Caminiti did the same, though he admitted to use. Brady Anderson comes out of nowhere to hit home runs like Willie Mays (for one year). And there's A-Rod and Manny. And likely many more than the 102 from the 2003 test.
What is so insulting is that they take those who love the game for such fools.
When I was a kid, I lived for baseball. It's all I ever played, all I ever watched. This is why I hardly even pay attention to the sport anymore. If I was going to weigh-in on the punishment though: banned for life AND have to re-pay your entire last contract, signing bonus included, to the team you've also embarrassed. Make the penalty so incredibly harsh, it really would make a cheater at least think twice before doing it. All Sosa (and McGwire) did by their actions is invalidate the memory of their season that captivated even the most borderline fan to the game. Now Sosa thinks he's going to wait patiently for induction into the HOF? That's going to be a REALLY long wait Sammy.
No one should be shocked or surprised about any of this. The corporate heads, league officials, management, and fellow ball players knew this was going on and allowed it to happen. The reason is simple, GREED. The fans have allowed this to go on as well. They are the ones paying the ever increasing prices for tickets and refreshments and then they want to act insulted because their "Heroes" have let them down, come on get serious. Stop supporting the egos of these players and everyone asociated with them. Athletes are all very much over paid and if they think they can get more money and a little cheating will get them what they wany then they will do it aslong as they can get by with it.
Fans can control a lot of this by not supporting these sports and bring the world of athletes back to reality. Sports in general are not sports any longer they are big business, their objective is to make as much money as possible and do anything they need to do to keep the fans excited and interested. GET SMART PEOPLE, ONLY YOU CAN END THE STUPIDITY WE CALL SPORTS!!
Ho Hum
The '94 strike killed baseball. Something big was needed to rekindle interest. McGwire/Sosa, chemicals included, was the recipe decided upon. The powers that be- Selig , players association, team execs- looked the other way when all indicators pointed to cheating. Players noticed before the fans. More cheaters started, more records were set. As these behemoths imbibed, costs went up for the fans. We're paying more than ever, in a recession, to watch steroid junkies play the sport we love. They don't respect the game. Where will all this end? Roid rage on the field? More Clemens - Piazza action? Take back the game. I know how we can do that. All it takes is some resolve on OUR part.
Fans, boycott the games to make a statement. Watch them on TV, sure, but don't go to the stadium. It's time that we took a stand for what is right. Can the selfish "I wanna go to the game" attitude and enjoy the game from home. Beer and hot dogs are cheaper, no parking fees or gas needed. Save money and the game. Send Selig and the players a message. Let the owners know that we aren't going to pay their prices to watch chemically altered players piss all over our game. Because that's what it is. It OUR GAME and we've gotta grab control.
Sosa, McGuire, Bonds, and their ilk should be banned from the HOF. These guys are nothing more the scam artists to the fans and game of baseball. It seems players like Manny Rimerez, Alex Rodrigez, were paid millions for their ability to hit, their talent was overshadowed by their greed and their will to fool the fans into thinking they were natural power-hitters. Instead they used performance enhancing steroids to deceive MLB and the gullible fans. I grew up on baseball, but find myself repulsed by the falsehood of these players and each and everyone needs to be banned from baseball for life, as well as refused entry into the HOF. Perhaps we should develope an new museum called the HAll of Shame and fill it with all these dispicable, cheating liers, steroid using, scam artists who profoundly deceived the fans and disgraced themselves and the name of baseball.
I love homeruns! I think anyone who can hit 500 should be in the hall of fame. The game has eveloved. Performance enhancing substance is just part of the EVERYDAY sports life. Don't fool yourselves into thinking it will ever go away for ANY sport. Sit back and enjoy the game. Sit back and enjoy hollywood movies (oh yeah, the actors get that big by working out....) sit back and enjoy the entertainment.
a$$hole - your type is why this steroid sh!t proliferates. Grow some balls and help save OUR game.
your game died in 94......Are you really that dumb to not think that the players were using performance enhancing supplements....really?....players HAVE been looking for the 'edge' since the game was invented.....come on common sense, you must be smarter then you sound.......
The "who cares?" argument has a flaw. If that is the way you go the game quickly becomes a matter of your chemist against my chemist and eventually you're going to have to regulate that - SO - if you're going to have to put your foot down sooner or later, why not put your foot down now?
I agree with you TED. Its called Hormone Replacement Therapy......Goggle it. Its becoming the norm, not only in Hollywood and professional sports, but can be obtained by any person that wants to inprove their own quality of life. A doctor can diagnose you as HGH deficient and you can be prescribed this so called "Drug" legally!!
We call the athletes cheaters,drug users, and villify them because we the public are just uneducated on the subject. This will be the norm in 15-20 years from now for everyone to be able to enjoy longer periods of quality living using the same "drugs" as these great athletes. I think that we are missing whats truly going on right now. We are at the beginning of a new, exciting time in medicine that has the potential to set new standards in not only sports but in the human race. Look how fast the tecnology age as come upon us. I'm only 32 years old and can remember when the computers were only good for playing Pong and saving some data on the old floppy disc! Dosen't it make sense that we can improve ourselves as well as technology???? It's not like these athletes are pumping Lyle Alzado type steriods into their bodies.....It's not like they're sharing needles with the herion addicts at the local crackhouse.....These athletes know exactly what is going into thier bodies....
Truth is. We don't understand it so it MUST be wrong.....Isn't that sooo 1951!!!!!