Baseball on steroids
Hard to disagree with Tom Glavine that the revelations coming out about steroid use in baseball are hardly revelations at all. It's been an issue for many years, even if baseball was always noticeably quiet about it and even if progress has been ridiculously slow: MLB didn't even ban steroids until '02 and start testing for it until this year. THG didn't get banned until last March and human growth hormone still isn't banned.
My question for Glavine and the players' union -- he's one of its leaders -- is will they finally give in and allow serious testing? Or do they need John McCain to introduce legislation in Congress and a public browbeating to untaint the game?
How much sentiment is there among fans to put an asterisk on Bonds' 73 home runs if he used steroids -- and not flaxseed oil, as he claims -- to help produce the record number of dingers? Who else gets an asterisk, if so? Personally, I don't believe in such indicators, for Maris, Bonds or any record-holder. We've gone from deadball eras to lower mounds to bandbox ballparks, from 154-game schedules to 162, etc. Conditions change. Getting the game off steroids should be the next big change.