Tainted Record

I work as a board operator at 1230 WCWA in Toledo, Ohio. This past week the two hosts of the station's sports show had a guest on air who said something I feel fails to be mentioned.

I consider myself a basketball and football fan. I do not pay particular attention to baseball, except during playoff time. With that said, I still do engage myself in the sport's national issues such as the steroids controversy.

The guest on the show was Christine Brennan of the USA Today and her comments were ones I can only begin to compliment. Paraphrased, Brennan said the Major League Baseball's handling of the Barry Bonds situation has been nothing short of pathetic. One of the greatest records in sports is being approached by nothing more than a cheater. Brennan continues to say Commissioner Bud Selig knew this was going on during the Sosa/McGwire homerun bash, but failed to act. A record has been tainted forever by a cheater.

As for my thoughts on Brennan's remarks, I could not agree more. The media and public fails to blatantly realize that Barry Bonds was and is a cheater. Yes, he was a solid hitter prior to when he began taking steroids, but once he started dosing Bonds was transformed into a power hitter. In fact his head grew three sizes in one season.

I understand lots of people still feel Bonds is innocent considering he has not been convicted. That is where your wrong. As stated by Brennan on the 1230 WCWA sports show, leaked information from a grand jury stated that Barry Bonds did indeed confess to a jury he had taken steroids.

So why has action not been taken? Simple, Bud Selig choose not to in 1998 and sure is heck is not going to be doing it now. He failed the sport of baseball, but more importantly the fans and the game. And it did not help that Barry Bonds cheated a record Hank Aaron earned rightfully.

There are three scenarios I hope happen to Barry Bonds:

1. A pitcher smokes him in the knee and his career is called before he gets the record.
2. No one cheers for his record breaking homerun.
3. Barry Bonds is never elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

It really is unthinkable how bad things have gotten for baseball. Selig failed to act, and Bonds desired to cheat. Result? A huge asterisk next to the 700 something homeruns Barry Bonds hits.