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Caution: Sox Fans
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I’d like to see every Red Sox fan’s cell phone statements and sent email files over the past few days. How many “A-Roid” or “A-Fraud” or “Cheater” messages were sent to friends and family members in New York? The enemy’s evilness has been uncovered (a reference for all of the nerds who bought into the “Evil Empire” Star Wars references a few years back).
Be careful “Red Sox Nation.”
Be very, very careful.
Over the past few seasons we’ve seen some of the best players of our generation go down in flames. Not just any flames, but lighter fluid and gasoline enhanced flames…performance enhanced flames.
Let’s recap the stars linked to performance enhancing drugs:
Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Andy Pettitte, Miguel Tejada, Eric Gagne, Juan Gonzalez, David Justice, Mo Vaughn, Troy Glaus, Kevin Brown, Ken Caminiti, Benito Santiago, and Matt Williams.
That list totes the following impressive collective resume:
- 19 MVP Awards
- 15 World Series rings
- 8 Cy Young Awards
- 128 All Star Appearances
- 4 Rookie of the Year Awards
- 6,909 total HRs
- 2 single season HR record breakers
- #1, #6, #8, #10, #12 all time HR leaders
- #3 all time in strikeouts
- 300+ game winner
- 2 – 200+ game winners
- 3 out of the 4 members of the 40-40 club
- 2 time 20 strikeout game pitcher
- 19 single season HR crowns (AL & NL combined)
- 1 World Series MVP Award
- 2 All Star Game MVP Awards
- Likely successor of the all time HR record
- 1 sure fire additional 500 HR hitter
WOW!
We should not be so dismissive of our own bunch. We should not act like the parents who are gullible enough to believe their children’s friends smoke pot, but their children have never tried it.
It’s easy to point fingers at Alex Rodriguez and scream “CHEATER,” but if we are screaming that we better get our hands on a DeLorian and a crazy doctor first and time travel into the future. This way we can double check and make sure that no current members of the Red Sox will ever be implicated in a steroid sting.
Don’t get me wrong, if I had to jot down a list of my least favorite Major Leaguers over the past ten years Bonds, Clemens, A-ROD, and McGwire would be right there at the top of that list. However, I have to withhold the character issues I have with them when considering their accomplishments in the era they played. This is the “Steroid Era,” and is an era when power hitters, staff aces, closers, base stealers, record breakers, catchers, bench warmers, and border line Major Leaguers have all indulged.
I believe the: “Everybody’s doing it” statement is completely fitting and fair to consider in the analysis of the careers of the aforementioned.
This accepting view will soften the blow when and if a more key contributor of the new millennium’s Red Sox success is uncovered.
Clemens was most likely far removed from the Sox organization when he was fueling up and Canseco was not too much of an impact while at Fenway.
Mo Vaughn didn’t bring home any rings, but steroid use during his tenure in Boston and MVP season cannot be ruled out.
Kent Mercker was with the squad was with the squad in 1999. Not too much to say here.
Paxton Crawford, Mike Lansing, Mike Stanton, Jeremy Giambi, Paul Byrd, Eric Gagne, and Brenden Donnelly all were members of the Red Sox after the turn of the century. The last three were contributors on the 2007 World Championship team (albeit not too much help by that three huge-headed monster).
So far the Red Sox have dodged the bullet, but how long can they avoid these bullets like Neo in the Matrix?
The last thing I want to see is any member of the Sox get called out in this witch hunt. Not because their legacy will be tarnished or because they’ll lose endorsement deals. I just don’t want any “neener neener neener” phone calls from 212, 646, or 516 area codes.
Can we say for sure that David Ortiz’ breakout in 2003 and five year tear was one hundred percent pure? After all four of the last ten players to hit fifty home runs have been linked to the steroid controversy and three others have all but been labeled “juice monkeys.”
And you don’t have to have a body like Barry Bonds or Alex Rodriguez to be guilty…ask Mo Vaughn.
Aren’t constant stints on the disabled lists one of the telling signs of a steroid user? J.D. Drew anyone?
Heck, speedster Brian Roberts copped to juicing, so we can’t say Jacoby Ellsbury is in the clear.
Two of the state of Texas’ most high profile hurlers have been implicated (Clemens and Pettitte), whose to say a third can’t be (Josh Beckett)?
Is all six foot two, two hundred-thirty pounds of Jason Varitek natural? You don’t have to be a stud at the plate to be using…ask Jeremy Giambi. And remember six other battery mates were named in the Mitchell Report.
Short second basemen did not get off scot free; see Chuck Knoblauch and Fernando Vina.
And why not make it the three best hitters of our generation guilty of using performance enhancing drugs. First there was Bonds, then A-ROD, and on deck could be Manny?
Sure Manny was kicked out of Boston last season, but he did smack two hundred-seventy-four home runs and drive in eight hundred-sixty-eight runs while in Beantown. He represented the Red Sox in eight consecutive All Star games and won a batting title while being Manny. Oh yeah he also hit fifteen post season home runs with the Sox while being a major contributor on two World Series Championship teams, not to mention winning the World Series MVP in 2004 when the Sox broke the supposed “Curse.”
Hopefully it never comes to this. Hopefully the media can stop talking about “baseball purism” and “asterisks” and just realize this era is just that…an era.
An era that was different then all the rest. An era that may have had some rules, or lack there of, that altered individual statistics.
Come to think of it, should we put an asterisk next to Wilt Chamberlain’s one hundred point game? There was no three second rule back then, so how could Shaq or Hakeem ever break that record? Is there that much of a difference between one rule and the next? Performance enhancing drugs were not against the rules and neither was camping out under the hoop all game for Wilt the Stilt.
I could keep going. It gets more and more ridiculous the more you dissect this issue. The only way this issue becomes a non-issue is if guys like Tim Kurkjian and Bob Costas retire.
Red Sox fans, come April 24th when the Yankees make their first trip to Boston, think before you take out the sharpy and poster board. Think before you throw the twenty year old Everett High drop out, fifteen bucks for the cheapest quality t-shirt with “A-Roid” on the front of it.
There are one hundred-three more names on that list. There are plenty of trainers with a lot of inside information that could give them a five hundred percent raise over night. There is a plethora of Selena Roberts with laptops and tape recorders looking to make front page news.
The chances of the Sox staying above this controversy are pretty slim.
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