These Records Are Tainted [Addison Quale]

Well, call it what you like. He's a product of his times. He's just doing what everyone else was doing. You would have done the same thing. Whatever. I'll call it for what it is--and that is cheating. It is illegal in baseball to use steroids. And it has been quite clear to all for some time now that Barry Bonds used them.

The rules in baseball aren't there to be just broken. There's a spirit to them. You're supposed to abide by the spirit of the law and not just the letter. Even if Bonds found a way to use performance enhancing steroids without somehow getting caught doesn't make it right. And I don't care if 99% of MLB was using too. It doesn't make a difference. Cheating is cheating is cheating. The law doesn't change once all your friends are breaking it too.

So instead of having the famed single-season and all-time home run records be the result of hard work, discipline, integrity, sportsmanship and courage, they are now blatant manifestations of pride, greed, ambition, contempt, lawlessness and selfishness.

The numbers 60, 61, 714 and 755 used to mean something. They symbolized excellence--pure courage and venerable excellence--that we could all stand up and cheer for (eg. Cal Ripken). But now they have been replaced with a whole new set of numbers: 66, 70, 73, 756. And these have now become symbols of pride and lies. A broken record means nothing when it's based on a lie. An idea means nothing if it's got no integrity to it. And when a record is broken based on a lie, that is not grounds for cheering but rather grounds for being disgusted

MLB has screwed up big time. They used to have a product which was the thing of dreams--something we all knew was good, something we wanted to tell our kids about. But in their drive for fame they let that get away from them. And allowed men like Barry Bonds to usurp that goodness. These records are tainted forever. As far as I'm concerned the home run records right now stand at 61 and 755.