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If only home runs generated moral mileage

June 25, 2005 ~ 1:06 a.m.

Hank Aaron must surely be fuming to think a cheater like Barry Bonds might break his home run record

Barry Bonds is going to be allowed to play baseball through the 2007 season, just so he can tie or break Hank Aaron�s home run record. Doesn�t that make you feel sunny? Athletes getting special treatment? The hell you speak!

Bud Selig and Major League Baseball talk the talk about drugs, but they don�t walk the walk. It is common knowledge that Bonds used steroids. Bonds� personal weight trainer gave him access to drugs from a San Francisco-based pharmaceuticals company. The performance-enhancing drugs were also given to other players, who remain in uniform as well. Selig says that �we at MLB strive for zero tolerance� as it relates to steroids and promises that they�ll do everything in their power to get zero tolerance.

Yet, the fact remains that Bonds�as well as Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield and others�are free to still play the game. In fact, Bonds has now been given special dispensation to play the game that he has abused. Baseball should be a game of natural skill. But Selig is content to let these guys trump nature in the quest to hit towering home runs. Hey, as long as the fans get the offense they pay for, who cares about drug abuse?

Fact: Steroids are a Schedule III Controlled Substance as defined by U.S. Federal Law. So, guess what? If you use steroids, you are breaking the law. Everyone from the street kid to the company CEO cannot legally use such substances to work out with or they risk a one-year prison term. You would think that enough evidence exists to say that Bonds has used illegal drugs and must face the law. If not a fine or jail sentence, certainly the end of his career would seem just punishment.

But, no. Darryl Strawberry sniffed as many lines of coke as he pleased and was allowed to play. Selig suspended him for sixty days. That�ll learn him! And Bonds can openly admit to shooting steroids and the response is�stay on, kid, you�ve got an audience to please.

If Selig and Major League Baseball want to get tough and have a zero-tolerance approach to drugs, then they need to kick the bums out who�ve used them. Bonds should have been told years ago, after the 2003 season when his steroid use was uncovered, that his talents were no longer desired. What better way to send a message to young upstarts who covet a stellar Major League career, that if you fuck with drugs, your career is fucked.

Seems so simple and straightforward. But not in the world our sports �heroes� live in. I love the game of baseball too much not to be tortured by this pansy-ass regime that Selig is running. As long as he can entice people to ballparks, why be bothered about the moral aspect of the game? No time for that as long as The Barry Bonds Show comes to a stadium near you!

Here�s another fact to chew on: Hank Aaron hit 755 home runs through his own power. What a worthless milestone Barry Bonds will achieve if that record is tied or broken. One wonders if Bonds would be in this position if he hadn�t pumped himself full of chemicals.

� M.E.M.

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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.

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