Recently a Communications Director for the Los Angeles Angels (of all teams) was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment because he provided performance enhancing drugs to a player who died as a result of those drugs. These are the same drugs that Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemons took and they are now being considered for the Hall of Fame balloting. If dangerous drugs are accepted that either kill a player or allow him to produce phony statistics where does that leave the morality/ethics of the national pastime? Said another way, MLB is OK with earning unfair stats to get into the Hall of Fame but don’t take so much that it kills you because that’s a bad PR move for the game. Further note: all of the druggies mentioned above play for huge ad market teams. These markets produce huge ad dollars for networks, team owners and players. MLB doesn’t want to alienate them so expect a continuing spiral downward of ethical standards. Again we ask the question: Is Pete Rose still on the outside of baseball’s lines because he gambled or because he’s from a small ad market team–the Cincinnati Reds? Is it OK to reward drug-tainted stats with Hall of Fame recognition but disallow Pete consideration for re-instatement? BTW, ALL OF PETE’S STATS WERE EARNED WITHOUT THE HELP OF DRUGS. The next time you watch a ballgame ask yourself : how many players are actually drug-free?
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