Well, I found out that today Barry Bonds has passed Hank Aaron’s NL home run hitting record. This isn’t his career record, Bonds hasn’t passed that yet. He’s still 31 homeruns behind. But, this has reminded me of the whole Balco scandal, and the fact that Barry Bonds definitely used illegal performance enhancing substances.
It really irritates me that Major League Baseball (MLB) has not stepped up and announced that Barry Bond’s will be ineligible for the record. It is impossible to know how many seasons, and homeruns, that Barry Bonds used while on performance enhancing drugs. In fact, I would be surprised if Barry Bonds is not taking performance enhancing drugs now.
So why is baseball allowing him to continue his home run hitting trek? Are they really going to replace Hank Aaron in the record books with a known cheater? How is his drug use any better than Pete Rose’s gambling scandal? It is worse, if you ask me. Worse because thousands of atheletes throughout the world now feel that they have to use drugs in order to compete with people like Barry.
I intend to write the baseball commissioner and tell him how I feel. It would be nice if others, who feel the same way, did likewise. We cannot allow professional sports to ignore the issue. All sports should behave in the same manner as International Cycling. I believe that writing your local Congressional representative and letting them know how you feel would be useful also.
Here is the contact information for baseball’s commissioner:
Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Commissioner
245 Park Avenue, 31st Floor
New York, NY 10167
Phone: (212) 931-7800
I completely agree these guys are cheating the system and getting away with it. The people of the old times that set these records off skill are being made fools of because of the athletes that are cheating by using preformance enhancing drugs. I also think the MLB and other large sports orinazations like the NFL and NBA should take more of a stand on drug testing and the punishment for being caught.