Goodbye Raw Talent, Hello Steroids?

Is one naive to believe that there are still baseball players out there who can achieve greatness and manage to break records in an acceptable, legal way? Not every Major League Baseball player uses steroids to boost their performance in order to succeed. That is how I want to feel when I hear that a specific baseball player just broke the record for one thing or another.  Yet here we are, as a general public, myself included, second-guessing any athlete who is just a little bit more successful than the average player.

It is a shame that players like Barry Bonds, ruined the record-breaking experience for many players to come. “Thank you, Barry Bonds. And while we’re at it, thank you, Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Roger Clemens. And you, too, Sammy Sosa. Thanks for turning us into cynics and skeptics, even nonbelievers. Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista hits his 42^nd home run of the season – only one fewer than his combined totals for 2009, 2008, and 2007 – and what’s one of the first reactions? He must be juicing. He's taking daily doses of Vitamin S. He somehow has evaded the HGH police.” ESPN commentator, Gene Wojciechowskin makes the point that is so clearly, yet extremely unfortunately, true. In August of 2007, Barry Bonds hit his 756^th home run, breaking the record that Hank Aaron had held for 33 years; he broke the record in the midst of accusations suggesting his use of steroids. Consequently, today, when a player achieves a monumental record, we subconsciously think back to Barry Bonds and whether or not he “broke” the record with the help of performance enhancing drugs.

It is almost as though we have been brainwashed. Sports fans around the world are brainwashed to believe that pure talent cannot lead the way to a record-breaking career; the only way this can be done is to do so with steroids. How wrong, disturbing, unfortunate, preposterous, and every other appalling emotion, is that? Yes, it is the fault of players who used the drugs that we judge and speculate like we do but is it partially our fault, too? We have the ability to say we don't automatically assume that an extremely talented baseball player uses steroids but quite frankly, you would be lying. We're at the point today where those dreaded thoughts are the first that come to our minds.