Major League Baseball: Is Anyone Going to Watch This Season?

In 2001, Alex Rodriguez signed a monumental deal with the Texas Rangers to make him the highest played sports athlete in history. The contract signed between A-Rod and the Rangers was based on the skills he provided in his years with the Seattle Mariners. In 2001, A-Rod lead the American League with 52 Home Runs, but that was over shadowed by the record setting season by San Francisco Giants Outfielder Barry Bonds. Bonds set the record for most home runs hit in a single season with 73, surpassing Mark McGwire's previous record of 70 in 1998.

In that same year, McGwire admitted to taking an over-the-counter muscle enhancement called Androstenedione. Some said that he admitted to taking that particular drug do steer people away from all of the other steroids he was doing during that time. It also didn't help that Jose Canseco, long time friend and teammate to McGwire, wrote a book stating that he injected McGwire with steroids. But it was just the beginning to the Steroid Era on Major league Baseball.

In 2003, Barry Bonds was involved in a BALCO investigation when his trainer, Greg Anderson, was indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with supplying anabolic steroids to various sports athletes, including many baseball players. Because of this, he filed for free agency in 2007, hoping that another team would give him a chance. Well, last season, Barry Bonds, the all-time home run leader, sat out the entire season. No MLB team gave him a contract at all. He also does not have a contract for the upcoming season either.

We found out just weeks ago that another superstar athlete took steroids in 2003. Alex Rodriguez. The man who was supposed to lead us through all of these steroid accusations, admitted to injecting illegal substances from 2001-2003, the years he spent in Texas. He is the third New York Yankee to be involved in the steroid game. Starting Pitcher Roger Clemens was also mentioned in the Jose Canseco case, and so was Andy Pettite. Pettite and Rodriguez admitted to taking steroids, while Clemens still denies ever taking any banned substances.

Baseball is slowly becoming one of the least populated sports in the world. With almost everyone taking steroids and all players guilty by association, no one is innocent. So everytime someone hits a homerun, it's not going to mean as much as it did back in 2001. So that begs the question: If someone is still clean, never took a banned substance, does it require a medal of baseball honor, or does it just mean that they are mentally stronger then those juiced up?