Steroids Should Be Legal in Baseball

He was the first pitcher in baseball history to win 300 games. He was the greatest player to toe the rubber in the game's first century. He was feared and revered by opposing batters whenever they stepped into the box.

And as a 32 year old on the back end of his career, Pud Galvin needed help. His numbers were slipping. His losses and ERA were soaring. He was desperate to reverse the trend.

In his distress, Galvin made a decision that left a longer, stronger legacy than becoming the first pitcher to break the 300-win mark. He was the first recorded professional baseball player to use performance-enhancing drugs. (And if you don't think this guy was desperate, check out his method. Galvin took Brown-Sequard elixer. One of its main ingredients was testosterone drained from sheep cojones. ... Some may say he took the term "juicing" a tad too literally.) Steroids didn't come along until much later. But Galvin introduced performance-enhancing drugs to baseball while the game was in its infancy.

As American technology has advanced over the years, so have the techniques professional baseball players use to get that extra edge. But the game has been "dirty" since 1889.

Not 1989.

The national baseball media openly ignores this fact. They've painted baseball into something it's not, injecting the game with a religious flavor. But there's nothing spiritual about baseball. It's a game. A beautiful, wonderful game. But at its core, baseball is entertainment.

It's always been that way.

I'm sick of the phony, holier-than-thou crap swarming baseball's steroid scandal. It's naïve at best. Hypocritical at worst.

I'm tired of pretending steroids threaten to derail our national pastime. It's a lie. The scrutiny toward performance enhancers holds no merit.

The media scorns steroids because they perceive it as disenfranchising past legends of their proper place in baseball history. As the juiced players of this era produce numbers never before seen, it pushes the Babe Ruths, Ty Cobbs and Hank Aarons to the background. We've been force fed bull sticks for a decade.

Does any knowledgeable baseball fan think Ruth wasn't the first great power hitter? Would anyone argue Cobb isn't one of the 10 greatest players ever? Isn't Aaron still the most consistent slugger the game has ever seen?

And does anyone seriously think Ruth, Cobb or Aaron would've resisted the temptations of steroids if they were available in their era? We've never seen a more competitive group of professional athletes in any sport than baseball players in the first half of the 20^th century. Why does everyone assume these same players would decline a chance to improve their game? Why do we automatically believe these players didn't use some form of performance enhancers? It's not blasphemy. It's reality. Even Bob Gibson admitted last week to ESPN's Jim Rome that he didn't know whether he could've said no to steroids if they were available. Let me help him out a little. Of course he would!

None of baseball's past superstars have had their legacies diminished due to the steroid era. Andre Dawson is still perched on the front gate of the Hall of Fame. Ted Williams is still the greatest hitter ever. And Gibson? Who doesn't think he's still the meanest force to grace the diamond?

If we're going to play the Steroids Screw The Past Legends card, why we don't we look at both sides? Explain why there aren't multitudes of blogs and columns showing how Mark McGwire was at a disadvantage to Cap Anson because Big Mac had to play against the best black, Latino and Japanese players of his time. (If it weren't for baseball's color barrier, Josh Gibson would be considered the greatest slugger of all-time. Not Ruth, Aaron or Bonds.) How did Roger Clemens have the advantage when he couldn't throw scuffed or spitballs like Stan Coveleski?

The steroid scandal is perhaps the most blatant sign of hypocrisy in sports history.

But there's a more personal reason steroids should be a legal part of baseball. Chicks aren't the only ones who dig the long ball. Baseball fans have always loved watching men whose physical stature seemed larger than life step to the plate and smash balls 500 feet. We fell in love with it in 1920 - when Ruth hit 59 homers during his first year in New York - and were reacquainted with that love in the Summer of '98.

Eleven years and one holy crusade against steroids later, the home run is all but gone. (Look at this year's home run derby. Yawner! Even a few Prince Fielder's bombs couldn't keep me awake!!!) And don't tell me Albert Pujols' assault on the warning track during the season's first half proves the homer is coming back. The man is a freak, not the norm.

If baseball fans are paying for a ticket - especially in these terrific economic times!! - they deserve to watch excitement. They deserve to see 500-foot torpedoes. They deserve to have Sports Center's Top 10 filled with jacks to the upper deck.

Even if it takes a little sheep-nut elixir to get the job done.