Everyone Is Guilty

As baseball commissioner Bud Selig and union chief Donald Fehr were rightfully grilled by Congress yesterday, I couldn’t help but think back to the band of misfits that almost went the distance… the 1993 Phillies. More specifically, I think about Lenny Dykstra, the poster boy for performance enhancing drugs on that Cinderella team. When asked to explain his sudden abnormal muscle growth, Dykstra quipped, “I got some really good vitamins.” We all laughed and moved on. After all, “Nails” was a likeable guy and the personification of those long-haired, tobacco chewin’, beer guzzlin’, prank playin’ Phils. When Sammy Sosa went from solid all-around player to a perennial 60-home run phenom, we all jumped on the bandwagon. When Barry Bonds’ head grew (yes, his head got larger) and he put up superhuman numbers when he should have been in decline, we cheered his home runs and gave him the approval he so desperately craved.

While any player who uses performance enhancing drugs deserves to be punished, let’s not forget the blind eye turned to this practice at the time by owners, managers, trainers, players, the commissioner, union leadership, the government and millions of fans. When you see these hearings, temper your outrage and take a look in the mirror. More importantly, appreciate the achievements of clean players like Ken Griffey, Alex Rodriguez (unless you believe Canseco), Frank Thomas and Ryan Howard. Finally, let’s hope baseball finally gets it right and agrees to a testing program for HGH so we can end this sad era in baseball once and for all.