Since we now have the confessed illegal activity of McGwire taking steroids (not that we didn't know it already), Sosa tested positive for steroids, and we know that Bonds did steroids. He just won't admit that he knew they were steroids, which of course is totally unbelievable.
Yes, these guys already had skills and were very good if not great baseball players. Even if it was just a matter of staying healthy, the steroids make a difference. The steroids also help to add strength, bat speed, and from what I heard from a minor league player, it helps your ability to see a pitch just a bit sooner so that you can adjust to it. The last might be the most important if indeed that is the case. I have not see many people talk about that, so I wonder.
We can't pretend the home runs didn't happen. We can't pretend that the number of home runs were not elevated because of the steroid use. They were illegal and recognized as cheating by anyone, though the penalty (from mlb) was nothing. We also can't pretend that they weren't facing some pitchers who were doing the same thing. This wasn't just batters. It's just that the home run is the most worshipped stat in baseball so it is the most glaring.
So, what do we do with Barry Bond's records or should it be Hank Aaron's record and Roger Maris' record? They might have been broken anyway, but perhaps they would have survived to this point.
There are a few reasonable options, but one thing that has to be acknowledged is that the "steroid era" is not over. It wasn't a 15 year period with a semi-clear beginning and end. The era of performance enhancing drugs is continuing because the testing can't keep up with the cheaters. There are new drugs, new ways of dosing to hide what is going on. It is a sad reality that we will probably have this kind of cheating for a long time.
I think that baseball has 3 options.
1) Leave the numbers as they are. The home runs were hit, the runs scored, the games are over the championships were won. It's over. No whistle, no foul.
2) The asterisk. Put an asterisk next to all of the numbers by players who have ever tested positive or admitted to using or those under heavy suspicion (have to be very careful with this).
3) Separate the numbers. MLB has already done this once. The modern era starts in 1900. Perhaps this is such a fundamental change that we need to start a new era. There is a date that could be figured out by much smarter and better informed people than I that would cap the 'modern era' and start the 'enhanced era' or the 'suspicious era'.
I don't like option 1. It is not fair to Maris, Aaron, and others whose records have been broken by cheaters. It also condones the cheating. Option 2 is the most likely to be instituted. It acknowledges that these things happened which they did, but that it was found out later that these players cheated. In the long run we might find that option 3 is the best way to go, but it is way too soon to tell. It has been 25 -30 years since what we believe was the beginning of significant numbers of players using steroids in significant amounts. We are still unfolding what happened, so it will probably be another 30+ years before we can tell how long this is going to continue.
Since the records in mlb are so sacred, I don't envy the job of the baseball historian who has to try to sift through all of this and give things a fair assessment and presentation.
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I vote for option 1. The record book is just that -- a record of what happened. History will skew it appropriately ... We don't look at the WWII stats the same because so many great players were missing. We don't look at the dead ball era the same, statistically. And other starts and dips (pitching-dominant late 60s; hitting-dominant 30s) are acknowledged as we go through history. As you say, we'll have a better definition of what the "steroid era" truly is/was in another 20-30 years. Congrats on your blog!
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