Get off your moral high horses, You loved every minute of it.
An open letter from myself to the MLB:
Dear MLB (specifically Commissioner Selig),
Get off your high horse about these PED’s. You practically encouraged their use and profited heavily from it. Now because the winds have changed direction, you’re leading a witch hunt. The only reason your game is still relevant is because the guys who took them make your game exciting to the less than hardcore fan. Now you’re rounding these same guys up and giving them a public execution. It’s like getting caught using a prostitute, and then executing them because you got caught.
You’re hypocrites and you should be ashamed.
Sincerely,
Adam Waltersdorf
It’s very simple, steroids were the best thing that ever happened to baseball. They caused a visible and marked difference, increasing home runs, which in-turn sell more tickets, and also lead to an increase in TV ratings which is the primary source of revenue for the league.
Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself.
| Year | Total Homeruns | AVG. HR/G | Average Game Attendance | League Leader | World Series Ratings | ||
| Share | Viewers | Teams | |||||
| 1984 | 3,258 | 1.5 | 28,346 | Tony Armas, 43 | 22.9% | 28.0 Million | Tigers over Padres |
| 1985 | 3,602 | 1.7 | 22,203 | Darrell Evans, 40 | 25.3% | 34.5 Million | Royals over Cardinals |
| 1986 | 3,813 | 1.8 | 21,703 | Jesse Barfield, 40 | 28.6% | 36.4 Million | Mets over Red Sox |
| 1987 | 4,458 | 2.1 | 24,222 | Mark McGwire and Andre Dawson, 49 | 24.0% | 35.3 Million | Twins over Cardinals |
| 1988 | 3,180 | 1.5 | 25,166 | Jose Canseco, 42 | 23.9% | 34.5 Million | Dodgers over Athletics |
| 1989 | 3,083 | 1.5 | 26,198 | Kevin Mitchell, 47 | 16.4% | 24.6 Million | Athletics over Giants |
| 1990 | 3,317 | 1.6 | 26,032 | Cecil Fielder, 51 | 20.8% | 30.2 Million | Reds over Athletics |
| 1991 | 3,383 | 1.6 | 26,179 | Canseco and Fielder, 44 | 24.0% | 35.7 Million | Twins over Braves |
| 1992 | 3,038 | 1.4 | 26,529 | Juan Gonzalez, 43 | 20.2% | 30.0 Million | Blue Jays over Braves |
| 1993 | 4,030 | 1.8 | 30,979 | Juan Gonzalez and Barry Bonds, 46 | 19.5% | 29.0 Million | Blue Jays over Phillies |
| 1994 | Strike Season | ||||||
| 1995 | 4,081 | 1.8 | 22,253 | Albert Bell, 50 | 19.5% | 25.2 Million | Braves over Indians |
| 1996 | 4,962 | 2.2 | 26,498 | Mark McGwire, 52 | 17.4% | 25.2 Million | Yankees over Braves |
| 1997 | 4,640 | 2.0 | 27,852 | Ken Griffey Jr., 56 | 16.7% | 24.8 Million | Marlins over Indians |
| 1998 | 5,064 | 2.1 | 29,054 | Mark McGuire, 70 | 14.1% | 20.3 Million | Yankees over Padres |
| 1999 | 5,528 | 2.3 | 28,864 | Mark McGuire, 65 | 16.0% | 23.7 Million | Yankees over Braves |
| 2000 | 5,693 | 2.3 | 29,777 | Sammy Sosa, 50 | 12.4% | 18.1 Million | Yankees over Mets |
| 2001 | 5,458 | 2.2 | 29,869 | Barry Bonds, 73 | 15.7% | 24.5 Million | Diamondbacks over Yankees |
| 2002 | 5,059 | 2.1 | 27,961 | Alex Rodriguez, 57 | 11.9% | 19.3 Million | Angels over Giants |
| 2003 | 5,207 | 2.1 | 27,831 | Alex Rodriguez and Jim Thome, 47 | 12.8% | 20.1 Million | Marlins over Yankees |
| 2004 | 5,451 | 2.2 | 30,051 | Adrian Beltre, 48 | 15.8% | 25.4 Million | Red Sox over Cardinals |
| 2005 | 5,017 | 2.1 | 29,857 | Andrew Jones, 51 | 11.1% | 17.2 Million | White Sox over Astros |
| 2006 | 5,386 | 2.2 | 31,295 | Ryan Howard, 58 | 10.1% | 15.8 Million | Cardinals over Tigers |
| 2007 | 4,957 | 2.0 | 32,710 | Alex Rodriguez, 54 | 10.6% | 17.1 Million | Red Sox over Rockies |
| 2008 | 4,878 | 2.0 | 32,813 | Ryan Howard, 48 | 8.4% | 13.6 Million | Phillies over Rays |
| 2009 | 5,042 | 2.1 | 30,218 | Albert Pujols, 47 | 11.7% | 19.4 Million | Yankees over Phillies |
| 2010 | 4,613 | 1.9 | 30,067 | Jose Bautista, 54 | 8.4% | 14.3 Million | Giants over Rangers |
| 2011 | 4,552 | 1.9 | 30,216 | Jose Bautista, 43 | 10.0% | 14.3 Million | Cardinals over Rangers |
| 2012 | 4,934 | 2.0 | 31,218 | Miguel Cabrera, 44 | 7.6% | 12.7 Million | Giants over Tigers |
The steroid era began, depending on who you ask, in the late 1980’s and ran until the early 2000’s. Testing for PED’s finally began in the 2003 season. Since then the game has rapidly cleaned itself up, but no one in their right mind can say that the game is free of all PED’s.
The 2005 book ‘Juiced’ written by Jose Canseco named a lot of names. Ironically he received tons of backlash but has turned out to be spot on with just about every name he listed as a user. The Mitchell Report, commissioned by Major League Baseball has also led to the rounding up of PED users and has also helped smoke out the bad guys.
I am willing to argue that it is not in the best interest of baseball to entirely clean up the game. Baseball constantly battles the stereotype of being boring by the average American fan. Average Joe doesn’t appreciate the art and strategy that goes into every pitch, understand why it is prudent to move a runner over, or pitch around a slugger. They like seeing strikeouts and home runs, they don’t like seeing pitchers duels and sacrifice bunts. PED’s lead to more home runs and strikeouts. It’s an overly simple formula for success.
Baseball is at it’s best when more people are tuning into games and showing up to the games. Steroids are directly responsible for the MLB’s meteoric rise to its peak of profitability and interest during the 1990’s and early 2000’s. The ratings are fading fast, especially last years World Series. It had just a 7.6% average market share for the four games.
That is pathetic considering the average episode of CBS drama NCIS gets a market share of about 2%, or Fox News’ nightly show, the O’Reilly Factor gets about a 2.5% share. The World Series is on once a year, and both those examples are on constantly pretty much year around.
The game isn’t in a healthy state, the game isn’t growing. If baseball was really looking out for themselves and their best financial interest they would encourage their usage. The MLB needs another McGuire vs. Sosa home run chase, or another guy to chase Barry Bonds home run record. Interest is at an all time low, don’t kid yourself Commissioner Selig. The game isn’t growing, and your quickly falling back towards the level of the NHL, and falling even farther behind the NFL. You used to be American’s past time, now your anything but.
You don’t have legends playing into their late 30’s and early 40’s because their bodies are breaking down. You don’t have anybody pitching at a dominating level into their late 30’s while still winning 20 games. Young guns like Stephen Strasburg and Clayton Kershaw will not likely pitch into their middle 30’s because their arms will be toast from the use and abuse of throwing in the upper 90’s for over a decade.
Albert Pujols, arguably the best hitter of a generation, will likely not be able to obtain any of the league records that a guy of his talents should, because his body is falling apart from all the wear and tear. They will never reach the status of legends like their skills deserve. Guys have been using PED’s in some fashion for going on 40 years, whether it was just a “greenie” amphetamine or the cream and the clear used by Barry Bonds. By wiping out their use, you will enter baseball into a dark age, void of legends, and baseball will fade into obscurity.
Be careful what you wish for baseball.
