The Games Are Legit

The idea that any team's championship is "tainted" because one or two or seven of the players on the 25-man roster used performance-enhancing drugs is ignorant of history, completely lacking in common sense and has no place in any even semi-intelligent discussion of the issue.

The games were the games. The results and records are final -- and absolutely legitimate. The Red Sox won the 2004 World Series. The Yankees won the 2000 World Series. The Reds won the 1919 World Series.

No player's career totals should be revised or otherwise singled out for special notation.

Two quick examples: Norm Cash admitted that he used corked bats when he won the 1961 American League batting title. Should his stats be erased? Gaylord Perry said he routinely cheated during his pitching career. Should Perry's Hall of Fame plaque be tossed in the trash?

Baseball players are human. Therefore, baseball players will sometimes do unethical or illegal or damaging things to themselves to gain an edge on their opponents. No one should be surprised by this.

And anyone thinking that the game can be "cleaned up", that all the evil doers can be named and shamed and then the sun can once again shine over our great game is a moron. Kind of like the people who think the US was a beacon of democracy and niceness before Bush/Cheney rolled into DC and effed everything up. I hear that and I think you cannot possibly be that stupid.
Bronson Arroyo admitted yesterday that he has used both androstenedione and amphetamines -- and would not be surprised if his name was on the infamous 2003 list.

Before 2004, none of us paid any attention to anything we took. Now they don't want us to take anything unless it's approved. But back then, who knows what was in stuff? The FDA wasn't regulating stuff, not unless it was killing people or people were dying from it.

Arroyo began taking andro after 1998 -- and he loved it.

I felt like a monster. I felt like I could jump and hit my head on the basketball rim.

Arroyo said he stopped using andro in 2004 (only because he heard that it could contain some known steroids, such as Winstrol) and quit taking amphetamines in 2006.
Meanwhile, the traded deadline ends in a few hours. Keep F5-ing the Globe's Extra Bases.