You Can't Kill the Game*

Trust me when I say this: You can't kill the game of baseball. And, trust me when I say, ...But that doesn't keep us from trying.

Now, I doubt there is a vast right-wing conspiracy to destroy the national past time, but there have been times over the years that baseball has broken the hearts of its fans. With the release of the Mitchell Report, today might just be one of those times.

To be completely honest, I haven't read the report myself. There are other people whose job it is to read and digest that type of information and pass it on to the rest of us, including the names of individuals that were caught using steroids and other illegal substances to enhance their performance.

It's a sad day when stars of the game such as Miguel Tejada, Andy Pettite, Roger Clemens are outed as cheaters. No one should be surprised that names like Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, and Mark McGwire made the list as well. It's sad, but the game, like a good pitcher coming off a horribly poor showing, will toe the rubber once again to pitch another day. You can't kill this game.

Prior to 1942, blacks were not allowed to play baseball. In 1919, the Chicago "Black" Sox threw the World Series. In 1994, because of labor disputations and the ensuing strike, there was no World Series. Baseball, just like the rest of us, evolves and moves forward, sometimes making mistakes along the way. The steroid era is one of those mistakes, but baseball will live to play another day.

Players that pumped steroids or took performance enhancing drugs cheated. They cheated the hallowed history of the game by tainting the statistical bridge that joins everyone that has ever played at the highest level. They cheated teammates who had the moral strength to abstain from using those substances when everyone around them said it was okay. They cheated an entire generation of young fans who grew up emulating them, who will only find out one day that their heros were frauds. But most of all, and saddest of all, they cheated themselves. Altruistic? Yes. But, Roger Clemens will never know how good he would have been had he been clean. How many strikeouts would he have had? Barry Bonds will never be sure if he could have broken the homerun records without help. Maybe they could have had the hall of fame careers that they have had even without drugs. But, we will never know for sure -- and neither will they.

But, understand this: the game will go forward. One day we may discover that half of all players used some sort of illegal substance and cheated. But even then, half of them did not. Those players have had to work harder just to keep pace, and the game will be better for it. Those players are the heart and soul of baseball, and as long as they are there, baseball will never die.