By Kent Hatcher
You wouldn't know it by looking outside at our fickle Northwest weather but spring is here and with it has come America's pastime, Major League Baseball (MLB).
It is America's pastime, isn't it? My knee jerk reaction is yes, of course it is, but of late I have been questioning my allegiance to the sport that I grew up on.
Wrought with a multitude of steroid scandals ripping through the sports world, baseball has taken the brunt of the punishment from the media and in the arena of public opinion.
To me, the issue of steroids in baseball is analogous to a close friend having a serious drug habit that is hurting his family and destroying his life.
I am not looking to get into another discussion about athletes using drugs, but rather examine how the use of performance enhancers by players has destroyed the integrity of their profession.
Now I realize to some I am just beating a dead horse. Well you know what, I really hate horses and I will continue to beat this one and any other horses I see until the problem is fixed.
Someone once told me that a true friend stabs you in the front. While this saying may be cliché I believe it is relevant in this case.
As fans, simply dancing around the subject and not attacking it head-on is doing more harm than good.
Just like a family hiding their father's drinking problem or the fact that mom is sleeping with the neighbor, pushing baseball's drug problem under the rug will eat away at the core of the sport and eventually maim or kill it.
This year of baseball has the potential to be the worst yet in the long line of scars streaking across the face of MLB. I am of course referring to the distinct possibility that Barry Bonds the infamous San Francisco slugger - steroid user and all around wonderful person - will break Hank Aaron's long-held homerun title.
Personally I do not put too much weight on the deep ball, I would rather see a perfectly executed hit and run or a sacrifice bunt in the ninth inning to win the game, but that is just me.
The average fan would rather see a humdinger of a homerun launched into the next state to win the game than a well-played strategic move, yes there is strategy in baseball.
Maybe this is what is the real problem with baseball these days, and our country for that matter -we just want the flashy quick fix. But I digress...
Because of the emphasis fans and players have put on homeruns, Hank Aaron's record has become the holy grail of baseball, right up there with the almost unapproachable 56 game hitting streak held by Joe DiMaggio.
It will be a dark day if Bonds passes Aaron, but it think there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Just like I said in my previous column about the Hall of Fame, get rid of Bonds, and get rid of all of the players that used performance enhancers.
Let them keep playing but get rid of their stats, start them over on a clean slate and maybe baseball will get its credibility back.
Spring is a time of birth and rebirth and I hope that this spring sees a renewal, a new era for America's pastime.
I know it won't happen, but I can dream; can't I?
