Since my other favorite thing besides music is sports, I thought I'd comment on this "epidemic".

First of all, let me start by saying that I don't watch a lot of baseball.  I  tend to watch the bulk of it near the end of the season, and of course the post-season.  I do however, watch a lot of Sportscenter so it keeps me abreast of what's going on in the sport.  Unless you've been stuck in your closet, you have already heard about A-Rod and his latest fiasco.

I said a long time ago that I figured ALOT of players were using performance enhancing drugs in baseball during the time frame in which the league was trying to re-establish itself after the lockout.  I mean hell, they weren't even testing for it.  It would be foolish to think that someone could put on 30-35lbs of pure muscle in a 4-5 month time frame, and not be helped by something.  Of course people saw this coming.  Baseball DEFINITELY saw it.  But hey, as long as players were hitting home runs and putting fans back in the stands, it really didn't matter to them.

Due to the overwhelming amount of players that were using steroids at the time, I don't think we should persecute A-Rod, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds or any of those players for doing what they did.  I mean if the rest of the league is juiced up and I'm not, then how is that fair?  They just did what they had to do because frankly, I think it was "league standard".

So my argument is this...If Roger Clemens is juiced and he's pitching against Barry Bonds who is juiced and Barry hits a homerun, then in an EVEN competition Barry got the best of Roger.  Neither one has a sizeable advantage because they are both playing on a "level playing field".  Keep in mind that there are things that HGH cannot improve.  Batspeed and hand-eye coordination are two.  Both part of which is a skill set.  Something you either develop or just have naturally.  Now if Clemens is pitching against Barry and one is juiced and the other is not, then we have a problem.

Look at it in another way.  If you are playing a video game on expert and your boy is playing on easy, than its obvious who's gonna win the battle.  But if you're both playing on expert, then whoever has the best skillset is gonna get the win.  Same thing here.  Yea, it was technically illegal, but everybody else is on easy so why not move up and make things even.  A-Rod and Barry are great players.  Though Barry's career is virtually over, A-Rod will remain a great player for years to come. He still has the skill set.  Now that everybody is back on expert, he will prove that. I respect the man for coming out and telling the truth.  At least give him that.  Roger Clemens lied about it and still is.  Mark Mcgwire plead the fifth.  As for Barry, I like him as a player so anything I say will be biased but I will say that he knew what was going on.  He just filtered the truth, lol.

Bottom line is that baseball will probably never recover from this.  This whole notion of "America's game"  is B.S.  America's game is football, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.  Even the NBA is back.  So let's  just these guys do what they do and see what they can do on the expert level.

Reid