Baseball's Axis Of Evil

I grew up with baseball as a child. It was the first sport I fell in love with. I was living as an eight year old living in Atlanta, Georgia in 1980. The Braves did not have a great year that season, but to me it did not matter. I went to my first baseball game at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in downtown. They played the Dodgers that day and lost 8-7. Phil Niekro pitched that day and for years I tried to throw his signature knuckle ball. Eventually, in high school I mastered it (or maybe it mastered me). I saw Dale Murphy play in person that day and knew he was something special. A natural talent. Nothing fake. Nothing enhanced. At least that is what I still want to believe 28 years later. Needless to say, I was hooked on baseball for life. In 1980, Pete Rose was playing first base for the Phillies. He was know as a master singles hitter and his nickname "Charlie Hustle" fit him perfectly. He was on pace to eclipse Ty Cobb's all-time hits record. In September 1985, he broke the record by hitting...a single. Rose retired as the all-time hits leader and at the time he was celebrated and cheered for his longevity, stamina, and love for the game. A few years later, Pete Rose was banned from baseball for reportedly betting on at least 52 Cincinnati Reds games while he was their manager in 1987. He never admitted at the time that he engaged in any wrong doing and he became a baseball pariah.

Fast forwarding to 2008, two other major figures in baseball are now baseball pariahs in rapid succession. The first is the specter of Barry Bonds. In 2001, he broke the single season home run record by hitting 73 home runs. Last season, he eclipsed Hank Aaron's all-time home run record. In '01, Bonds was celebrated and cheered for his feats despite the fact that his onerous personality towards the media and the fans made him a polarizing figure. A few years later, the whispers abut his growing head and expanding upper torso turned into shouts as allegations of steroid use rang from every rooftop. Bonds turned it into a racial issue. He turned it into a "Nobody Likes Me Because I Am A Big Jerk With An Expanding Head" issue. Bonds claimed that he did not know what he was using when faced with the mountain of largely circumstantial evidence was weighed against him. By the way, murderer's get the chair for less evidence than what has been levied against Bonds. In what only can be said as an embarrassment, Bonds chase for the all-time record was jeered and largely ignored. Once it was over. The story was over (except for the indictments). We what we do know is that irregardless of how much Bonds cheated he is still one of the greatest home run hitters to step on the field.

Last week, we saw a highly legendary figure begin a rapid decent (like Brittany Spear's career!!) into hell. I watched as Roger Clemens sit in front of the U.S. Congress trying to make his case that he did not use HGH and steroids to extend his career. It was a complete farce. It was absurd comedy. I do not know who was more phony McNamee, Clemons, or the illustrious Congressmen who asked questions like: "What uniform will you wear to the Hall of Fame?" The hearing should have never happened. It did not illuminate anything of note. It was a waste of taxpayer money of Biblical proportions. I do not want my taxes withheld again for grandstanding Congressmen calling McNamee a "liar" and a "drug dealer." Not that I don't agree with those statements, but I could have done without the show. Nonetheless, Clemens himself looked like a fool. He did not know what he was talking about most of the time. He also tried in vain to disprove another mountain of circumstantial evidence against him. However, his numbers (as well as Bonds) that showed improvement in his mid to late thirties makes no rational sense. It does not take a law degree to look at the numbers and conclude that Clemens must have done something to his body unnaturally to prolong his career when most people at that age begin to break down after years of strain and over use. The same can be said of Bonds as well. So for Clemens to deny and cloud the argument insults my and our collective intelligence. We did not need a Congressional hearing to prove this. All we needed was the common sense of a hormone addled twelve year old girl.

Rose, Clemens, and Bonds before their fall from grace were all shoe-in first ballot Hall of Famers. Now, thanks to these three crooked liars, the game that I fell in love with has the biggest black eye in nearly 90 years. A black eye that the game will not recover from (if at all) for another generation. It dawned on me during my heart attack of a work out on Thursday, that the game's greatest hitter, greatest home run slugger, and the best pitcher of my generation will likely not make the Hall of Fame. For the game of baseball, the game I am trying hard not to divorce for cheating, lying, greed, and gluttony, this is incredibly sad. Baseball now is the second rated national pastime (to pro football). NASCAR is third. I expect that baseball will fall to third in a few years. We all have Rose, Clemens, and Bonds to thank for part of this decline. We should also thank the Yankees, A-Rod, and Bob Selig for the rest of it. However, the part that the Axis of Evil has is the worst part. Each stained irreparably the integrity of the game. That integrity that led us all to believe that what was happening on the field of dreams was true, real, and natural is now gone. Anytime someone gets close to a record the question will cross our minds: Is this for real? Or is it something else?