Manny Ramirez will begin his minor league stint on Tuesday and is set to be reinstated July 3. In the wake of the Sammy Sosa revelation, A-Rod’s confession, and the catching of Ramirez, the topic of performance enhancing drugs (PED’s) is starting to become hot once again. Which inevitably got me thinking: Do these guys belong in the Hall of Fame?
In my mind, we must break PED users down into two categories: Pre-2000 and Post-2000. The reason for this separation lies in the motivation of the user.
On the whole, PED users prior to 2000 were not motivated to use simply by greed. We must look at the users’ motivation in the context of the times. 1994 saw the strike, which prematurely ended the season. Stadium attendance steadily declined until McGwire and Sosa’s battle in the summer of 1998. It was this duo that reinvigorated America’s pastime and brought the fans back. Did they use PED’s? I think we can all accord on that.
But let us take the Godfather of the Steroid Era’s statements at face value, for he has been unequivocally correct in his assertions. Jose Canseco wrote that, by his estimation, between 70-80% of players during his time were juicing. These men were not consciously thinking, ‘Let’s use steroids so we can taint the game.’ Instead, their mindset was closer to, ‘Let’s use steroids because others are using, and, if we don’t, we will not be able to compete.’
There is much validity in this sentiment. Many former ballplayers have claimed that if you weren’t juicing, you were either scared or you didn’t care. Obviously we cannot say this is an absolute truth but it really speaks to the mentality of the times: The majority of guys honestly believed they were doing the right thing.
Imagine playing baseball your entire life. From age 5 to 18, all you’re doing is playing baseball and dreaming of the big leagues. Then you get drafted. You make a name for yourself. But you soon start to realize other guys are getting an edge on you. What do you do? Not use PED’s and watch your performance suffer, relatively speaking? Or do you use and still compete? Baseball is not these players’ hobby, people. This is their job. What would you do if your job was in jeopardy?
The users after 2000 however (give or take a year), were motivated primarily by greed. Contracts were starting to reach astronomical proportions and the incentive became self-evident: put up bigger numbers, make more money.
Take Randy Johnson, for example. From 1999-2002, he won four consecutive Cy Young awards for the Arizona Diamondbacks. In ’99, he made less than $10 million, and $13 million each of the next three years. This is one of the greatest four year stretches a pitcher has ever had. Now, look at someone like CC Sabathia who makes over $20 million a year. Neither has ever been accused of using PED’s and I am not suggesting either did. The point I am trying to stress is that, in less than a decade, the baseline for elite players’ salaries jumped drastically.
Guys like Ramirez and Rodriguez have signed some of the most lucrative contracts in history, making well over $20 million per year. They were motivated to juice primarily by greed. Conversely, guys like McGwire and Sosa, who made $8.9 million and $8.3 million in 1998 respectively, had quite dissimilar thoughts running through their minds.
Did they want to put up big numbers? Yes. Did they want to make money? Yes. But they were trying to do something more: bring back the game of baseball. We didn’t ostracize them for using ten years ago when they were giving us something to get excited about and we were turning a blind eye; we certainly cannot do so now.
Open the doors of the Hall of Fame to Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. They deserve it. Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez—I’m not so sure of. If they didn’t juice, maybe they’d only make $15 million a year, as opposed to $25… But the drugs virtually doubled their paychecks. And I don’t know if I have any respect or sympathy for the likes of them.
Let’s try to remember these guys the way they’re portrayed below, not as above, in suits trying to defend their namesakes.
