As I’m sure everyone knows by now, Manny Ramirez has tested positive for the drug human chorionic gonadotropin, a woman’s fertility drug often taken by steroid users to restart the body’s natural production of testosterone. We can all run around saying “I told you so” and “These guys have ruined the game,” but I have a news flash for you. EVERYONE with any sort of success in MLB over the last 10 years has used PED’s of some sort. If they didn’t, they hung around the minor leagues for a while or just faded away. It was impossible to compete at a high level during the late 90’s without using PED’s. Many of these substances, such as creatine and diet pills, are perfectly legal for you or I to take, but can destroy a career and reputation in MLB. In fact, several of my friends cycled creatine through high school.

The more I think about it and learn about it, the less black and white this issue becomes. It’s easy for us to lay a verbal bitchslap on the players of today, but people seem to forget that everyone, and I MEAN EVERYONE in baseball popped amphetamines like candy in the 60’s-80’s. Mantle, Maris, Carew, Seaver, Koufax, Clemente, all of them. It was the only way to stay awake and aware during the games after drinking and/or travelling all night, and made a marked improvement in skill and awareness for the players. Cortisone and Albuterol are both steroids. Who doesn’t know someone with a knee problem or an asthma inhaler? Since the beginning of professional athletics, the athletes have done everything they could to get an edge on their opponents, and for many years, most of the substances that are now banned were perfectly legal in MLB and in the eyes of US Law.

The point is this: Major League Baseball looked the other way for a lot of years, and many of the fans will never forgive the league, the MLBPA, or the owners. Personally, I can put myself in a mediocre player’s shoes and see how he really didn’t have a choice. Most of these guys never finished college (if they even went at all) and don’t know how to do anything else. If he wanted to compete, if he wanted to provide for his family, he had to stick a needle in his ass.