MLB is basically a fraud right about now

With the latest report that Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz and former Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez both being on the list of the 100 or so baseball players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), I guess one thing is official: Major League Baseball has become a fraud, and I have no time for it anymore, much like I have no time for pro-wrestling.

The thing that disturbs me the most is that Ortiz, who, along with Ramirez, helped the Boston Red Sox to win two World Series to erase the almost-a-century-old curse, was hard-swinging at New York Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez just months ago when it was revealed that Rodriguez was using steroids. Ortiz said he would welcome MLB to test him before, during, and after the season. He was the one who said voluntary testing was not enough; he was the one who said people caught cheating should be suspended for a year. He was the one who said the only thing people can find in his blood were “beans and rice.” He was the one who said he would not take any PEDs because he did not want his children to be taunted by classmates who said their father is a cheater…

Basically, Ortiz, like many other MLBers, was caught in a bunch of lies. And right about now, is there anyone who we can trust in baseball anymore? And, can you honestly look at any achievement in baseball, and not think twice as to whether or not that achievement is legitimate? I certainly cannot.

Some people would suggest that if the entire era is ridden with steroids, then there really was not a problem with an un-level playing field. But unless everyone in MLB was cheating from 1994, that take cannot be valid. If any of the pitchers who faced Ortiz or Ramirez in the two Boston World Series win were clean, then the Red Sox had gotten an unfair advantage, and that fact alone would make those epic championships tainted. No bloody socks from Curt Schilling can completely change that fact.

And that’s the sad part in all this. I am sure there are a good number of players who have been grinding it out, paying the price, to play at the top level. But by now, everyone is pretty well “guilty by association.” If you are one of the Red Sox members from those two championship team, who upset would you be to see people throw an asterisk to your accomplishment?

Which prompts me to wonder why people are still unwilling to break that “code” and take a strong stance against the cheaters in baseball. If my entire legacy is about to be put into question, and I’m completely clean, I would be infuriated. But we don’t see that happening in MLB; at least, not frequently.

If MLB and its players are not willing to distant themselves from the frauds and the cheaters once and for all because it is “good for business,” then I will. As a fan, I have no time for Bobble-head figures launching rockets when I know that most of that is drug-fuelled.