Rant #2,580: I Don't Know What It is, But It Sure Is Funky

I am all talked out this morning.
 
My allergies are killing me, my entire left side being thrown off kilter by this curse that I have.
 
It is kind of strange, because when t get like this, I feel fine; I don’t feel sick at all.
 
I just feel off kilter a bit, off my game, and I really only want to relax.
 
But relax I can’t … and I am sure the allergy shots that I received two weeks ago are making whatever I have better than what I could have.
 
And my allergy shots are steroid based, so I am packed to the punch with this stuff.
 
Heaven forbid I was a major league baseball player; I would be thrown to the coals for using PEDs, or something to boost my power, to make me better than anyone else.
 
I remember a few years ago, a player was busted for just this. He took allergy shots, too, and stupidly, never told baseball about it, so his drug test came back positive, and he was suspended until all that could be worked out.
 
Taking steroids doesn’t guarantee you otherworldly powers if you are a baseball player, but it can heighten your strength and your skills, and the PED scandals of the 1990s in the sport are a sad chapter in the sport’s history, a period when you applauded some incredible feats, only later to learn that they may have been PED enhanced.
 
And it is coming back to bite MLB, as this year, no player was elected into its hallowed Hall of Fame, probably because of suspected usage of PEDs during the playing career of two players in particular.
 
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens would have probably already scaled the heights of Cooperstown if they had not been suspected to taking anything to enhance their skills, but their link to PED use has stained their records, their Cy Young Awards, their Most Valuable Player Awards forever.
 
They supposedly took this stuff when it wasn’t illegal to do so, but certain behaviors and looks planted at least the suspicion that these two players—and several others who had heightened performance during this period—were taking something.
 
Even more interesting is the fact that Bonds and Clemens were never convicted of anything, never producing a drug test that was positive, simply because such drug tests weren’t given when they were playing.
 
They could not get away with this now, even though some try—Robinson Cano, another player who doesn’t need to use this stuff, is the perfect example of this—but the suspicion lingers to this day about Bonds and Clemens, and these two great players have been denied Hall of Fame enshrinement because of this.
 
And then we have Curt Schilling, which is another story entirely.
 
Schiling was a fierce competitor during his playing years, and while he was no Roge3r Clemens—the PED-less Roger Clemens, that is—he was one of the best pitchers of his time.
 
He should get into the Hall of Fame just on his statistics alone, but Chilling has a mouth—a rather big one—and since his playing days, he has shot it off repeatedly, espousing his views on a lot of topics, mostly bearing a far-right-wing stance.
 
Most recently, he supported the insurrection at the Capitol, and if anyone was seriously thinking of voting for him—anyone meaning the baseball writers, the body that votes in Hall of Fame players—that action totally wiped out any decision they would make in the positive for him.
 
If the term “TMI” was developed for anyone, it was created for Schilling, who shoots off his mouth at the drop of a hat, and heaven knows if he was voted in and had to make his Hall of Fame speech … God help us all.
 
So this leaves the Hall of Fame dais to the likes of players Derek Jeter and Larry Walker, who were voted in last year but could not have their formal inductions because of the pandemic. Jeter and Walker are above reproach as total straight shooters, players who would take a box of Wheaties over steroids any day, and maybe it is poetic justice that Bonds, Clemens and Schilling won’t be there to taint their day …
 
But who knows who was taking what, or wasn’t taking what, way back when they played, so unfortunately, the actions of some tainted the perception of others … and next year, we have a couple more PED Hall of Fame prospects to deal with, namely David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez.
 
But then again, the Hall of Fame has not been a sterling organization in the past related to who they choose for enshrinement, so their handling of Bonds, Clemens and Schilling makes the shrine a bit of a contradictory place to begin with.
 
Let’s see … already in the Hall are Ty Cobb, an avowed racist and anti-Semite … Ferguson Jenkins and Orlando Cepeda not only used drugs, but were convicted of drug offenses not by baseball, but by courts of law … Bud Selig was the commissioner of baseball when the PED scandal happened, so this impropriety went on under his watch …
 
I could go on and on and on about this, but as much as the Hall of Fame and the baseball writers want to uphold virtue and truth, they also look past certain things to fit the moment … and perhaps to skirt public opinion at that given moment.
 
And you don’t think that there are already PED users in the Hall of Fame? Even Jenkins said a few years back that he knows for a fact that there are at least one or two players in there who used something to enhance their talents, although he would not tell anyone who they are.
 
But then again, Jenkins has “been there, done that” himself … can you trust him 100 percent.
 
Play ball!