Have Steroids Actually Been Beneficial To Baseball and Will It Ever Change?

Baseball has experienced various threats and always found a way to resurrect itself. After the 1919 Black Sox Scandal it was dealt a nearly fatal blow and was in rapid decline. Then along came Babe Ruth and his heroics began a great resurgence in the game. Lesser problems arose such as the Great Depression and there being less money to spend on leisure pastimes. World War II took away its best players and for those years many came out of retirement and others who were 4F or even too young to be drafted played and people continued to see the games. Along came the drug scandals of the 1970s wherein many standouts were implicated (Keith Hernandez, Dale Berra, and Dave Parker to name but a few) and still the game remained popular.
Now we have another big crisis in the performance enhancing drug scandal. But I draw your attention to another crisis that threatened the game and its relationship to the present problem. In 1994 the players went on strike and caused the cancellation of the World Series which not even World Wars could not do. Fans felt cheated and became very angry over the spectacle of multi millionaires squabbling with billionaires over what appeared to be to the average citizen trifling issues. The strike finally was settled and for the next few seasons attendance and profits sagged. Then along came the 1998 season which was highlighted by the historic feat of not one but two players (Sosa and McGwire) surpassing both the Babe Ruth and Roger Maris seasonal home run records. Suddenly the fan base recognized the importance of this and flocked back to the stadiums. Baseball once again had been saved. Now all this time later it appears at least highly suspect if not likely that both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were taking steroids or some form of performance enhancing drug. In fact, at the time McGwire admitted that he was taking a supplement that indeed did increase muscle mass (since there was no policy on it then nothing was said or done). Then just a couple seasons later Barry Bonds topped even McGwire’s record. Accordingly, attendance continued to climb.
Therefore, and argument can be made on this basis that baseball benefited greatly at the right moment in time that it was sorely needed, by the use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs.
It has to be remembered that the nature of baseball is that it is essentially a game of chess with every pitch being a carefully thought out move. It is then punctuated by periodic spurts of great excitement. It has long been complained that the game is too long, slow, and boring. By 1968 the game was dying because the pitchers dominated and the games were low scoring. Major League Baseball then took steps to liven it up by first lowering the mound and then introducing the Designated Hitter. The ball has been juiced up repeatedly but this has always been denied officially. So it is a fact that the game has to be more action packed and all the official and unofficial decisions and practices have move it in that direction. I also maintain that in hockey fans watch because it is a fast moving game with much violence. Baseball is similar in that nobody wants to pay good money to watch a chess match - any more than they would pay to watch paint dry - but they do want 15 to 14 scores with 6 home runs a game. Short of totally revamping the rules like allowing four outs or giving a batter six strikes - in which case it would hardly be called baseball at that point – and striving to turn it into a buffoonish spectacle like professional wrestling, unofficial efforts to further enliven the game were in order and it happened to follow the route of juicing up the players with a wink and a nod from the owners and player’s union and by its silence and inaction, the commissioners office as well. And this is exactly what has been produced. So who is complaining? Indeed, who could complain if everybody is happy with the outcome?
So I am still asking for someone to step forward and claim damage for all of this. It is true that some fans complain that the sport is sullied because missing links are crushing every record on the books and not athletes in the historic sense. But on this I have to unequivocally say that these are few and far between, because if they represented anything approaching sizable numbers the sport would be seeing a decline in interest and profits and the opposite is actually transpiring.
It is also true that this has harmed the athletes in the eyes of children who sue them as role models and sets a very poor example for them. To this I must add that it is no worse or in the very least an improvement on other sectors of society which we have historically looked to as role models. I speak of our public leaders who are far more important in the grand scheme of things than mere athletes. How long has it been since anyone actually believed any politician would keep his campaign promises? I doubt if my grandparents did, let alone anyone still around to talk about it.
So the only ones left with a legitimate complaint would be the old timer athletes whose records are being broken. The only thing we can say to them is that, it may be true that they did it the hard way, but what about the effect of sports medicine on athletics itself? Hasn’t that prolonged and enhanced careers too? Besides, records are made to be broken as they are milestones for later generations to aim for as a measure of their achievements.
So all of these are on some level superficial and insignificant. If we are to be honest and take a broad overview of the sport, then it has to also be said that just maybe it could have been beneficial. I still say no matter how much publicity it may draw, there will always be those looking to gain an edge and anything that is available will challenge the temptation. As long as sports is a business based on profitability this will always be a fact.
I make no effort to kid myself about it; baseball (and all sports for that matter) has changed drastically, but I also can not delude myself into believing that it will ever return to its puristic days. Indeed, show me anything in history where man was able to go back to a simpler and more pure time? It never has happened and it never will so get used to it.