Dan Duquette came out today and hinted that there is more to the Roger Clemens steroids story and that it will come out in the future.  He seemed to hint that Clemens was using steroids even before leaving the Sox.  This is pretty damning, not of Clemens, but of baseball in general.  As many have guessed, and Jose Canseco stated, everyone knew that players were using steroids in baseball, and long before the “steroid era.”  If a GM like Duquette knew, how could the other players, managers, coaches and the media not know?  If the GM is telling an owner to shell out millions of dollars for a player, isn’t steroids likely to come up in that conversation as well if the GM has that knowledge?

Personally, I think there are several players in the Hall Of Fame who have used steroids. Tom House (a teammate of Hank Aaron, who um, didn’t age naturally) admitted to using steroids in the 70’s. He said 6 or 7 pitchers per team were using. Pitching staffs were what, 10, 11 deep then? So by his estimate, more than half of the pitchers were at least experimenting. Gee, do we think that hitters might have been too? Jim Rice got in primarily because people though his numbers were legit and he was clean. We know that he didn’t deserve to get in on his numbers, and to add insult to injury, we don’t know that he was clean!!!  I hate how the old school of baseball players get a pass when it comes to steroids, as they have been in the game at least since the 1970’s, likely earlier.  For example, consider the scenario below:

One in a billion arm? Or Steroids? Nobody his age should have been able to do the things he did, in the Texas heat, without a little help.

No, not Roger Clemens.  Nolan Ryan. Once Clemens was busted for juicing everyone said, of course he was juicing, you can’t do that at his age without help.  Well what if I told you that Ryan’s career path was a lot more unique and questionable than Clemens’ was. Nolan Ryan was an absolute beast with the Rangers. He led the league in K’s from 40-43 and led the league in WHIP at 43 and 44. Again, in Texas. He had the 3 best WHIP’s of his career at 42, 43, and 44. These kinds of things don’t happen normally. Not only did he not regress, he got much better into his 40’s.

Steroids can help your vision. They can help your focus.  They can help your confidence. Steroids, seriously could have an positive impact on control/command. That being said, leading the league in K’s from 40-43 could have been a result of roids. Ryan led the league in K/9 for 5 straight years from 40-44, Clemens last time leading the league was at 35. While yes, his WHIP was improved by lowering his walk totals, he lead the league in H/9 in 4 out of 5 seasons after turning 40. If Clemens was clearly on juice because what he was unnaturally doing at that age, Ryan was doing more, for a longer period of time, at older ages, yet was just a freak?  You can’t have it both ways.  Ryan improved with age.  Clemens didn’t improve, he just pitched pretty much the way he’d pitched his whole career, but with less stamina. Clemens also went to a much weaker NL, Ryan went to the stronger AL. Clemens continued to do what he’d been doing forever, Ryan just happened to get better when 99% of his peers had retired after regressing for 4 or 5 years. Long story short, there is more damning statistical evidence that Nolan Ryan juiced than Roger Clemens.  I’m not saying he did, but no one can tell me for sure he didn’t.

Why does the mainstream media not want to address what is almost certain, that players in the Hall of Fame used steroids (among other illegal PED’s)?  Is it because they looked away and don’t want to admit they have a part in it?  Is it because the majority of them are old and have the “things were better in the past” mentality?  As sick as I am about discussing steroids in baseball, it’s not that I want the discussion to go away (it won’t), but I want the spectrum opened up.  While I don’t want people to go out of their way to dig for dirt, I want people to acknowledge that there is no set steroid era, there was no true beginning, and there will likely never be an end.  As a current player, I would be rooting for it to come out that a current member of Cooperstown juiced.  Hell, even Pete Rose would work.  The guys who are vilified for juicing in the past 20 years are taking the heat for 40+ years of PED use. Either acknowledge that steroids were a part of the game for a long time, or STFU.