20 black years of Major League Basball

Do fans really care about about steroids in major league baseball? All the stuff I've read lately states that attendance for the 2007 season was at a record high, a sure sign that few fans are truly upset about the steroid issue.

Personally, I think that all the players that used steroids should be men about it, confess, apologize vigorously, promise to campaign against steroids and tell kids how stupid they were for using them, and give up any awards they might have won while they were cheating.

That's what a real man would do.

It's disturbing that it's so obvious that a huge chunk of players used the dope, and only 2 or 3 have confessed to it. And I have utmost respect for those few good men. Nonetheless, even though they confessed, they should still hand over their awards like men.

Guys like Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. But in the court of public opinion they are both cowards, and so are the rest of the guys who cheated the sport and cheated their fans.

The commissioner, the players union, and the owners are not off the hook either. There may be a few who were naive to what was going on, but the majority turned a blind eye in the name of making a profit.

Some people say that these cheaters shouldn't be punished because there was no major league baseball rule banning the use of steroids. However, steroids were illegal in the United States during this time.

And that's exactly the reason Congress got involved; because there were laws on the books.

What about the statistics? Baseball is always said to be a game of statistics, and when many of these records were broken in the past 20 years by individuals who cheated, this further darkens the scar.

Personally, I'd like to see a huge asterisk next to all these statistics, including the records broken by people who didn't cheat. Sure that might sound harsh, but one of the greatest scars of all is the fact that a fan can't look at any player in the game right now and say without a doubt, "That guy never used steroids."

And what about the kids? How many kids used steroids because their hero's did? How many used steroids because it gave them the competitive edge?

In essence, the rotten apples spoiled the batch. I'd like to say it was a few, but I can't. Look at how bulky Albert Pujoles is. Did he use steroids at some point? Remember when Ken Griffey Jr. was hitting all those homers. Did he?

The truth is, most fans don't care about players using steroids, because the game sure was fun the past 20 years. But, in my opinion, it would have been just as fun without the cheaters.

The scars of this scandal will last forever, but the game will go on as it always has, because it's a great game. And attendance records will probably be set again this year, as it should.