Just when you thought the steroid talk was settling down, now there's a new movement afoot. There are many people who think that steroid use, or suspicion of steroid use is enough to revoke league MVP awards and void single season records. Specifically the awards that belong to McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, Canseco, and Giambi. That's a great idea, in fact, let's throw open all awards to retroactive voting. Especially the Rookie of the Year award, I mean, Bob Hamelin? Should these awards be revoked because of possible cheating? Well, I'm not sure about that, since even if all these guys did use steroids, it's not cheating because they broke no MLB rules at that time. Of course, the main argument to that point is that despite not breaking MLB's rules, these guys may have broken the law. Well, that area's grayer than we think. First of all, it's not illegal to take steroids, only to obtain them through a fraudulent prescription, or to possess them with intent to distribute. Second, some of these guys could very easily have used them legally, most likely Sosa, who spends his offseason in the Dominican Republic, which lacks the strigent prescription drug laws we have in the US.
If any of these guys are caught using steroids this year, go ahead and throw the book at them. They deserve whatever punishment MLB hands out. But you can't go back and rewrite the record books. Because would you stop just with steroids? Do you take away the Cy Young Awards of Gaylord Perry and Whitey Ford, two guys who admitted to doctoring baseballs after their careers ended(but denied it right up to the end)? Granted there's no US laws that deal with scuffed baseball's, but what about Babe Ruth's records then? Should we void Ruth's home run records, and take away his 1923 MVP? After all, there's pretty strong evidence that Ruth used a substance that it was illegal to possess in the United States from 1920-1933: alcohol.
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