Reggie Jackson, the Hall of Fame slugger, says steroid cheats don't belong in the Hall of Fame or in the record books.
"It bothers me," he says.
Bothers me, too.
Jackson has looked on helplessly as he has slid down the all-time list for home runs, with 563. Since retiring in 1987, Jackson's home-run total has been surpassed by six men — Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds. Five of those six (all but Griffey) have either been accused of or busted for using performance-enhancing drugs.
Rodriguez admitted steroid use years after results of an old drug test were revealed; Sosa reportedly tested positive in a 2003 drug test; McGwire, who admitted using androstenedione — a steroid-like substance that was banned by pro football and the International Olympic Committee, but not baseball — famously refused to answer questions about steroid use for a congressional hearing; Barry Bonds is under federal indictment for allegedly lying about PED use; Palmeiro flunked a drug test. Another member of the top 15 home-run hitters of all time, Manny Ramirez, recently completed a 50-game suspension after failing a drug test.
In other words, they cheated. They used steroids or human growth hormone. It's as if they were given a shorter fence and extra at-bats.
Baseball won't even consider Hall of Fame induction for its all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, because he gambled on games, so it seems unlikely that drug users will be invited to the Hall.
What I can't understand is why Major League Baseball won't delete the cheaters from its record book, which is so highly prized by the sport. On the other hand, Buddy Selig, baseball's sloth-like commissioner, is still in charge.
In track and field — another sport that thrives on statistics — if an athlete is busted for PEDs, his name and his records are erased from the record books as if they never happened. Three world record-holders in the 100-meter dash have been stripped of their records after they were busted for drugs. They don't even get an asterisk. They're just gone.
Marion Jones won five medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics, but after she admitted winning those medals on steroids she was forced to return the medals. You won't find her name anywhere in the results of those 2000 Olympics.
Baseball has made no such move. Nobody can look at the sport's record book without a heavy dose of disbelief and cynicism.
So I've changed baseball's record books for them. You will find revised record lists accompanying this column, for career home runs and single-season home runs. The most startling feature of the revised list is how many of the players played decades ago. Nobody is hitting home runs better than the old-timers (unless they use drugs). Sure, modern hitters face specialty pitchers — relief pitchers, short relief pitchers, closers — but they also have the benefit of weight training and hitting academies that didn't exist years ago.
The revised single-season list is topped by Maris, Ruth (twice), Jimmie Fox, Hank Greenberg, Hack Wilson, Ralph Kiner and Mickey Mantle, whose best playing days were 50 to 80 years ago.
So, Roger Maris and Babe Ruth return to their rightful position atop the all-time single home-run list. Henry Aaron returns to his rightful position atop the all-time career home-run list. And baseball offers them an apology for ever removing their title as Home Run Kings.
(Or did you think it was just a coincidence that nobody could break Maris' single-season mark for four decades, and then in one five-year period, from 1997 to 2001 it was broken six times?)
Some of the cheaters are still playing today — namely, Rodriguez and Ramirez. Some studies indicate that the muscle-building benefits of steroids last for years after users quit taking them. So, besides eliminating Rodriquez's marks from 2001-03, when he admits taking the drugs, why not eliminate those 54 home runs he hit in 2007 — or at least punctuate them with an asterisk. Ditto for anything Ramirez does from this season until retirement.
In 2005, Selig, The Clueless Commissioner, said he wouldn't alter the record book to account for cheaters, claiming, "In fairness to those players, no one has been convicted of anything. And we can't turn history back. My job is to protect the integrity of the game."
What integrity?
Earlier this year Selig, The Man Who Slept Through the Steroid Era, told Christine Brennan of USA Today that he is considering altering the record book and purging it of cheaters. "... I'm not dismissing it," he told Brennan. "I'm concerned." Then, just as he began to raise hope that he might take action, he crushed it with the typical, cautious Selig management style: "I'd like to get some more evidence," he said.
e-mail: drob@desnews.com