Baseball can’t duck issue of steroid use Penalties would help game’s credibility

If laws or rules can be broken without penalty, then there are no rules or laws.

So, we have consequences for violations. Maybe it’s sitting in the corner, a suspension from some activity, a fine, or if the violation is severe enough, jail.

There are two common refrains from those who face such penalties: “I didn’t do it” and “it’s over, let’s move on.”

Last week Barry Bonds met with the press. The Giants baseball star is involved in the BALCO case where the owner of that company is being investigated for illegally providing steroids to some baseball players.

At the time, baseball did not ban steroid use, but they were generally illegal to distribute, possess, or use in the U.S.

Bonds admits he used compounds that contained steroids but did not know they were steroids. That’s the “I didn’t do it” part.

That statement strains credibility.

On Tuesday, Bonds went to the “let’s move on” stage.

He said to the reporters when asked if an asterisk should go beside players who win awards and use steroids, “I mean, you can’t… you guys are like rerun stories. This is just… this is old stuff. I mean, it’s like watching Sanford and Son, you know, you just, rerun after rerun after rerun.”

“I look for the day for you guys to stop being a rerun show and this thing will blow over and everybody will go about their business as though it has,” said Bonds.

He went on to say alcohol is the No. 1 killer in America; tobacco is No. 2 or 3, so why were reporters spending all this time on steroids and baseball?

His is a common retort: Blame the messenger and ignore the message.

There is much more to come about Bonds, other players, and steroids. Bonds hopes we will tire of the issue and “move on.”

The steroid issue is not about Bonds. He just happens to be involved. This is about the hundreds of players now and in the past who tried to perform under the rules because they thought it was right.

Despite more serious problems in the world, baseball reporters cover baseball, not alcohol destruction or tobacco deaths. Steroids have invaded baseball. They are covering it.

We cannot tire of the issue; we should try to understand it. We cannot be distracted by peripheral arguments that have nothing to do with steroids and baseball, as Bonds would hope we might.

This is for the good of the game, if you care about baseball, and for the integrity of both its written and unwritten rules.

If players violated laws, lied about their violations before a grand jury, or cheated on the field, there are consequences. Otherwise, there are no rules and the game is meaningless.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.