It's about time for this

Barry Bonds can go to hell. Not just him (as he's worthy of his own post), but McGwire, Brady Anderson, Sammy Sosa, Palmeiro, Neifi Perez, etc., you too Jay Bell, heckuva year you had in '99! All you smug pricks! You know who else? Schilling, Clemens and everyone else whose misguided concern with their "legacy" has led them to altering not just their bodies but the sports landscape and social standards in general. So you didn't want to be role models? Then you wouldn't be where you are today without such status. Do you really mean that?

(Not going to hell: Ken Griffey Jr.)

As much as I'd love to sit here and point fingers, calling everyone "cheaters", I shouldn't do that. What most of these players were doing wasn't cheating, they were/are merely looking for any way to get an edge in their competitions. Boy, capitalism is wonderful. On a side note, the right to speak will forever be revoked from anyone claiming that these supplements don't improve one's abilities. If they didn't, then why would players use 'em?

Don't give me this "Oh it's 162 games, I'm tired" shit. 162 games? For what, an average of 3 hours a night? So 500 hours a year you're playing, sure, plus hundreds of hours of practice, I know, but are you going to sit there and tell me that you're running/exerting yourself for the entire time? Please, this is baseball we're talking about, you bat 4 times a game, chase down a couple balls in the outfield (hell, if you even play defense) and you're tired?

Want to know how long it takes most people to work 500 hours? 3 months. Somehow the rest of us poor saps make it through all right, whiners. Gee, maybe you shouldn't hit the damned bars every night, banging every ovulating dumpster in sight. It's your choice to do whatever you'd like in your free time, that's the beauty of life, but guess what? I get to judge you for it. Do your thing after the games, fine. Eat like crap, go ahead. But you're going to complain that you're tired? You know who else is tired? That guy. And her, the girl over there. Those people in the stands? They're tired too. We're all tired, ok?

Some athletes make unfathomable money due to their abilities (and intangibles) yet are still so insecure about their talent that they have to resort to shady supplements to increase their statistics (see: money making abilities). Way to lead youth sports down the road towards "prescription" drugs. I don't know the numbers, but who hasn't seen reports on how many high school kids are using steroids and the like? When we were in high school, we couldn't even get beer. Looking back, probably only one kid on our team used steroids which had such adverse effects on him that throwing the ball from 3rd base over to 1st became a godamned lesson in physics, trying to figure out where the thing was headed. His 'roid rage may have also prevented him from attending Ferris State on scholarship and instead attending woeful Wooster (pronounced "Worcester").

I don't know about you, but I feel better, mainly because I've stopped thinking about professional athletes for a bit. Hey, it ain't just baseball, we know every competition is full of people looking for any chance to succeed, the only difference is the integrity of the participants. Thankfully, the NFL & NBA are chock full of stand up role models that we don't have to worry about.