Stats and Steroids

Preface: As any baseball fan will tell you, stats are sacred in baseball. All-Time this and All-Time that . . . it's a major part of why the game is beloved by so many. But enter upon the scene the spitball, the nail file, the sand-paper band-aid, and the lubricants . . . following right behing the corked bat and pine tar (a little dab will do ya' so long as it doesn't pass by the accepted line of demarcation a la George Brett). But the villain extradornaire: ROIDS. Bonds, Giambi, Clemens, A-Roid, Sosa, Mark McGwire et al.
The Question: What to do about the stats? Option A: Leave the stats alone. Option B: [Bonds*] Option C: Remove all the stats from the steroid user. Option C: Two lists - (1) The All-Era List (with astericks) and the Purist List (which excludes all proven steroid uses whether it the use was illegal or not by the game at the time of the infrcation. As Bill O'Reilly would say: "What say you?" What's your solution if you could be the MLB Commish?

Were steroids such as the ones that Bonds, Mcgwire, Clemens, and A-Rod used illegal at the time which they used them? If so, then at the very least, the steroid users probably should have their stats separated from the non-steroid users. On the otherhand, do we know with absolute certainty that all other players in the stat book didn't use steroids? Do we have to go through the stat books player by player and examine until we know for sure whether or not they use steroids?

I actually don't think there's a good answer to this question. Steroids has ruined the statistics aspect of the game. The question Luke asked about whether anyone knows for sure if the players who have been outed as users are the only ones is a good question. The answer to this is "no" obvously. It really stinks that it's not black and white: We have steroid users, non-steroid users, questionable users, etc. I hate this topic in a way since I like the game so much. I think that at this point, with the statistics compromised, "ignorance is bliss" we should just take the game for what it is. Enjoy it for what it's worth... sort of seeing it with the eyes of a 5 year old who knows nothing of cheating but just sees a guy up at bat hitting the crap out of a ball sending it close to 500 feet at the bottom of the 9th winning the World Series and celebrating.