Commentary: Steroids Era is over, but what’s next?

By Michael Cummings

Tuesday’s 6-5 victory for the Boston Red Sox over the Oakland Athletics ushered in a new Major League Baseball season, and with it, the second year of baseball’s purported post-steroids era.

But don’t count on baseball’s purists to let sleeping dogs lie.

And why is that?

Well, since we’re using a Latin prefix to describe baseball’s brave new world, let’s throw out another bit of classical wisdom in an effort to explain:

O tempora! O mores!

That would be a direct quote from the incomparable Cicero, the rough translation being: “Oh, the times! Oh, people’s habits!”

Modern versions vary from something about hell in a handbasket, to kids these days, to any other phrase starting with “these days.”

These days, players only care about money.

These days, the talent pool is watered down.

These days, the ball is juiced.

These days, there’s just no loyalty.

Of course, for Cicero, “these days” were over 2,000 years ago and he was griping about the moral bankruptcy of Julius Caesar and his new imperial regime. And the golden days for which he pontificated were set back in the Rome’s republican days.

Now, Bud Selig is no Julius Caesar and Major League Baseball is no Roman Empire, but the point is this: Even at the height of western culture, there was always someone around to complain.

And though baseball is not the Roman Empire, it is the American pastime. Which means there will always be someone around to complain.

Before steroid it was baseball’s labor issues. Before the labor issues it was player greed. And before player greed it was owner greed.

You get what I’m saying, hopefully, but if not, here it is. The steroids era must be considered nothing but a blight on the game, but it’s time to put away any thoughts of a bygone golden era of blameless heroes and halcyon myths.

Baseball players — then and now — will do anything to win, from taking steroids, to throwing spitballs, to taking amphetamines during games. That doesn’t make it right, but it does make the problem both timeless and ubiquitous.

So instead of bickering about steroids and cheating and asterisks, let’s move on and enjoy the smell of pine tar and dirt and freshly cut grass.

These days, that’s something anyone can enjoy.

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