Opening Day should be about everything that’s right with the national pastime: freshly mowed emerald green grass, sunshine, sunflower seeds, pitchers’ duels, game-winning home runs as far as the eye can see, and eternal hope.
But as the tarps are pulled back at Coors Field and elsewhere across Major League Baseball, the excitement is overshadowed by the scent of investigation.
MLB commissioner Bud Selig last week launched a probe into illegal steroid use in baseball. The inquiry comes after the release of “Game of Shadows,” a new book by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters that has the baseball world buzzing. It details alleged extensive steroid use by Barry Bonds and other stars.
The book’s allegations and revelations, along with the MLB probe, have clouded what should have been an exciting run this spring by Bonds to surpass Babe Ruth’s home-run total and then, perhaps, unseat Henry Aaron as the all-time home-run king.
Aaron’s 755 home runs stands as one of sport’s greatest records. While Bonds’ flirtation – he has 708 homers – has long been tainted by his surly persona with the media, and sometimes fans, his being dogged by questions of steroid use further clouds his quest.
Talk about needing an asterisk in the record books if these allegations prove to be true.
Baseball has been slow to act, but in recent weeks it became inevitable. “Nothing is more important to me than the integrity of the game of baseball,” Selig announced last Thursday.
Yet, his probe will be limited to events since September 2002, when baseball owners and players agreed to test for performance-enhancing drugs. It’s a farcical premise. If certain drugs are illegal under U.S. laws, they’re obviously illegal in baseball – whether they were swallowed, injected or, as Bonds tells it, rubbed into their skin before or after September 2002.
By selecting former Sen. George Mitchell, a director in the Boston Red Sox front office, to head the investigation, there’s an appearance that Selig is looking for a diplomatic solution as much as any messy fact-finding. Mitchell’s reputation is that of a man of finesse, not an investigative bulldog. For this assignment, he’ll need both attributes.
None of this takes away our sense of hope for the Rockies. Game time is 2:05 p.m.
