"Stop breaking the law...!!!!!"

Several years ago, when I still thought that Jim Carrey was still funny, he made the movie Liar Liar, where he played the role of a lawyer who suddenly found himself unable to lie. He had one of my favorite movie lines in this movie...

Greta (his secretary): Boss...boss, it's [name of client], he knocked over another ATM. This time at knife point. He needs your legal advice.
Fletcher (Jim Carrey): [picking up phone and shouting] Stop breaking the law,...!

I'll come back to that in a minute.

Major League Baseball and its players have done a lot over the past several years to damage its reputation and lose the confidence of the fans in the integrity of the sport. When I say fans, I am certainly not excluding myself as the author of this post. I love baseball. I love this sport more than any other sport. Yet it continually makes me sick to my stomach every time more steroids news comes out.

There is one thing in particular that I am getting more and more sick of, and that is the saying, "It [steroids] was part of the culture in the 90's" or that it was just accepted as part of the game back then, that "everyone was doing it." You've heard some version of that from any number of commentators, players, or other representatives.

I get so mad at such a stupid idea!!!!

Let me get this straight, so I get pulled over for speeding on GA 400. I go to court to contest the ticket because, well, everyone speeds on GA 400, that's just how it is. Am I really supposed to expect the judge to say, "You know, you're right, 'everyone' does speed on 400, so why should I penalize just you if I'm not going to pull over and cite every other person who speeds on 400?" How stupid is that?!?! I broke the law, there's a consequence.

So why on earth should the 103 players in addition to Alex Rodriguez, and any other player who has tested for positive for use of anabolic steroids...which are ILLEGAL...not be penalized by law. "Well that was just how it was back then." Screw that!!! Since when has that been a reasonable explanation for doing something wrong?!?!

This past summer I was walking through Times Square in NYC when I see a billboard that says "Have an affair in New York City." Apparently having an affair is so accepted now that we can put billboards up advocating it, so does that mean it's OK for me to go out now on weekend flings? At work, foul language is pretty commonplace. Does that mean that it's OK for me to loosen up on moderating what I say because my coworkers don't see anything wrong with it? Well you could respond, "Michael, those are issues of morality and depends on your system of beliefs." And you're right, someone who is not a Christian may not see anything wrong with those. There's no law banning affairs or language as far as I know.

But there ARE laws on steroids. And I don't give a crap whether drug testing was part of the contract between MLB and the Players Association. If you used steroids, you broke the law. You shouldn't be given annonomity, and you shouldn't be given a pass because it was part of the culture. If you used steroids and got caught, don't ask your publicist how you should handle it. Own it, take the punishment, and DON'T DO IT AGAIN!! Better yet, don't give yourself a chance to get caught, come out with it!!! You don't even have to tell us why, we already know. Just admit you screwed up, show that you're willing to take punishment, instead of acting like you have a legitimate reason as to why you shouldn't be punished, and we the fans can and will move on.

I am so mad that I have to look at the generation of baseball that I grew up in out of the corner of my eye and wonder about everyone who played. I am so mad that what I was watching was not an honest product. I am so mad that I have to hope and pray that Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz never used steroids, because I think that would end me and baseball.

There is one other group I serve notice to: To those players who did not use steroids, you have no right to ask the fans to not associate you with those who did. You have no right to ask us to trust you more than those who used. You had the opportunity to speak up in your clubhouse; to not allow steroids to become "part of the culture." But you didn't. You may have refused offers from your teammates to join in, but you didn't stop them. And as it got worse, you didn't publicly fight to keep the sport clean. It wasn't until people got caught, and your integrity started getting questioned, that a few of you finally said that you don't want it in the sport. You could have been proactive, but you weren't. We the fans have every right to question you. Unfortunately, because of your innaction, we have to.