Error to the Third Baseman

The hits keep on coming for Major League Baseball. On Saturday, Sports Illustrated broke the story that perennial all-star Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during the 2003 season. Faced with these allegations, A-Rod quickly took the path of former Yankees Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte by admitting to his use of steroids. In explaining the doping, Rodriguez cited the pressures of his peers and the new $250 million contract he had inked that year with the Texas Rangers—which at that point was the largest deal in the history of professional sports.

While we applaud him for taking the route of honesty rather than elongating the investigation, as other players have chosen, the striking nature of this report is deeply troubling both to Major League Baseball and sports in America as a whole.

Professional athletes are paid to approach the physical limits of the human body, but it is the natural pursuit of excellence that spectators adore, not the artificial and chemically-induced performance that anabolic steroids and other drugs can produce. By fundamentally altering the body’s capabilities, steroids undermine the basic appeal of sport.

In addition to compromising the integrity of the game, these substances also have many deleterious health effects. While enhancing aerobic and strength capabilities in the short term, performance-enhancing drugs have been shown to cause many longer-term health conditions like heart disease and liver damage—problems that should not affect professional athletes or the youngsters who aspire to imitate their sports heroes.

Major League Baseball must not forget this blow to the integrity of the game—which is especially painful because A-Rod was previously considered by many to be the savior of the steroid era in baseball—but move forward with better testing and prevention.

Although 2003 is not too far in the past, it is important to note that over the last six years the league has succeeded in cleaning up its reputation by instituting harsher penalties for substance users and more rigorous testing. Hopefully MLB will use this recent splash in the steroids mix as an impetus to intensify the campaign.

It should be seen as little surprise that Alex Rodriguez has joined the list of great players who have taken steroids. While his figure has not attained the Herculean proportions of Jose Canseco or Barry Bonds, the sheer prevalence of steroid use in Major League Baseball that A-Rod and others have described makes A-Rod’s drug use more predictable than shocking. His tale is simply one more on a sordid list from an era inexorably tainted by the stain of performance-enhancing drugs.

Thankfully, A-Rod has chosen to take the contrite and honest road in reaction to the allegations. Although the pinstripes he wears may prevent him from ever being a fan favorite in Red Sox Nation, through his openness and regret, he still has the chance to salvage his legacy. Now Major League Baseball must demonstrate similar accountability if it hopes to save its own.