Today is a good day

Spring Training has arrived! Jay Bruce is at Reds camp early. Hal McCoy reports from the beach. Grady Sizemore has already hit a homer in the Tribe's new park in Goodyear. Maybe Indians' batting practice went a little like this. The Pirates have a lot of issues but are hoping on not sucking this year. Everything is fresh and new. Today is a good day.

Making good choices in a culture of steroids

There's a guy from my hometown who made it as high as Triple-A for the Seattle Mariners organization in the late 1990s-early 2000s. He owns a roofing company now and back when the Mitchell Report was coming out he was putting a roof on my parents house and I got to talking with him about steroids. He claimed that they were rampant. Everywhere. Easy to get and widely used. He told me a story about how when he was nearing the end of his baseball career. He had basically maxed out his full natural potential and realized that he was never going to achieve his dream of making it to the majors. He saw several other people in the organization in this same boat and they decided to begin using steroids just to get them over the hump, enough to get up to the majors for a cup of coffee. He considered it but never did. He said that he saw the effects that it had on other players and had too much respect for himself, his family, and his children to do that to his body. He also considered the act of using performance-enhancing drugs morally wrong. Although he never made it to the majors, he still considers his decision to be the right one. I do too.

Will Alex Rodriguez make it to the Hall of Fame?

In an interview with Peter Gammons, Alex Rodriguez admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs between 2001-2003. No doubt that this is what he had to do in order to get some kind of forgiveness from fans and media. Just look at Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens... they continue to deny using steroids despite the overwhelming evidence against them. Bonds and Clemens will never be forgiven and will never make it to the Hall of Fame. The question is, does A-Rod's confession eventually help him get into the Hall? It shouldn't. My stance is that all users of performance-enhancing drugs should be permanently banned from Cooperstown. Pete Rose, however, should be there.