It simply would not do Jeter’s entire career enough justice to just say that he is one of the classiest athletes in all of sports. There is absolutely nothing to genuinely dislike about this guy (Editors note: except his wrongfully awarded gold gloves). Jeter has never created any major controversy on or off the field, and he is a guy everyone can count on to come to the ballpark everyday and play his heart out for nine innings. It is basically impossible to argue that Jeter does not belong on the list of great players from the “Steroid Era”, especially since there has never been any reason to suspect that what he has achieved during his illustrious career is illegitimate. Whenever Jeter does decide to hang up the pinstripes, he will surely not have to wait any longer than five years to receive his invitation to Cooperstown.

Like Wojciechowski, if I were to ever hear a breaking news story on ESPN that has the words “performance-enhancing supplements” and “Derek Jeter” uttered in the same phrase, I too would give up on baseball forever. If there is one player I could never suspect of using PEDs it would have to be Jeter.  The realization that all of my fond memories watching number 2 as a young diehard Yankees fan at the old Yankee Stadium on those blistering hot Saturday afternoon summer games are, in fact, just another deceiving product from this tainted period in baseball would simply be too much to handle, even for someone who loves baseball as much as I do.  All of those great plays that personify why I have such high regards for Jeter—the incredible flip play to nail Jeremy Giambi at home plate in Game 3 of the 2001 ALDS, the walk-off home run in Game 4 of the 2001 World Series that earned him the nickname “Mr. November”, and the incredible catch and subsequent dive into the stands against the Red Sox during the 12th inning of an extra-innings thriller on July 1, 2004 (I remember the date exactly since I sat about 20 rows away from where the play was made)—would merely become tarnished moments of greatness in an era where everything must be looked upon with skepticism. There would be no words to describe how devastating the day Jeter falls would be for all of baseball.

Although Wojciechowski did not go as into great of detail as he did with Jeter in his reasoning, he also mentioned Albert Pujols, Ken Griffey Jr., Chipper Jones, Mariano Rivera, Joe Mauer, Jim Thome, Tim Lincecum, Trevor Hoffman, and David Wright as players whose steroid admissions would also compromise his faith in baseball. I certainly agree that a large majority of baseball fans would probably hate to hear these names fall under the PED clout. However, I feel that there are a few players Wojciechowski did not mention that would also fall under the same category. Here are some other active players I hope will never become marred by PEDs and why I do not ever want to see them fall from grace:

Mark Buehrle: He barely throws 88 mph and pitches to contact, but still manages to baffle and frustrate hitters.  Even more impressively, he has two career no-hitters under his belt, including the 18th perfect game in major league history, this season. There is probably not an easier player to root for in baseball.

Evan Longoria: There might not be a player with a brighter future.

Grady Sizemore: Someone who just plays the game right. He comes to the ballpark everyday ready to help his team win and does nothing but make big plays. If he played in New York or Boston, he would be a household name to even the most casual fan.

Ichiro Suzuki: I dread the day I hear that the best all-around athlete in baseball is nothing but a fake, and that his supreme athleticism is the product of a chemistry lab.

Chase Utley: see Sizemore comments.

Shane Victorino: An absolute gamer who hustles on every offensive and defensive play and would run through a wall for the Phillies if it meant making a run-saving grab—an absolute joy to watch.

These are names that baseball should look to as the symbols of what has been right about the game when there has been much wrong with it at the moment.  The players who Wojciechowski and I have mentioned who still have many years of baseball ahead of them will eventually become a major part of what will hopefully be the post-steroid era by sometime in the beginning of the next decade.  So far none of the revelations of steroid use that we have heard about over the past year or so have not been a tremendous surprise to the media or the fans because I suppose there was always reason to believe that the numbers of those who have been caught so far were not completely legitimate. However, if Jeter and the group of players referenced in this post were to ever end up on the same list as Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, Palmeiro, and McGwire, there would then have to be legitimate concern about whether baseball could ever recover from such a black eye.

Watching PTI earlier today, Wilbon said that he honestly found Arroyo’s position refreshing. In some ways, I agree. He hasn’t been caught with illicit substances, and he is being straight-forward with the media, telling it how it is, like he did when Ortiz’ name came forward, and that is probably a good thing. Now, I don’t know the types of substances he is taking, but Arroyo made another good point when he said that everyone freaks out about steroids and supplements because of the dangers to the body, but no one complains about McDonalds, Burger King and KFC, which are in fact killers. I can’t deny I agree (although as a vegetarian this is relatively easy for me). At the same time, Kornheiser made a good point about the fact that Arroyo doesn’t have to just go out and be a rebel, it would be easy for him to go to his trainer and ask if the things he is taking are alright. Really, he should do that, and then he can run his mouth all he wants about what he’s taking.

But what was also mentioned on the show, as well as other places, was the question of whether steroids would just eventually become legal. To be honest, I hope it doesn’t go that way, but I can see how it might. Fast forward to the future, a world where all PEDs are banned in professional sports, and the testing is proficient enough to keep it that way. We still have our star athletes and amazing championships. But they’re not really the best. Because all around them are people that are bigger and stronger and faster than them. Because they get to use supplements…supplements that don’t have impacts on health. The average is joe is just as competitive as the best baseball player, because he gets his supplements. People really are going to start to question why we wouldn’t let athletes to use everything they can to be the best. Not saying it’s going to happen exactly that way, but it might.

But that may change. Before we go farther, I want to point out that it has not been made clear what exactly Ortiz tested positive for. While everyone assumes that Ortiz was on steroids, it may not be the case. Regardless, Ortiz has said that he doesn’t know what he could have tested for and the idea of a false positive has been floating around. For the moment, let’s ignore the fact that so many past users have denied usage or claimed they didn’t think they could have tested positive. What is far more important here is that PED experts have said that the over-the-counter supplements that Ortiz was using during the 2003 season could have caused a false positive in the 2003 tests. Likewise, Major League Baseball has said that there were in fact false positives in the 2003 testing, meaning that some of those 104 players who tested positive may not have actually been PED users.

So does that give Ortiz, and me, a glimmer of hope? Well, yes it does. Actually I started to feel that hope when Bronson Arroyo spoke out saying that in 2003 it wasn’t like it is now. He said there wasn’t a list of what was okay and what wasn’t, everyone was just taking supplements and he wouldn’t be surprised if he was on that list. That says a lot to me about the culture of baseball at the time. And there’s a big difference between Ortiz/Arroyo and A-Rod right there too. At least in my book, pleading innocence when your cousin is injecting you is entirely different from taking oral supplements that anyone can pick up in a GNC and sparking a false positive. A huge difference.

Now I’m not saying that Ortiz definitely didn’t do anything wrong. He may well have. But when we should take away from this is that the issue isn’t settled yet. We don’t know enough to rule on whether Papi is guilty or not, or somewhere in between. But if there was ever someone insistent upon his lack of usage, and they were innocent, it would be David Ortiz.

Let me start briefly with Ramirez in saying that this hardly is a shock to anyone. Since Ramirez was recently caught using PEDs, it seemed awfully unlikely that he didn’t begin taking them until testing had begun. I think most people assumed that Ramirez had been taking illegal substances for years, despite the lack of definitive evidence.

Ortiz is a different story. The poster child of Boston, the man almost single-handedly reversed the curse, has always been thought of as a stand-up guy and legitimate player…at least in New England that is. While this may have surprised some, I for one have been waiting for this day for quite some time now, despite hoping it would never come. But really, and I have been saying this for awhile now, I knew that in all likelihood Ortiz was a steroid user. His numbers perfectly resemble one, considering his struggles with the Twins followed by a late breakout in Boston. I always said it was the Red Sox’ approach to hitting and his ability to tighten his swing to hit inside fastballs that caused his surge, not steroids. But in truth, it probably was the steroids that enabled him to get his bat around quicker.

So what does this mean for Ortiz? Well, he’s got several options, though none of them are pretty. Assuming he is guilty, obviously the best bet is to accept it and apologize, a la Andy Pettitte. Denial (the Roger Clemens route) has yet to really work for anyone. There is by all means the possibility that when testing began in 2004 that Ortiz stopped using steroids or PEDs, which would most likely comfort Red Sox fans. The problem they will see is that the pinnacle of Boston sports, the 2004 World Series Championship, was false, a scam. It will be that the Red Sox barely made it by, and they did so on the back of David Ortiz, the ‘roider. But for Ortiz, maybe not. The next few days will be telling, though the whole story may never be known.

It’s safe to say that this is going to be a major distraction. When the Red Sox finish their day game against the A’s in a couple hours, the clubhouse is going to full of reporters swarming Ortiz. Steve Phillips and Tim Kurkjian said they think this makes it more likely for the Red Sox to pull of a trade for V-Mart or Adrian Gonzalez. Tough to tell at this point. All we know now is it’s a bad day in Boston.

So what if baseball (or really any other sport, but we’ll use baseball as the example because its current turmoil) employed a similar method? Personally, I think it would work great. Even with the (sort of) steep penalties in place, I don’t think that there is any doubt there are still players using PEDs, and they know they can get away with it because there is no test for whatever substance they are using.

But if the MLB used retroactive testing, all that would change. I’m not suggesting using it simply to catch players from 2003-2009 (I highly doubt they keep old samples anyway), but rather, to make immediate change to the game’s present and future. Steroid allegations are damaging to a player’s character, and baseball players are pretty egotistical people. The second they realize that five years down the line they might get caught for something they’re doing now, they’ll stop, because when they get caught they’ll be even more embarrassed than this guy. Even if they don’t know for sure, odds are that a test will be developed before their Hall of Fame ballots are in, so it sure isn’t worth it. No matter what, doing it this way sure is a hell of a lot easier than whatever method (is there one) that the MLB is using to maintain (?) the prevention of PEDs taking over the game again.

But have no fear, at least for now. While I have no way of truly knowing the accuracy of this list, it would strike me as being extremely unlikely that this is the list is correct.

For starters, the list has only 103 names on it. That might be great if this was the 103 players who tested positive for steroids other than Alex Rodriguez, but A-Rod is on the list (as is Sosa), so apparently this list just happened to leave someone off? Seems fairly unlikely.

Furthermore, if you look at the list, yes, there are a lot of players that you would probably expect to be on there, but if you look closely, virtually every star is on the list, and there are few no-name guys that appear. It’s not like only superstars take steroids, guys who aren’t quite as talented have always taken steroids as well, just to keep up. So it seems pretty preposterous that while just over 1000 players took the test, I am very familiar with almost all 103 (but actually 104) players who tested positive.

Lastly, if you look at the list, it just looks fake due to the lack of care setting it up. There is no space between the period and the name (e.g.  55.Alex Rodriguez). It also doesn’t seem to credible that Rotolist.com, is the only source. While it at least appears to be a reasonably credible site, no other sources claim they have it as well, and particularly no major news outlets. It’s too bad that someone went to the trouble of making a bogus list just to spread rumors.

But let us remind ourselves of one fact. A-Rod has played in just 43 games this season. 43. In the grand scheme of things, that’s nothing, and I would expect someone like Olney to realize that. Usually baseball statisticians are looking at year’s worth of evidence and trends, and frequently scoff those that read to much into small sample sizes like this one. Drugs, or no drugs, let’s be reminded of the fact that A-Rod is one of three baseball players who you could say are the best in the game right now (Pujols, Santana), and it takes a lot more than a slump to take him off that list.

A little farther down in the column, Olney discusses how David Ortiz and A-Rod are going in “different directions” now that Papi started hitting the ball again. Just three weeks ago, wasn’t everyone saying the same thing about Ortiz? We heard it constantly, he’s done, he’s finished. I even wrote about it. But now all everyone can think about is how he yet again is the Red Sox’ savior, and he had a longer slump than A-Rod’s had.

Furthermore, if all A-Rod’s success came from PEDs, wouldn’t he have struggled a long time ago. I know some don’t believe that he stopped taking steroids until recently, but assume he was telling the truth for a second, and realize that he hit .302 with 35 HRs last year, and .314 with 54 the year before that.

I’ve never like A-Rod and I never will. But I also realize that he is one of the most amazing players to play the game, and it’s going to take a lot more than 43 lousy games to convince me that he isn’t going to produce ever again. A-Rod will be back, trust me.

Jose, are you out of your mind? Let’s take this one at a time, starting with Cooperstown. If we completely ignore steroids, we see that you do have yes, 462 homeruns, but you also have a .266 career average and a whopping 1942 career strikouts, more than double his career walk rate. If steroids didn’t exist and he put up the same numbers, there would have been a definite chance that Jose would be the second 400-HR man to not make the Hall after Dave Kingman. But let’s get serious. Steroids were a part of his career, and that is heavily condemned by the baseball community. And it’s not like he was a casual user, Canseco spread steroids like a California wildfire, popularizing them across the sport. Canseco was bad for baseball. And we know all of this because every time he ran out of money (and didn’t decide to become a sumo wrestler) he told the world about all of the terrible things he did to baseball to make a buck.

So, Canseco, why are you complaining. To be honest, it’s amazing that you get the press coverage that you do, that you still get time on ESPN once in awhile after all of your stunts. You help spread the game’s biggest plague, and for that you deserve to be ostracized. Good luck finding a judge to hear your case.

Sosa’s name has been linked to steroids for some time, so this announcement certainly does not come as much of a shock to anyone. I think he made it quite clear to everyone after he was caught using a corked bat that he did not necessarily care about the purity of his performances.

What seems more likely now that the A-Rod is not the only one who’s name has been made public, is that the rest of these 104 names will slowly be announced to the sporting community through press leaks in Major League Baseball, law offices and government officials. Any player who failed the 2003 test will definitely now be on edge.

In some ways it’s a shame that these names are being leaked, because the agreement was clear that the tests were to be taken under the condition of anonymity. However, I don’t think that these players will find much remorse from the public, the measure taken in 2003 was one that should have been taken years earlier. Regardless of what is thought of these releases, it is clear that more players who tested positive that year will have their names in the papers with the test results.

On an interesting side note, it appears that Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sosa will all be eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot in the same year. This latest announcement will likely hurt all of their chances. While Sosa, even without the semi-official evidence linking him steroids, didn’t stand much chance, there are those that believe that Bonds or Clemens still deserve their spot in the Hall. However, with their names all on the list at the same time, it would be hard to argue that one deserves to be in the Hall without the other, or even without Sosa, as all three of them have the numbers to make it to Cooperstown if one ignores steroids.

The controversy started when an article was written at MidWestSportsFans.com in response to a comment that the site had received suggesting that the veteran has been on the juice which is why his numbers have spiked so far in ‘09. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think Ibanez is perfectly right to be upset that his name was linked to steroids in any manner. I find it particularly unfortunate that any time a player has a good season, people automatically suspect that something can’t be right. I remind everyone, before the existance of PEDs, there were breakout seasons, there were slumps, there were slow-starters, and there were guys who inexplicably were successful in their mid-to-late 30s. It happens, its natural.

But Ibanez, who attacked the blogger by saying that he was a coward who types in his mother’s basement, maybe should have taken an actual look at the article. To be fair to this “blogger,” this was exactly what he was not intending. In fact, when he set out to write the story, his mission was to find evidence that proved why Ibanez’s power surge was due to other reasons, like his new hitter-friendly ballpark etc. The fact that he ultimately realized that he would not be able to prove Ibanez was having a good season naturally by no means that the “coward” concluded that Ibanez was using steroids or any other drug. In fact, I am quite confident that the writer sincerely hopes that Ibanez is clean, and believes so himself. This may be, and most likely is, just one of those cases when a player is just seeing the ball well and its dropping in for him. So good for you Ibanez, keep up the good work, but don’t be so quick to judge.