Canseco Saga: DAY 2

Whenever there is a breaking sports story that involves an athlete with past or present Bay Area ties, Ray Ratto always has to contribute his two cents.

I've been in deep thought about the steroid mess lately, and you can thank Canseco for throwing a whole lot of gasoline on the steroid fire. I've been pondering this question a lot:

Did MLB turn a blind eye to steroids after the '94 strike? If so, was this used in hopes of more home runs to attract fans back into the ballpark?

It makes sense, after '94 new stadiums were built with smaller dimensions, the strike zone shrunk and Questec was used to make sure the umpires enforce the new strike zone. And look at the offensive results, the home run derbies of McGwire, Sosa and Bonds. One admitting using borderline steroids, another is an admitted steroid user and the third...Never "knowingly" took steroids but did anyways.

McGwire and Sosa chasing Roger Maris' record and Bonds breaking McGwire's record did bring interest in the game and many have said that baseball has finally recovered from the strike.

People may say that the game is tarnished but why does that matter? There have been gambling scandals (Black Sox), drug scandals (the '86 Mets?), racist attitudes (BoSox), and other such scandals well before this steroid issue. As I've said before, it's not black and white, it's in many shades of gray.