Saturday, March 29, 2008

Who Got Hurt

We know that the Red Sox didn't take much of a hit in the Mitchell report, for whatever reason. NONE of us believe that the Sox avoided the scandal, and Eric Gagne and Brendan Donnelly both got passing mention.

Some argue that aside from baseball's fascination with numbers, nobody got hurt. Is that really the case?

I'm not addressing the health issues involved with anabolic steroids or growth hormone, but rather the competitive ones. We know about the massive contracts and muscles of Bonds and Giambi, but what we don't see are the wounds of those that never made the show.

I spoke with a family of one player, a non-drafted free agent who had some success in the minor leagues, but ultimately retired gracefully to the business world when injuries caught up with him. They said he wasn't so much bitter as frustrated by his experience. Frustrated by an inability to compete on a level playing field with others who took performance enhancing substances.

Why didn't he become a user? He opted to stay clean simply for health reasons, concerns about the development of cancer in particular.

So for every star who advantaged the system, others lost out, And you know too.

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