Mark McGwire Used Steroids?

[Scar]

Re: the records books, here's my take on it ...

If you know for certain, either through test results or his own admission, that a guy used PED's then absolutely I think all his stats should be stricken from the record book. ALL of them.

I mean look ... there's plenty precedent for it. The NCAA wipes out entire team seasons if they're caught cheating. The IOC takes away Olympic gold medals if people are caught cheating. Track and field athletes are stripped of their medals if they're caught doping or whatever. It's not like this would be some line that has never been crossed.

If Pete Rose is banned from baseball for life for gambling on the game (which did not have a direct influence on the outcome of games) then how in the world are these guys not subject to the same kinds of punishments????

And before anyone says, "Well it wasn't against the rules when they did it!" it wasn't against the written rules, but I'm sure there are plenty of other things that aren't in the baseball rules that are still obviously not allowed! For example, it probably doesn't say "Thou shalt not pull a gun and shoot your teammate if he drops a fly ball" but I'm fairly certain everyone knows you can't do it!

I disagree. What if Bonds admits it (which I think he will to minimize jail time) but Sosa never does. Then Sosa gets to keep his 66 homers stand as the record? Not fair. And using your last statement as an example, wrong yes, but if a player were to shoot another player, would their records be erased? I don't think so.

[Rhetoric2000]

I disagree. What if Bonds admits it (which I think he will to minimize jail time) but Sosa never does. Then Sosa gets to keep his 66 homers stand as the record? Not fair.

As Ian points out, this logic is incredibly similar (well actually no - it's identical) to saying that no criminals should go to jail because sometimes criminals don't get caught. Sooooo not fair.

I know it's sad think of a game you love being systematically corrupted (it happened to me when all the cricketing betting scandals came out in the early 2000s) - but it really is better to purge as much of it out as you can, rather than have some kind of tacit don't ask-don't tell/pat-a-cake punishment policy for a) cheating, and b) failing to fulfil their professional obligations.

[Ian]

I know it's sad think of a game you love being systematically corrupted (it happened to me when all the cricketing betting scandals came out in the early 2000s) - but it really is better to purge as much of it out as you can, rather than have some kind of tacit don't ask-don't tell/pat-a-cake punishment policy for a) cheating, and b) failing to fulfil their professional obligations.

Which is exactly what I think is happening with McGwire.

[SandmanGStefani24]

ol Mac should be glad MLB doesn't use Nascar's rule of thumb for substance abuse.

Jeremy who?

Although if they did, baseball players would be scared straight...