Sports ridiculousness, part one

There's been a couple of doses of 'sports insanity' in the past couple of days, and I'll take on the first one since it involves the Red Sox. It turns out that both Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003, along with more than 100 other Major League Baseball players during a random sampling of the league.

The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy suggests the titles won the Boston in 2004 and 2007 are now 'tainted' because of this revelation. Personally, I think Shaughnessy is just trying to reinvent 'The Curse of the Bambino' so folks will have a reason to buy his lousy book, but whatever.

Arguably, I think Shaughnessy and the rest of the detractors are embracing what has, unfortunately, become the sad narrative involving these developments. And that is everytime we see another shoe drop and another player test positive for PED use, we weep and gnash and bemoan how the sport has gone awry, all while labeling the player a 'cheater.'

So, up front, understand that I'm not condoning or encouraging the use of PEDs in any way, shape or form. My position, however, is that it's ridiculous for folks to sit in high-minded judgment of the players who did use those drugs given the circumstances of the era, and it's even more absurd to suggest titles won by the Red Sox (or Yankees or Cardinals or whoever else) are 'tainted' based on those circumstances.

For any player who tests positive to be labeled a 'cheater' they would have to be doing something no one else was doing and have the result of that action give them an unfair advantage over the competition. And, if more than 100 players tested positive in a random sample in 2003, there's ample evidence to suggest that this 'cheating' was running rampant through MLB.

So, if a large percentage of players are using PEDs - and we have objective and subjective evidence that confirms this - and these players are littered throughout the various teams in the league, then I'm struggling to see how anyone is really 'cheating' here.

If want a real culprit in this whole thing, don't blame the players who were merely doing what they could in order to keep up with their competitors, but instead point a finger at Bud Selig, the MLB commissioner. Selig turned a blind eye while this whole thing started growing because, well, money was good ... and coming off the disaster that was the 1994 strike, they needed some good publicity and some good money.

Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa delivered it, and we all thought it was awesome despite the fact that Sosa was an average hitter before that summer and McGwire looked like nothing short of The Incredible Hulk. Then the Yankees got good, and folks either loved or hated the Yankees so the ratings soared. And then my Red Sox challenged them, so folks tuned in to watch Boston ulimately dethrone them.

This isn't about players cheating. This is about players trying to do whatever is necessary to stay competitive and, as more and more began to use PEDs, the powers that be just ignored it ... and they were going to ignore it, then why not use them?

And if we were willing to accept it, then why should we blame them?