What'd you get on your test? A positive?

Sports Illustrated reported today that A-Rod tested positive for anabolic steroids twice in 2003. I don't know why that made me so happy to hear. Maybe my disdain for anything Yankee related. If you're like me and can't remember what you had for breakfast this morning, you probably don't remember much about A-Rod from 2003, so let me jog your memories. That was the year he was the AL home run champ, the year he edged out his first AL MVP award over Carlos Delgado, and also his final year on the Rangers before he signed his lucrative 10 year, $252 million contract. Maybe he was trying to drive up his free agent market value. If that's what he was out to achieve, he certainly was victorious.

Enough with A-Rod. This is a Cardinals' site, so how does this pertain to the Redbirds? I just hope if these reports hold true that the HOF voters give him the same cold shoulder they're giving McGwire. I'm not saying by any stretch that Rodriguez is not an extremely talented athlete that deserves to be in the Hall... I'm just saying McGwire was as well. Nobody knows how long Big Mac was taking the 'roids due to his not wanting to talk about the past. But I can say with much certainty that at least his rookie year he was clean (I say this considering he would've been mistaken for Eckstein with a red wig). And you could see the raw talent that he had.

I honestly don't know if any of these guys from the steroids era will ever make it into the Hall, I just hope they keep everything fair. How could you allow Bonds, Clemens, or Rodriguez in but keep McGwire sitting on the front steps. McGwire did the most for the game if you truly think about it. After the World Series in 1994 was cancelled, many fans felt cheated and betrayed by their game. The years following were slow, almost as a direct foreshadowing of how the years following the NHL lockout in 04-05 would play out. Fans are the customers for baseball, and when you make the customer angry, what does he do? He shops elsewhere. Maybe he shops at the NFL now, or maybe the NBA. Everything was slowly moving in baseball for the next three seasons...

That is until that magical summer of 1998. McGwire and Sosa's race to see who would first break Maris' prestigious and long untouched single season home run record was amazing. Those two, who are now shunned by MLB, single-handedly brought baseball back, brought the fans back, brought the excitement back. All the front office guys knew what was going on. They knew these guys were getting bigger and bigger. If you watched McGwire in the first inning, turned the game off for a couple hours and flicked it back on for the ninth you could see he had grown. But all the baseball front officers, who ironically now see these guys as bringing down the game, didn't say a word. Why would they when these two guys are selling out every stadium the visit.

To wrap it up, because I could go all day on this, I think all of these steroid era players deserve to be in the Hall. But I think everything should be kept fair and square, and if one of them is let in, let them all in. But if you keep one out, like McGwire, keep them all out...

Pitchers and catchers report soon, and we still have more to discuss about the upcoming season, so back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. Have a great weekend! (Except you A-Rod)