With all of the recent talk i have heard about Barry Bonds and cheating by using steroids really bothers me for a lot of reasons.

1. He has never tested positive for steroid use.
2. There have been many players who have used illegal substances but cant do what bonds has done (Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi) my point being that steroids dont make a hitter.
3. We dont know the full effect of steroids on an athlete.
4. Barry Bonds isnt the only player to cheat in baseball (if he used steroids)

For this blog im going to explain point number four in more detail, because i feel as though Barr Bonds is catching an extrodinary amount of slack that other players have not received.

Many people in baseball have cheated, and of those some are in the Hall of Fame because they cheated and gained unfair advantages. The most famous example being the "spitball" which was banned from baseball in the year of 1920. The term "spitball" is given to any ball that has been tampered with by an outside substance. Some of these include actual spit, petroleum jelly, or using sandpaper to scuff at a part of the ball to achieve a similiar effect. Using the spitball changes the air resistance a ball recieves, resulting in an unusual movement of the ball.
This in many ways is steroids for pitchers because it gives their ball an unusual movement that baffles hitters, just as steroids are supposed to add power to a hitters swing. However many pitchers have cheated and used the spitball after it was banned in 1920, including pitchers like: Ted Radcliffe, and Gaylord Perry (Perry is in the Hall, Teddy is an inductee). Now how can Perry be in the HOF if he cheated. Also there are no asterics next to their names in the record books for using a spitball, so i believe we cant do anything to Bonds until we clear up our past. We must decide whether or nut we will punish all cheaters, or only some of them.

Please post your comments.