Shut Up And Move On

Last week, the much-anticipated Mitchell Report was released, detailing the rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball.

Of course, even the most casual baseball fan already knew that the use of steroids and human growth hormone was as prevalent in the game as snow in a Canadian winter.

The centre of attention from the announcement has been the inclusion of Roger Clemens, arguably the best pitcher since the war, in the report. Thankfully, many in the media are painting him with the same brush as Barry Bonds, proving, at the very least, that those doing the accusing are not hypocrites.

But what is most important is this: during the alleged drug use by Clemens, Bonds, Andy Pettitte, and a slew of other major leaguers, it was not against the rules of the game to do so. Some might say you don't need a law saying you can't kill someone to know you shouldn't do it, but we do have such a law. Baseball didn't formally ban steroids until 2003, and HGH until 2005.

People are talking about if Clemens' vast records, like Bonds', should be labelled with an asterisk, or wiped out altogether. But history is history; it cannot be changed. It must be written as was, warts and giant heads and all.

The solution as I see it is simple: shut up and move on. These substances are against the rules of the game now, and testing is in place. For the sake of history, future baseball fans should know that in the last 10 years, any records or remarkable achievements should be taken with a grain of salt, and that they may not have been achieved honestly.

But the fact remains that they were achieved, so elect Clemens and Bonds to the Hall Of Fame (on the first ballot, of course) and say, from this moment on, that baseball is clean.

At least until the new drug du jour hits the clubhouse.