The Rome report

Most of us know by now that Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees has admitted to using steroids while he was with the Texas Rangers from 2001 to 2003. Many people have come out and said that A-Rod has shamed himself and the game; and they are right. A-Rod shouldn’t be the only one catching heat. There are other people who should be getting more than they are.

Let’s start with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig. This is a man who has done a lot of good for the game. He gave us interleague play and the wild card. He found more revenue streams for the game so everybody could make more money.

He also has presided over the biggest scandal to hit baseball and it seems that his head has been in the sand for years.Before Congress dragged MLB and the Players’ Union to Capitol Hill, Selig spent time denying that baseball had a steroid problem. Instead of getting out ahead of the problem, Selig tried to suppress the problem.

Then he comes in after the fact, saying that he still may discipline A-Rod. That’s crap. He should have tried to do more about the problem before. Maybe if he had been more proactive years ago, the game wouldn’t be fighting this perception that baseball is a dirty game.

Selig and A-Rod has company in this blame game. Donald Fehr and Gene Orza, the men who run MLB’s Players’ Union, are also to blame.

Fehr and Orza defended the players who were using at the expenses of the players who were clean. Since big names like A-Rod, Sosa, Bonds and Clemens have been linked to steroid use, most assume everyone must be using.

In the past, Fehr and Orza have spent so much time and energy rejecting steroid testing from MLB. It makes people believe that they knew the whole time that steroids were a big of a problem as it was. If the players weren’t using, why not agree to the testing?

Not having testing allowed players who wanted to use steroids to use and it almost forced borderline players use to ensure a roster spot.

Baseball executives and managers have to share some of the blame. With steroid use as rampant as it turned out to be, they had to know something.

Are you telling me that a manager like Tony LaRussa didn’t have any idea that two of his biggest stars, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, were using steroids? That’s hard for me to believe and to this day LaRussa still defends McGwire when the subject comes up.

It seems unlikely that all these players were using steroids and no owner, general manager or team manager knew what was going on. Some of the se people in charge knew, they just didn’t want to say anything.

Everyone in baseball is culpable for the steroids problem. The players bear the ultimate responsibility, because in the end, it’s still their choice to use or not to use.

But, people must remember that they are not the only ones to blame. Responsibility for the steroids problem starts at the top of the baseball chain and moves down to the players.