With all that happened to Major League Baseball in the off-season, it’s a wonder that the teams are still sending their players to spring training this week.

From heart-wrenching trades that sent Randy Johnson and Carl Pavano to the Yankees to the surprise split-up of “The Big Three” in Oakland to the steroid scandal that has since peppered two-decades worth of baseball records with doubt, only one thing is certain now.
The game has changed.

The mounting thrill of watching Barry Bonds chase Hank Aaron’s homerun record has nearly diminished as his loyal fans now eye him with suspicion and wonder just how long the 40-year-old Bonds used steroids before recent evidence was brought forth in the BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Company) investigation.

It doesn’t even matter that he is treading over a part of baseball history that few have ever ventured upon. Bonds is swiftly approaching Hank Aaron’s homerun mark of 755, but it’s just not the same anymore – the victory has been tainted.

One wonders what baseball commissioner Bud Selig will do about the records of players who have been accused and those who have been found guilty. Who will decide which players really produced of their own accord and which used substances to stretch to and reach such heights of baseball honor? Will every record from the last 20 years eventually need to be analyzed in order to see whether or not the record-holder was under the influence of performance-enhancing drugs when the record was broken?
The game might never be the same again.

To make matters worse, known steroid-user and former baseball “player” Jose Canseco wrote an autobiography and released it earlier this week and immediately created a ripple in the sporting world when he accused legends like Mark McGwire, Cal Ripken Jr. and others of steroid use. Both Ripken and McGwire hold incredible records and knowing that these players are now under suspicion plagues the game further.

Unfortunately, there’s no longer a place for the naïve baseball fan. The people we idolized, the so-called heroes, might not be heroes at all.