Top 10 tarnished baseball reputations
Last week was hardly a good one for baseball.
First, on Saturday, news broke that Alex Rodriguez had taken steroids as recently as 2003. Just two days later, A-Rod admitted that the report was true: he used performances-enhancing drugs while with the Rangers. Arguably the game's best player, baseball's hope for clean, substance-free records, was now just as dirty as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
On the same day as Rodriguez's confession to Peter Gammons, Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada, long suspected to have been using steroids and HGH, was charged with "lying to Congress about an ex-teammate's use of steroids," according to Sports Illustrated. The next day, Tejada pled guilty, and now faces a year in prison.
To complete baseball's terrible trifecta, in a $15 million lawsuit, an ex-girlfriend made the explosive claim that former MLB second baseman Roberto Alomar has "full-blown AIDS," and insisted on having unprotected sex (Alomar said they were "terrible accusations," and his current girlfriend said the claims were "a vile lie").
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Fortunately for baseball, though, amid the flurry of negative news, Spring Training has also begun, and with it comes the hope for a clean slate. But to some extent, the damage has already done. It remains unclear exactly how any of these claims, allegations and PED-taking acts will affect each individual's reputation and legacy, but one thing's for sure – they're hardly the first in baseball to damage their credibility.
After the strike in 1994, Major League Baseball needed something to bring fans back to the games: cue the home run race of 1998. Sammy Sosa battled Mark McGwire all year as they both chased Roger Maris' record of 61 homers, with McGwire eventually pulling away to finish with 70 home runs.
That summer elevated McGwire to a near-mythic status, and it seemed that he had saved baseball. But in hindsight, he might have done more harm than good. In 2005, McGwire was subpoenaed to testify before Congress on steroids use. He infamously refused to answer questions, saying he wasn't there to talk about the past.
McGwire's huge numbers during an era now known for rabid steroid use, combined with his choice to become nearly invisible since the accusations, have destroyed almost all remaining credibility about his natural talent.
McGwire is not the only baseball legend whose career was tarnished after his playing days had ended. Pete Rose retired from baseball in 1986 as the all-time hits leader and a sure bet for the Hall of Fame before turning his attention to the managerial side of the dugout. That was when trouble started.
In early 1989, reports surfaced, including an infamous Sports Illustrated magazine cover story, that Rose was betting on baseball. After interviews and investigations, special counsel to the commissioner John Dowd submitted his 225-page report to Commissioner Bart Giamatti, in which details were revealed of Rose's alleged gambling activities.
After months of denial, Rose finally accepted a spot on baseball's ineligible list, but still denied he ever bet on baseball. Finally, in 2004, Rose came clean about all the gambling in his book, My Prison Without Bars, and later said on the Dan Patrick Radio Show, "I bet on my team every night. I didn't bet on my team four nights a week. I bet on my team to win every night because I loved my team, I believed in my team. I did everything in my power every night to win that game."
As bad as betting on your games may seem, intentionally losing a game is perhaps an even worse offense. In 1919, the Chicago White Sox accepted money in exchange for fixing the World Series. One of their star players, Shoeless Joe Jackson, allegedly received a $5,000 payment. He never spent the money, and even tried to tell the White Sox owner Charles Comiskey about the fix, but Comiskey wouldn't meet with him that day.
Jackson, who hit .375 with no errors in that Series, was even acquitted on all charges by a Chicago jury, but that didn't stop MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis from banning him from baseball in 1921. Jackson was a career .356 hitter, but still hasn't been inducted into Cooperstown. Despite his best efforts, Jackson could never fully clear his name and to this day remains on the Major League Baseball Ineligible List. The question of whether or not Shoeless Joe helped to throw the 1919 World Series almost doesn't matter anymore. His reputation took the hit regardless.
From McGwire to Rose to Jackson, there are numerous players who are now thought of more for what they did off the field (or in their bookies' offices), rather than the numbers they put up on the scoreboard. Hopefully for the sake of the sport, this past week's bad news will be the last of its kind.
The top five:
1. Shoeless Joe Jackson: Slideshow
2. Pete Rose: Slideshow
3. Barry Bonds: Slideshow
4. Ty Cobb: Slideshow
5. Mark McGwire: Slideshow
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