Smallwood: Steroid era taints all athletic achievements

IN A DIFFERENT time, when I was more naïve about the dramatic effects of performance-enhancing drugs, I guess I would have been impressed by the spectacular display by Miami Marlins rightfielder Giancarlo Stanton during Monday's Home Run Derby.

I might have even believed the 61 home runs Stanton smashed out of Petco Park were "spectacular."

Even though the purpose of the contest is to intentionally deliver pitches that batters can blast out of ballpark, the fact Stanton destroyed the previous single-night mark of 41 set by then-Phillie Bobby Abreu in 2005 was amazing in terms of record-breaking margins for any event.

Still, when I saw what Stanton had done, I felt no true sense of awe.

My primary thought about Stanton was, how can I believe this is real?

Of course, that is unfair. As far as I know, Stanton has never been associated with PEDs. That, however, is the lasting legacy of the steroid era.

Every individual feat accomplished by a player - whether hitting 40-plus home runs in a season, striking out an inordinate number of batters or shattering a record in a meaningless home-run hitting contest - is met with some level of skepticism.

In today's era of baseball, every decent player or every player who improves dramatically has the suspicious cloud of PED floating around them.

The last time I was in Petco Park was Aug. 4, 2007. That night, Giants slugger Barry Bonds hit his 755th career major league home run to tie Henry Aaron's record. That also was the night I fully accepted that individual records and statistics in sports are meaningless.

The influence of illegal PEDs had rendered that part of the game moot.

If Bonds, with what I believe was a steroid-filled, bulked-up body, could equal and eventually break the most hallowed record in all of sports, then no great feat could ever again be fully accepted as legitimate.

Here is the nasty, but understandable thought that goes along with Stanton - a guy who never hit more than 37 home runs in and of six previous seasons is now on pace to top that in the first season Bonds joined the Marlins as a hitting coach. Hmmm.

Without question, that is unfair to Stanton, or even Bonds, for that matter, but it is a natural skepticism.

It's sad.

Baseball, more than any other sport, has its history intrinsically linked by the measure of its statistics.

Since the end of the dead-ball era around 1920, the game itself has remained relatively unchanged in terms of technology in equipment.

The ball is still cork wrapped in yarn, stitched inside cowhide. The bat is still made of wood.

It was sound theory that a pitcher who could throw a 95-mph fastball in 1936 would be just as successful in any era. The same could be said about a batter who could hit 45 homers.

PEDs artificially tilted the game in favor of those who use over those who do not.

Since we don't know for sure who cheated, no recent accomplishments can be considered as unquestionably legitimate.

We are at the point at which four of the top 10 leaders in career home runs - Bonds, Alex Rodriguez (fourth), Sammy Sosa (eighth) and Mark McGwire (10th) - might never be elected into the Hall of Fame because of the perception of PED usage.

With 354 wins (ranked ninth), 4,672 strikeouts (third) and a record seven Cy Young Awards, Roger Clemens is one of the greatest pitchers of all time, but he is the only pitcher with 300 career victories not in the Hall of Fame - because of his association with PED use.

You can't accurately gauge how much of their numbers are artificially enhanced, compared with those of players who did not use drugs.

Bonds hit the most career home runs and the most in a single season. I still consider Aaron and Roger Maris as the legitimate recordholders.

Major League Baseball has implemented a strong policy against PEDs, one that includes heavy suspensions. Still, we know players are still using because players are still getting caught: Already, 10 major league players and more than 50 minor league players have been suspended.

That makes you wonder who did not get caught, and that taints the achievements of every player.

It's not only baseball.

We know that PEDs are part of the sports culture and that users are always ahead of the testers.

When athletes do something that does not fit the norm, suspicion is almost immediate.

The entire track and field team from Russia is banned from next month's Olympics because of systemic drug usage.

I've always wanted to believe in the purity of the competition. I don't do that anymore, because I've seen too many cheaters.

A record in the Home Run Derby means nothing. Still, having skepticism about it says everything about the current culture of Major League Baseball.

@SmallTerp