The days of all stars and hall of famers being judged on pure talent are long gone. Today’s athlete is analyzed based on performance, stats and dosage. As funny as this may sound it is true in the world of sports as performance enhancing drugs have played a big role in the current special moments in sports.             

      Performance enhancing drugs that are not approved by leagues have been banned for years and yet we still have controversies. Many critics say the steroids scandals began with the home run boom of the 1998 Major League Baseball season as numerous players hit over 50 home runs which was before un heard of in the league. The race during that season between Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa is what many people would say brought the fans back to the games. McGuire who broke the record hitting 70 home runs years later was accused along with several major leaguers for taking steroids thus leading him to still be left out of the Hall Of Fame.               

          Since the controversy with McGuire many people have began to speculate athletes that dominate their sports are using performance enhancing drugs. Athletes as prominent as seven time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong have been accused of doping but was never proven to have used any band supplements. The most notorious of the accused athletes is baseball home run king Barry Bonds or should I say Barry (asterisk) Bonds. Bonds has broken more records then anyone since his 73 home run season in 2001 and has been linked to steroids through his suppliers from the company BALCO. Bonds continues to claim his innocence but as every record he breaks down a new speculation builds up.                

          As recent as the sudden confession from gold medal track star Marion Jones has steroids ruled the back pages of newspapers and led most sports broadcasts. The confession from Jones after years of denial is very surprising in deed not the fact that she took the steroids but that she was willing to admit to it to the media. Could it be guilt? A sudden change of heart? Or maybe fear of being exploited by black mail the list can go on and on. It was noble to relinquish the medals she won but still in my opinion not enough if you’re the athlete that trained all your life for the Olympics only to be defeated by someone who could take a needle without flinching

       On March 20th 2006 the championship game of the World BaseballClassic was played. The game was played at Pet Co Park in San Diego, California in front of thousands of fans. The game was played on americansoil but was missing the hosts Team United States.

          The game was between Japan and Cuba with Team Japancoming out victorious 10 to 6. A notable player from the champion Japanteam was Ichiro Suzuki a major league star of the Seattle Mariners wasinstrumental in his team winning the gold. Japan dominated the tournamentoffensively leading all the teams in the tournament with a .311 team battingaverage and 10 team home runs. The Japanese are now the first everWorld Baseball Champions as this was the inaguaral tournament.The United States were viewed by many as the favorite towin the tournament but were instead eliminated in the quarterfinals after a loss to Mexico.

           The United States struggled offensively for the mostpart of the tournament, the only exception is the 17 to 0 win against ayoung amatuer South Africa team. The United States also recievedexcellent run support from major league veterans Ken Griffey Jr andDerek Lee who each connected 3 home runs. The rest of the team ecspecially Texas Rangers slugger Mark Tiexera who was unable to record a single hit struggled and it resulted in the 3 loses.

         The United States were also hurt by poor pitchingperformances from left hander Dontrelle Willis of the Florida Marlins.Willis lost both of his starts in the tournament after giving up severalruns in critical situations. Roger Clemens pitched well in the tournamentup until his last start against Mexico as he was on the losing end of theelimination game. That game could possibly be the last time we seethe great future hall of famer Roger Clemens as he is yet to sign witha major league team.

           The United States team now goes it’s seperate ways asthe all star array of players report to spring training with their perspectiveteams. The tournament result may be viewed as a failure by many butsome who were not supporters of the tournament feel it was successful.The non supporters of the classic felt it put the major league players atrisk for injury before the start of the upcoming season. This year theteams were fortunate not to have any significant injuries to report.

            The World Baseball Classic may have varied reactionsamong baseball purists and fans alike. It has however done its job anddisplayed different cultures and talents around the world. The tournamenthas also given the United States a wake up call regarding the fundamentalsof the game it made baseball.