Newsfeed
Printer-Friendly ModeSeveral MLB players prove steroids haven't ruined baseball
April 10, 2006 —
Major League Baseball had its opening day last Sunday. I know, lately it has been very easy to get lost in Barry Bonds' steroid-induced homerun rampage, but many people seem to forget about the plethora of positive stories around the league, some of them coming from our very own beloved Detroit Tigers.
How could you not help but grin Monday when the Tigers took the field for the first time this season? They may not have been the best team of the last oh say, 20 years. But there is still reason to watch.
Take the story of second-year Tigers first basemen Chris Shelton. Shelton is a classy guy who has worked his way up from the bottom to become one of the top young talents in the league. In 2004, he was left unprotected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Rule 5 Draft, where teams select a minor league player from their organization (usually one with little promise) and place them in a pool for other teams to pick from.
The Tigers took a chance on Shelton, and after just one season with the team, he earned a starting spot and hit a more than respectable .299 with 18 home runs. He has hit .583 so far this season with five home runs. Not bad for a guy who's never taken steroids in his life.
Another great story coming from Tigers camp is that of starting pitcher Mike Maroth. During the Tigers forgettable (or memorable, you pick) 119-loss season, Maroth accumulated 21 losses and became something of a laughing stock around the league. But the young Maroth kept his head up and the Tigers never lost faith in his talent, and in 2005 he evened out his record at 14-14.
One of the biggest stories of the young season surrounds a player many people have never heard of. Jimmy Rollins, the shortstop of the Philadelphia Phillies was closing in on Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak set in 1941. Rollins was stopped at 38 on Thursday, but just to show how difficult of a task that is, only seven players in the last 10 years have had streaks over 30 games. And only Luis Castillo of the 2002 Florida Marlins has come as close as Rollins, but was stopped at 35 games. And no one has had a streak over 40 games since Tigers' centerfielder Ty Cobb did it in 1911.
Remember Ken Griffey, Jr.? Arguably the best player of the 1990s, it was he who was touted as the next home run king of baseball, not Barry Bonds. Hampered by injuries over the last couple of seasons, he has fallen out of the race. But, healthy for the first time in years, he recently passed former Yankees great Mickey Mantle on the career home run list, belting his 537th on Wednesday. It put him at 12th on the all-time list, only 11 behind Phillies great Mike Schmidt, and moved him second on the active player list behind Bonds. The 37-year-old Griffey is 171 homers behind Bonds.
One last non-Barry Bonds story to watch for this season is that of Houston Astros second baseman Craig Biggio. At 40, Biggio is standing on 2,800 career hits, and is only 200 away from joining the illustrious 3,000 hit club. Granted, a 200-plus hit season for the 40-year-old Biggio seems unlikely, but with such a great player who has exemplified total professionalism throughout his career, we can still cheer for him. And if he fails to do so this year, there is little doubt he'll return for a final season and get his 3,000th hit.
With so much controversy surrounding the game of baseball, it is nice to step back and see all that is still good and pure with the game. There are still plenty of great stories happening around the league this season, and every season for that matter. Even if you are not a big fan of the game, hopefully you can tune out all of the Barry Bonds fuss in the news and watch for these great players and people in the news this season.