THE WATERCOOLER

QUESTION: On the eve of Manny Ramirez’s return to the Dodgers I ask the following … do you think the average fan really cares about players using performance-enhancing drugs, or do you think fans just want to be entertained and don’t care about PEDs as long as their teams are winning and their favorite players are performing well?

RICK HUMMEL
I think many fans care about players associated with PEDs, but largely when they play for the other team. The more knowledgable ones will note that PEDs are not indigenous to baseball. But, in football, for some reason, a suspension for one-quarter of a season because of a violation of the drug policy, is treated much like a hamstring injury.

JEFF GORDON
I’d say most fans are pretty indifferent about PEDs right now. Most fans can figure out that abuse was rampant and that baseball is making a real effort to clean it up now. Some fans were turned off, of course, and some may have quit coming to games. But Manny Ramirez will get a mostly positive reaction when he returns to action for the Dodgers. The LA fans just want a winning team, like teams elsewhere. ManRam has been a force for that franchise during his brief time there, so most fans will rally behind him.

DAN O’NEILL
I think the latter part of the question is most true. Ultimately fans want to be entertained and want to watch a winner. They have become nearly immune to scandals, steroids, outlandish salaries, off-field shenanigans, etc. Do they frown on performance-enhancement, yes. Do they prefer players not use them, yes. Are they disappointed when the integrity of the competition is compromised, yes. But in the end, it’s not a make-or-break issue. If it turned out Albert Pujols was a user, would the majority of St. Louis baseball fans scorn him? C’mon. You know better.

REID LAYMANCE
I care. I get mad at the players and all of baseball for letting it go on for so long. I loved watching Barry Bonds play for the Pirates and even in his early years with the Giants. One of the game’s best. But in his final transformation in San Francisco (and despite his vows of doing nothing wrong), it has made it hard to still like the Bonds from the early years. Same with Roger Clemens, who’ve I seen play since high school. I still cheer for the players I like, but sometimes not as loudly. And that makes me mad. So I care.

KATHLEEN NELSON
Depends why you watch in the first place. I think fans who love Manny or enjoy the cult of personality don’t care much about performance enhancing drugs. I think fans who love baseball care that the use of PEDs damage the integrity of the game.

LUKE THOMPSON
I don’t think PEDs are a huge concern for the average fan. At this point, it seems like most people are getting tired of hearing about the steroid mess. Some are even attacking the media for blowing things out of proportion or speculating too much, while at the same time lashing out at them for not finding the original story sooner. For most people, the success of their team is paramount, and most fans are willing to overlook mistakes, especially when they can tell themselves things like, “Well, he had to do it to keep up.” But one potential problem that the steroid era created is that fans no longer have the same connection with players and respect for the sport as a whole. They can still root for their favorite team, but they may be less inclined to watch the Fox game of the week or a playoff series once their team is eliminated, because PEDs have distanced players even more from the fans who adore them.

THE WATERCOOLER

QUESTION: With the New York Times reporting that Sammy Sosa’s name is on the list of 104 players who tested positive in 2003 for using a performance-enhancing drug, the question becomes: When will it end? If and when the entire list is released, do you believe baseball will finally start to cleanse itself of the stain brought on by PEDs or will the topic continue to rear its head for years to come?

RICK HUMMEL
This will be a topic for as long as baseball is played. Not that baseball can’t learn a lesson from this, but what we have here is an era — and baseball is nothing but a collection of eras.

JEFF GORDON
Even releasing the whole list wouldn’t shed complete light on the situation. By now, we know that PED abuse was rampant. The Commissioner looked the other way, owners looked the other way and so did general managers and managers. We know now not to be surprised by any name that emerges in this ongoing story. What happened happened. All baseball can do is remain vigilant, improve its testing program on the fly and nab some additional big-name cheats to discourage wholesale abuse. The players association could help by aggressively educating its members on this issue and former abusers could help by stepping up to discuss the matter.

GERRY FRALEY
Major League Baseball faces a true dilemma here. Release the list, and MLB sets back what has been an improving relationship with the Major League Baseball Players Association. Test results were to be kept secret, but the players for generations have never trusted the owners to keep their word. Players had nothing to gain from leaking names, but ownership did. Hold back the list, and everyone in the game during the 2003 season falls under suspicion, keeping the issue alive. Better to do that than publish the names.

In moving forward, it is more important to keep a good working relationship between management and the players’ union than it is to revisit the past. Baseball has not had a work stoppage since 1994-95, but that could change if distrust and suspicion return as the sides get ready to work on a new basic agreement. The current deal expires in December, 2011.

Most in the industry believe only a handful of players still in the game would be on a list of those who tested positive.

TOM TIMMERMANN
If names keep trickling out, this topic will keep popping up, though at some point, all the famous names will be out and the remaining players will be people most fans don’t care about. The stain won’t go away for a long time. Even those who never failed a drug test will be suspect because they played at the same time. They may have just been lucky not to have been caught. And as the Olympics show, even having tight drug testing doesn’t mean people will stop using drugs. They’ll just use different drugs and hope to be one step ahead of the law. I don’t think baseball will ever by free of the stain of performance enhancing drugs. You’re looking at a 20-year swath of baseball history where the records set can’t be trusted, and everyone else will play under a cloud. But baseball fans also have shown that, at a certain level, they don’t care about steroids and keep rooting for the home team. Baseball has shown itself to be pretty hard to kill.