Greenwell was robbed

In the past week, pundits around the country have wasted plenty of breathe debating whether Baseball's record books need to be doctored or augmented to account for accusations of steroid abuse. To date, almost all of this discussion has centered on Home Runs. With Jose Canseco now claiming that he injected Mark McGwire in the ass with anabolic steroids, some believe that McGwire's yearly and cumulative home run totals need to be disgraced with a scarlet asterisk. Aside from McGwire, the home run exploits of other sluggers such as Barry Bonds and Rafael Palmerio are also being reconsidered. I think most of this discussion is a bit premature since very little steroid abuse has ever been confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt.

But what about all that steroid abuse that has been admitted? For god's sake. Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi and the late Ken Caminitti have all admitted that they danced with the devil. I find it difficult to alter the books on guys like Bonds unless we get admissions or convictions, but the same cannot be said for the aforementioned triumverate. These guys have admitted to the crime and I believe they should, at the very least, have their awards revoked.

Each of these men have MVP awards. Canseco won his in 1988 over Red Sox outfielder Mike Greenwell. Caminitti's came in 1996 over Mike Piazza and Giambi's was won in 2000 over Frank Thomas. If it were up to me, MLB would strip these men of their awards and the runners-up would be presented with the hardware. We do this in amateur sports so why not extend the practice to baseball? Olympic medalists have been stripped of medals after testing positive so why not strip these clowns based on their own testimony.

The fallout from such a shakeup would be enormous. Can you believe that Gator could now demand being be introduced as "1988 American League Most Valuable Player Mike Greenwell." That just does not sound right given Gator's career, but people forget what a great year Greenwell had in 1988. That summer, he hit .325 , drove in 119 runs and had an on-base percentage of .419 for a division winner. That is a big year, although not nearly big enough to top Canseco's 40-40 year on the pennant winning Athletics. Canseco finished 150 points ahead of Greenwell in the voting that year but I think the standard 200 point deduction for steroid abuse should be applied in this instance. And lets be clear on one important point- this would not be a backdoor award. Afterall, Greenwell's 1988 was a whole lot more impressive then that year's National League winner Kirk Gibson.

Mike Piazza and Frank Thomas would be the other beneficiaries if MLB decided to reverse this injustice and in the case of Thomas, the impact would be significant. The Big Hurt would now have three MVP awards and that would cement his enshrinement in Cooperstown. Piazza is probably headed to the Hall of Fame as well, but adding an MVP to his resume would help solidify his candidacy. Its safe to say an MVP would do absolutely nothing for Greenwell's resume, although it would free him to emblazon MVP in big red letters all over his racing cars if he so desired.