The D-backs ’01 World Series title isn’t tainted and never will be

Former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Curt Schilling said something earlier this week on a Philadelphia radio station that has people all fired up (imagine that).

Here is what Schilling said.

“Anybody who ever says performance-enhancing drugs didn’t help players produce offensive numbers is full of crap.” And with those numbers came championships that Schilling claims were tainted. “There isn’t a team in the last 20 years that has won clean.”

Let me be clear: I don’t think the Diamondbacks’ 2001 World Series title is tainted.

I, also, believe Schilling was 100% correct when he said there hasn’t been a World Series won in the past 20 years that didn’t have a player using a PED.

Why are we questioning and/or surprised by this?

I’m not going to go through each World Series team and try to guess, or go through each World Series team and see if a player has been linked. It’s not worth my time.

Just because a player wasn’t outed by a trainer, the Mitchell Report or a former teammate doesn’t mean they weren’t using PEDs. And if they were, it doesn’t mean they necessarily did use PEDs (although that’s very unlikely). The past decade has proved to us that there were players using PEDs and there still are in the current season (see Ramirez, Manny).

Hundreds of names have been linked to PEDs already. I’m not trying to name names or accuse specific people, but I’m going to say I believe there are hundreds of others out there that haven’t been linked (I’m talking across baseball — not necessarily just Major League Baseball). If that shocks, surprises or makes you think I’m throwing blind darts after I’ve had a 12-pack then I feel sorry for you.

Back to 2001, the title isn’t tainted. It was an even playing field. Did each team have the same number of players taking steroids? No. But they all had access to the same stuff and were all taking the same tests — or in this case lack of tests.

It was the era, the time frame of the game. Right or wrong isn’t getting decided here. Arguing and comparing records of the past and what will be in the “clean” future isn’t the case either. We’re discussing if a title was tainted.

The 2001 Diamondbacks were playing the game just as any other team in baseball was that season and at the end of the day they were the team holding the golden flag poles with pennants above their heads.

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TY’s Outtakes

What I learned this week…

This was easy. I learned what a “haboob” was. I had never heard that word before Tuesday evening and now I will never forget it.

Tweet of the week…

Great tweet, coach.

Suggestion of the week…

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