Leave it to a legend in the rap game, Sean “Jay-Z” Carter, to give us all the insight we need to get into the mind of some of the key players in the sports entertainment game.

In his latest album, American Gangster, Jay-Z celebrates success in a song called, “Roc Boys.” He gives a shout-out to everyone involved in making his hustle in the “game” possible, helping him vault straight to the top.

The same song could be used to describe what is likely going through the mind of many players implicated lately in the Mitchell Report — an investigative document pointing out alleged steroid and performance-enhancing drug users in professional baseball.

The professional sports “game” is similar to the “game” Jay-Z speaks to. Both games involve people who would do seemingly whatever it takes to make money, even if rules must be bent every which way.

The Mitchell Report only scratches the surface of what appears to be a very widespread amount of PED use through not just professional baseball, but also in the entire pro sports realm. Players of all ranks and classes have been implicated, showing us that not only are the minor leaguers doing what it takes to get rich, but also, players at the top are trying hard to maintain their already high-end lifestyle.

Just looking deeper into the first verse of “Roc Boys,” we get a glimpse of the modern performance-enhanced athlete’s mind, as it runs a parallel to Jay’s version of his “game” –

Line:

“First of all I wanna thank my connect,
the most important person with all due respect…”

Translated: BALCO’s Greg Anderson, Brian McNamee (former Yankees strength and conditioning coach) and Kirk Radomski (former Mets clubhouse attendant) have all served as a main connection for athletes to gain access to supplies of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. Without theses connects, there may not have been as much “juice” to put into the various players’ backsides. The connects were the initial door needed to enter into the long hallway of enhancements that led to fame and success for quite a few players.

Line:

“…thanks to the duffle bag the brown paper bag
the nike shoe box for holding all this cash.”

Translated: Know all that money getting placed in the pockets of the users? The money changing hands via FedEx packages or checks to purchase the enhancement drugs? Who knows where they stored it, but cash was more than likely the deciding factor in both ends of the decision to use PEDs — it was needed to access the PEDs, and was the main goal by which the PEDs were supposed to help attain.

Line:

“…boys in box who put greed before the badge…”

Translated: This is a shout-out to the owners, general managers, union leaders and anyone in a position of power who turned their head while the steroids flowed like champagne at one of Jay-Z’s 40-40 nightclubs. According to ESPN’s Peter Gammons, from 1995 to 2006, the industry grew from $1.3 billion to $6.2 billion; including the years in question in the Mitchell Report. The one thing we can agree on in this whole mess is that greed motivated people on all fronts, even the watchdogs whose job was to keep the game clean.

Line:

“the first pusher who ever made the stash”

Translated: Chemists, the BALCO lab folks (Victor Conte & the gang) and that initial person who thought that, “Hey, I bet I could make a little change of my new innovation called Human Growth Hormone…” I’d like to see the increase in revenues of those companies! Surely they’re bobbing their head to this song.

Line:

“the roc boys in the building tonight
oh what a feeling I’m feeling life”

Translated: This is the cheer for all the users listed not named Clemens or Pettitte, as well as those listed. The Mitchell Report essentially rehashed a lot of what we already knew about steroids and PEDs in baseball — it exists, and is widespread on all levels of the players of the sport. The report was enough to have the court of public opinion bring down cries of outrage, but no one really knows how to proceed from here, including Bud Selig. He opened Pandora’s Box and now, whatever move he makes to punish players will come back and haunt him.

Line:

“thanks to the lames ni***s with bad aim
thanks to a little change I’ll tear you out the game”

Translated: Thanks to those who tried to stop the steroid game, but failed; those initial whistle blowers who went unheard or ignored. There had to of been plenty of these types around, other than Jose Canseco. Or was it up until recently, when salaries skyrocketed (thanks to all the Scott Boras types out there!), along with game statistics, where people began to allow themselves to take notice? At any rate, greenies, steroids, PEDs and general enhancers to boost energy are around, they’ve always seemed to be around in some way, shape or form, and really, what can the league do to regulate them?

Line:

“bullet wounds’ll stop your buffoonery
thanks to the paster rapping at your eulogy”

Translated: The Chris Benoit situation brings pause to anyone who wants to think of the most extreme link to what could be the downside to using steroids or PEDs. We don’t know enough about the situation to make a direct connection. On this front, we will just say that no professional baseball player has been linked to gunshots related to using PEDs. But because many of the various forms of steroids are considered illegal drugs, we never know how far some people would go.

Line:

“to little kim and them you know the women friend who
carry the work cross state for a gentleman”

Translated: This covers agents, clubhouse managers, and “clubbies” who do whatever they can, as go-betweens, to cover for the actual steroid and PED users. Of course, some of the players mentioned in the Mitchell Report wrote direct checks or used their own personal credit cards to make these shady transactions – idiots. If you’re going to use and abuse, at least have the brains to use a middleman/middleperson so you don’t get burnt if, say, your own professional sports league investigates itself, despite allowing the chaos to run rampant for years.

Line:

“yea, thanks to all the hustlers, and most important to you, the customer”

Translated: The baseball clubhouse unwritten code is what kept the players from outing each other until recently. But even when the issue of steroids or PEDs came up, or became controversial and in the public eye, we fans continued to buy tickets, team gear and watched games on TV. We continue to do so, despite all of the accusations of baseball being “tainted” by superhuman athletes.

Without us, their efforts would be worthless. We have enabled them to carry on in this “arms race” to be the most entertaining at what they do. We, the customer, will continue to because we seem to like watching superhuman athletes take on fellow superhuman athletes. They can do what we can’t. Although we may sometimes ask who’s behind the scenes pulling the strings and causing the amazement before our eyes to happy, in reality, we don’t care. We just want to be entertained.

*This article was originally posted on www.mindritesports.com

Fashion designer Marc Ecko dropped $752,467 on the table in order to “democratize” the decision whether to ship Barry Bonds’ record-breaking no. 756 to the Hall of Fame, or to the moon — quite literally.

On Ecko’s new website, he gives visitors the option to vote between three options of what fate the historic ball will have:

1. Bestow It: “Give the ball to Cooperstown. The ball that broke Hank Aaron’s career home run record belongs in the Hall of Fame.”
2. Brand It: “Burn an asterisk into the ball, with a branding iron, adding a permanent footnote to the record. Then, send it to Cooperstown.”
3. Banish It: “Put the ball into a rocket ship and launch it into orbit, a moon shot for the ages. Out of sight, out of mind.”

A fun assortment, but the vote should be simple: Brand It.

If you’ve read my pieces on Bonds and the record-chase, you may be confused. Hear me out.

By branding and shipping no. 756 off to Cooperstown, the ball serves its purpose whether or not you believe Bonds is reached the historic mark legitimately.

Those who view Bonds as the ultimate villain in the world of performance enhancers in baseball, and believe his mark should be tarnished forever, get their wish. What better a way to be tarnished than to have his record-breaker in Cooperstown with a people-branded asterisk on the historic ball?

Those who view Bonds as the ultimate scapegoat in the world of performance enhancers in baseball will have evidence of how one man was “burned at the stake” in order for major league baseball to attempt to save face and detract onlookers from the larger issue that goes well beyond one man.

What you choose to believe is up to you. Call Bonds a cheat or a scapegoat, but either way this goes beyond one player.

Since the BALCO investigation, numerous high-profile players have been linked to rings of steroids, including Yankees first-baseman Jason Giambi who admitted to using “stuff” during his playing days but has yet to receive a punishment or reprimand from the league. In fact, he received a free pass!

At this point, if the public wants to vilify Bonds for allegedly reaching no. 756 in an illegal manner, it needs to do more research into the league and determine whether or not they will be consistent with the scrutiny. Mark McGuire is another famous player who has been accused of steroid use but had never tested positive, yet it appears as if he will need a miracle to make it into the Hall of Fame. If the MLB chooses to put an asterisk on Bonds’ records, will they put one on McGuire’s season of 70 home runs? The Oakland Athletics pennant winners where he and teammates, including admitted steroid user Jose Canseco, won the World Championship? What about Gaylord Perry’s 314 wins and 2 Cy Young Awards, despite admitting to doctoring baseball throughout his 22-year career?

Baseball cannot choose to give a pass (neither the public nor the MLB has yet to cry out for the aforementioned records to be asterisked) to hundreds of admitted and proven cheaters for years but then pick out the most disagreeable, hated player linked to cheating – who just so happens to have broken the most hallowed record in the game – and crucify him in the name of “cheaters” now and forever more.
It doesn’t work that way.

Baseball needs to find out where the line is between fair play and cheating before they can move on and not been seen as hypocritical.

At the rate they are going, dragging their feet about a new testing policy which may out some of baseball’s most profitable stars, the MLB might as well either put an asterisk on the entire Hall of Fame if they plan on doing so to Bonds’ real records. Otherwise, they should move forward and look to improving the league and its integrity from here on out.

So, Marc Ecko, please go ahead and brand the ball with a large asterisk. Fans and, more importantly, all of major league baseball need to never forget the chase for Hammerin’ Hank’s 755. It marked one of the most important times in history where confusion, celebration, division and hypocrisy surrounded one bitter man’s attack on one bitter league’s imperfect — yet somehow still sacred — record books.

• Barry Bonds hired two heavy-hitter lawyers to eye suing those who’ve trashed his name recently. Watch your back, Curt “The Dirt” Schilling!
• Imus is making a comeback with WABC radio, surely glad his name isn’t “Vick”.
• Bob Herbert at the New York Times points out that since 9/11 100,000 murders have taken place inside the U.S. yet no heightened awareness has followed from the national scale.
• Damnit, I have to give back those hundreds of Batman collection toys I bought the other day…
• A send-off to the “Good Ol’ Boy” Karl Rove from the WaPo great, Eugene Robinson. Good riddens, you say?

Today’s munchies are Barry-centric. Surprised? As the new home run king, expect no standing ovations outside the Bay Area. Instead what will come is mixed reactions, including the following:

• Bonds has only been accused of steroid use, so in a state where “innocent until proven guilty” rules our judicial system, he is, hands down, the home run king.
• Bonds has been linked to steroid use, therefore he is a baseball cheat, and Hank Aaron remains the home run king at 755.
• Major league baseball made their bed with Bonds despite the steroid allegations, so now they have to sleep with him while he wears career home run crown.

Now, let’s bounce around the globe:

• Over at CBS Sportsline, Gregg Doyel calls the entire national pastime flawed and says Bonds doesn’t stand out but rather he fits right in perfectly.
• TheStartingFive’s Dwil muses that now, finally, baseball commissioner Bud “The Dud” Selig can carry on with his everyday duties again… and thanks Dud for not showing up for 756 to avoid yet another breakdown of his would-have-been-awful reaction.
• Very surprised the San Francisco Chronicle allowed someone other than “the book deal guys” write the piece about Bonds’ record-breaker. Gwen Knapp is handed the honor of piecing together both the speculation and recognition of 756. Wondering if Bonds belongs as a member of the disgraced players version of the Hall of Fame with Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Mark McGwire, she looks to Bonds’ own response: “Call God. Ask him.” Knapp’s fellow coworker Scott Ostler writes “We have a new home run king, so deal with it.”
• You knew the Chicago Sun-Times’ Jay Mariotti would have some bitterness to spew, and he does so in a piece entitled, “A record that shouldn’t be.”
• ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian sounds almost depressed when saying he wished, hoped and dreamed that this record were clean and clear of all the steroids mess. That way the record-breaker would be more fun for fans, baseball and writers such as himself.

Elaborate piece upcoming. In the meantime, take a look at what Bonds will see for the next… 302932039 days of his life on the road until the asterisk argument gets played out like the rattail and jheri curl.

The great LA Times columnist Jim Murray once wrote, “I don’t know what it is, but I can’t look at Hulk Hogan and believe that he’s the end result of millions and millions of years of evolution.” The same can be said for a great deal of athletes in general.

While the baseball, legal, and government worlds are busy accusing Barry Bonds of using performance enhancers, why haven’t we accused any of the other stars performing well above the norm?

Dominican Republic native Albert Pujols yesterday tied a major league record by hitting 4 home runs in 4 consecutive at bats, including a game winner and two others against the Cincinnati Reds, division rivals. His 9 homers in 13 games have him hitting one home run in just over every 3.5 at bats. This is undoubtedly an amazing feat, but why not one worth speculating?

The argument defending Pujols can’t be that he hasn’t tested positive yet, because neither has Bonds.

How about the media drawing up pictures from high school, college, and the farm system of the phenoms like Pujols so we can compare their old photos with their new, to see if their heads got bigger - a symptom that experts claim comes from steroid use.

Let’s get a camera in Pujols’s face and drill him Jim Gray-style about speculation that his surge of power comes strictly from performance enhancers.

Let’s have an investigation into his daily routines, and put a 24-hour watch on his life and see if he gets angry, defensive or just overly emotional in general - one of the symptoms experts claim stems from steroid use.

The fact is, Bonds has yet to test positive. That does not mean he has not used illegal performance enhancers, but it does raise the question that if everyone can be so sure that he’s guilty, why can’t other players - who aren’t chasing the elite records - be in the same category?

So before we start talking about purging Bonds statistics from the records, major league baseball needs to be sure that there haven’t been many, many others - as it seems there have been.

Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi, and Rafael Palmeiro all admitted to steroid use, but there is no such call for removing the records, pennants, and championships acquired through their careers.

Heck, Giambi was even seen as a hero, the anti-Bonds, for coming out and admitting to steroid use. As they say, once a cheater, always a cheater. Right?

I don’t necessarily believe so, but think of it as a person who commits a crime against humanity. Are they not seen as potential repeat offenders? Even with a mild punishment, does that mean they’ve learned their lesson and will never go back to their old ways?

Let’s not forget that Bonds, as easy to hate as he is, is still just a baseball player, just like the others in the MLB. He’s just atop the list of them all, and whether or not everyone’s pride right now will allow the notion, Bonds is still one of the greatest to ever play the wonderful game of baseball.

If you’re going to accuse, do so indiscriminately, and not with hate-clouded eyes for a player that has a tendency to make it easy to do just that.

Bonds, listed at 6’2”, 230lbs, is of the same body type as Pujols, listed at 6′3″, 225lbs. Both have extremely large muscles and have hit the baseball further and more frequently than most other players could ever dream.

That said, players like Pujols shouldn’t escape the same scrutiny that Bonds faces, simply because nobody has written a book of accusations… yet.

If history has taught us nothing else, even when we least suspect it, our favorite, most fascinating players players will let us down (See Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden). They will continue even past our days as long as the sports they play remain American businesses.

We, the mere spectators of this business, are under the false impression that professional athletes are merely playing a “game.”

Yes, we get our best entertainment from sports at times, I know I do.

But I bet you millions that professional sports isn’t just “a game.”

So would Bonds, Giambi, Palmeiro, Canseco and the bunch.

Listen to both sides of the Bonds arguments.

Notice the racial divide?

Doesn’t it feel like 1995 all over again?

Thankfully though, this is not a case of murder. Instead, this is the national pastime, which a case of integrity is on the line, rather than a life.

Let’s look at the similarities:

• Both are African-American
• Both assumed guilty by the public
• Both find themselves sparking a racial divide

Bonds accusers tend to be white. They’re positive he’s abused an amalgam of steroids and every other enhancer he could get his hands on (see the #1 Bonds accusatory book, “Game of Shadows”) and has damaged the integrity of the sport almost single-handedly. To them, Bonds is as guilty as OJ in ‘95.

Bonds defenders tend to be black. They may or may not believe Bonds used performance enhancers, but they do not agree that he is the baseball villain that the books and accusers make him out to be. They see Bonds as the scapegoat for the dark cloud of steroids which has lingered over the MLB for the past decade. For the most part, to them, Bonds is as innocent as OJ in ‘95.

We remember the jury’s ruling - not guilty.

Upon hearing the ruling, people were filled with the mixed emotions you would expect. Black people cheered, while white people felt cheated by the American judicial system.

But why? Just as Chris Rock said, black people did not receive an “OJ innocence prize.” White people didn’t get a penalty charged against them. But still, the cultures clashed. Riots happened, and racial tension was as evident as ever - almost as much as it is now.

The Bonds BALCO inspired investigation, commissioned by MLB commish Bud Selig, looks to end similar to the OJ trials.

In the OJ trials, people debated responsibility for a loss of life. With Bonds, people debate responsibility for tainting the integrity of a business.

In fact, this business even looks and plays a lot like the same sport kids played when they were little, back when the business was still viewed as “just a game.”

I won’t lie, I’m a Barry Bonds (the athlete) fan.

In his younger days with the Pittsburg Pirates, his mix of power with speed was nearly unmatched.

The only other player during the time who could match this same mix was former best seller Jose Canseco.

Both are members of the 40 homers, 40 stolen bases club. Jose Canseco is an admitted steroids user. Bonds admitted only to taking what he thought was flaxseed oil for a short period of time, but is rumored to have been a steroids abuser.

Fans hate Bonds (the person) but love Bonds (the athlete). That is until lately, as he’s approached Fans don’t care about Canseco in either respect. But Canseco has what Bonds does not - a championship. Who else was on the Athletics’s championship team? Mark McGuire. Along with Canseco, he sat with other suspected steroid users Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro, and made the news by repeatedly saying that he didn’t want to talk about the past and rumors of steroid use in his playing days.

McGuire was scrutinized for dancing around direct questions of whether he was guilty of steroid use. But in none of the talk did people say McGuire’s records should be stricken from the records. Neither did they say the championship Canseco and McGuire helped earn should be revoked. But with Bonds, people have practically screamed “off with his head!”

Records, MVPs, and pennants, all results of Bonds’ outstanding performance as a player, all are part of talks to either be accompanied with an asterisk, or removed from the record books alltogether.

Why is Bonds treated different than Canseco and McGuire?

Aren’t they all accused of the same crime, yet only one has admitted to any wrongdoing?

Call Barry Bonds what you will, but you’ve looked in awe as he sent pitches from all angles into McCovey Cove at PacBell Park.

You cheered on the 1998 home run chase for Roger Maris’s 61 in a season that two players - Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa - led and eventually conquered with 70 and 66, respectively.

Even when the Maris family waited around at the various stadiums for McGuire to tie and then break 61, you were touched by the sportsmanship that went onto Maris’s own flesh and blood.

But now, as Bonds zones in on George Herman “Babe” Ruth’s 714 all-time home run record - second, by the way, to a man named Henry “Hammerin Hank” Aaron - you say his records should be removed because it’s “quite apparent” that he used performance enhancers?

I say get real.

Unless the MLB is willing to expunge records from multiple players, including Raphael Palmeiro (who actually tested positive for a performance enhancer), Jason Giambi (who admitted to using enhancers, and soon was allowed back on the Yankees and back into public eye and affection), and Jose Canseco (wrote the book which was powerful enough to involve Congress’ precious time in cracking down on steroid abusers), then the consensus should be that no matter the player, the records should just be noted that steroids may/may not have affected records during the last 15 years.

But do we really think that the accused were the only juicers throughout the past years?

I think not.

Why not put an asterisk on old records for Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth who participated in baseball while black players were banned from the game?

Isn’t that a similar issue? The integrity of the game was tainted back then, because discrimination allowed for one set of players to define the record books that could have been altered in many ways.

I’m a Bonds fan, but I believe he took performance enhancers. His body grew throughout the last few years, as he got older, and while he wears baggy clothes, I’ve heard his physique is that of a bodybuilder. But even if

For now, I have to agree with Yankee great “Mr. October” Reggie Jackson’s comment on the Dan Patrick Show, “If these guys have not tested, it is unfair to commit them to guilt.”

It’s forgotten by many, but in America, you’re innocent until proven guilty.

OJ Simpson never got that luxury. Neither has Bonds.

But as much as baseball fans want to burn Bonds at the stake, even if the investigation turns out to reveal rampant steroid use in baseball, they have a monumental decision to make.

Do they go on and let Bonds chase Aaron and Ruth’s all-time home run marks, or do they ban him, and his records from baseball?

The MLB is in a corner. If they crucify Bonds, even more questions about who else juiced in the game arise.

No one seemed to speculate about his total until after Bonds concluded the 2001 season with 73 home runs, his career total reaching 567 - 147 shy of The Babe’s record, and 188 less than Hammerin Hank.

Now that he’s 7 homers away from The Babe, the investigation could turn out to be the newest formal “witch hunt” in baseball. But as long as Bonds is the lone scapegoat used in arguments for revising old baseball stats, and not McGuire, Palmeiro, Caminiti, and McGuire in the same sentence, the race issue will remain.

It’s not as simple as deleting the single records of these players who may have “cheated” the game for their own benefit. In accomplishing their individual feats, teams won pennants, championships, and gained notoriety helping gain revenue. Because of that, all of those records and awards were compromised and have to be adjusted the same way as the individual record. It’s only fair.

We fans should’ve seen this coming, but we looked the other way because home runs are exciting.

Essentially we feel cheated for what we ignored and brushed under the rug years ago.

Serves us all right.

While there is no easy way to handle the looming steroid cloud, baseball can do itself a favor and scrutinize all players during the steroid years, and not the more popular, easier to hate ones like Bonds.

Until the cloud is cleared, we have no choice but to be skeptics of all over-achievers, including fan favorites.

Roger Clemens, who competed for a Cy Young award years after many people thought he was over the hill and done, needs to be investigated.

Jim Thome, who went through alternate years of great statistical years and injuries but now is off to a wonderful start with the White Sox, needs to be investigated.

The young, Bonds-like swinging slugger Robert Pujols, considered the second best batter in baseball (first is Bonds, if you didn’t know), should be investigated for, if nothing else, putting up amazing statistics that rival that of Bonds.

If we’re going to start a witch hunt, don’t let color or personality factor in. Let’s get them all, so we don’t have to relive 1995.

Timothy Hopkins runs TimothyLukeHopkins.com, and frequently writes and edits articles for www.mindritesports.com. He can be emailed at TimothyLukeHopkins@gmail.com.