Suddenly Baseball Stews in Its Own Juice

By admitting that he took steroids, Ken Caminiti’s name should be erased from any and all records he established and any awards he won.

As a fan, I do not want more home runs and more scoring. I want athletes, not drug abusers. To condone any use of steroids for that stupid reason would mean that we want the track stars to take them to see them run faster and throw farther.

With that in mind, if baseball doesn’t take steps to start erasing these marks from the records, why don’t we start celebrating Ben Johnson’s record and leave him alone?

And Barry ... I’ll take you up on your offer to test you.

Geno Apicella

Burbank

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Steroids in baseball? What a revelation! I thought Mark McGwire’s 150 pounds of muscle mass was the product of hard work! I also eagerly await Darryl Strawberry’s forthcoming tell-all, “I Didn’t Take Cocaine, I Just Like the Smell.”

Gary Durrett

Glendale

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First, the Giants admit they used a telescope to cheat and rob the Dodgers of the 1951 pennant. Now, the Padres’ Ken Caminiti admits he used steroids to outlast the Dodgers’ Mike Piazza in carrying his team, thus winning the MVP award and the division title in 1996.

What’s next? The Diamondbacks admitting to bribing Chase Carey to trade Piazza for Sheffield?

Jorge E. Avelar

Los Angeles

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I would like to suggest a new punctuation mark to be used after the name of a player who breaks a record with the help of steroids. Rather than calling it an asterisk, it could be referred to as an asteroid.

Bob Brigham

Manhattan Beach