To the Editor:
"No real progress will ever be made until the athletes decide for themselves that they actually want steroids out of the game," quoth Michael Kreicher ("It's All Up to the Players," May 5). He's right, partly.
Steroids will not be out of the game until players and fans want them out.
Maybe the fans like 73-home-run seasons. Maybe they see steroids as just another version of Tommy John surgery, performance-enhancing contact lenses and oxygen chambers that accelerate bone healing.
Maybe the fans realize that professional baseball, like all professional sports, is more about entertainment than about the sanctity of a game.
Until fans decide that professional athletes are the preservers of a sacred trust, they will continue to allow the Barry Bondses, Jason Giambis and Mark McGwires to use steroids.
