I am going to stray from my usual topic. I don't often do this, but part of the fun of having a voice in a medium such as this is being able to talk about whatever you want from time to time. Unfortunately, I hate - and I mean hate - the topic I am branching off into. Steroids. If you're like me, and are sick of the topic, this may be the last sentence of this post you read.

And trust me. It's not something I want to be talking about at this point and it pisses me off that when the season should be at its most optimistic we're dredging through this muck. However, with all that's being said as Alex Rodriguez tries to save his legacy as a player, I don't know that I've come across somebody else stating the perfect expression of my thoughts on the matter. You might think it's a tall order to expect somebody - most sportswriters, especially - to perfectly express my opinion on some matter having to do with baseball. But most of the time if I look around enough, somebody is saying pretty much what I'm thinking.

It's not all that surprising if you think about it. There are only so many views you can have on most things we discuss in baseball. A trade was either a good idea or a bad idea, and there are only so many rationales you can come up with for being on one side or the other. An ump's call was either right or wrong. But getting back to the point, I don't know that I've heard my thoughts out there yet, so I'm going to reluctantly put them down.

To be honest, Joe Posnanski captures a lot of the internal back and forth I do on steroids in this post. Like him, I've not taken a hard stance one way or the other. I'm not really able to get all frothy at the mouth because a bunch of guys wanted to be better at what they see as their jobs. I don't know precisely how the users should be treated and I certainly don't know how to make sure the game is clean.

Here's what I do know, though. Steroids have not tainted my love of this game one bit. Do you know why that is? Steroids are a problem limited to the players of the game. Don't take that to mean only the players are to blame. Far from it. What I mean is, the fact that the players are in some way enhancing their performance doesn't change the game itself. Sure, it can change the way the action takes place on the field but a double play still looks the same and it's still exciting when a line drive scoots between the outfielders and everybody starts thinking, "triple".

Take baseball in the height of the steroids era and put that game film next to a game in the 70s or 80s. There's a pretty good chance the only differences you will notice are aesthetic and maybe the use of the bullpen. If there was any impact on the game from steroids, it's not something you could see in single games. They were differences that piled up over the course of seasons and careers. Maybe you can tell the difference when a game has 0.2 more home runs on average than in the previous season but I know I can't. 

I suppose that's where I differ from so many other baseball fans. For me, it's just the game and I'm grateful to the players only in that they make the game what it is. I think that's why, as much as I love baseball, it's never had any of my heroes. It's like baseball is my favorite movie, and my favorite movie doesn't necessarily have my favorite actors. More specifically, Star Wars may be your favorite movie but I sure as hell hope nobody in it is your favorite actor. (Oh, and if you're thinking "Harrison Ford", come on. Have you seen the movies the guy's been doing for the past fifteen years?)

This point always comes home for me when somebody asks me who my favorite all-time Tiger is. I always kind of stumble over the question and realize I don't really have one. I suppose at one time it was Lou Whitaker and at another it was Alan Trammell. Recently it's been Curtis Granderson and Justin Verlander, but even with those guys there's not a strong feeling of "favorite". They're just Tigers who give or gave the team the best chance of continued success. I love the Tigers. Period.

I think that distance from the players is why the steroid problem doesn't bother me as much as it does some. Now please don't mistake this for a template on how anybody else should think about steroids or the game. I realize for a lot of people baseball is about the heroes the game makes and the records they break to achieve that status. That view of the game is no less valid than what I've voiced here. I also don't think there's anything wrong with getting fired up about players using steroids or being repulsed at the commissioner acting like he's a duped victim in all of this.

I'm just putting another voice out there on this tired topic. If somebody out there is changing the topic of their next blog post because I've hit on what they wanted to say, I'm a very happy writer and reader because of it. Now, my promise to you is you won't hear from me on this topic again until it somehow ties in with the Tigers and their prospects.