Baseball is a beautiful game that shows us different things on different days. As fans we really never see the same thing happen twice over a period of two different games. Each day we see something new. And this can be said for a Minor League game that took place on Sunday June 28th, 2009 between the Lake Elsinore Storm and the High Desert Mavericks. These two teams, of Class-A ball, combined for a 33-18 final score.

Lake Elsinore is an affiliate of the San Diego Padres and High Desert is an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. More than one record was broken in the game but only two records dealt with an individual effort from two of the players involved in this historic game.

The personal record is a 36 game hitting streak set by James McOwen of High Desert. His two hits in six at-bats broke the California League record for consecutive games with a hit.

“I feel the same as I did yesterday and probably the day before,” McOwen said. “I guess it’s a little monkey off the back just to say you got it done. I didn’t want to fall one-game short or end in a three-way tie. I’m pretty much the same guy I was before.”

The game was the longest in league history, at four hours and ten minutes, but did not go past nine innings. The Lake Elsinore Storm broke the league record for hits in a game with 32. The record was previously held by Stockton (8/1/93) and Rancho Cucamonga (8/10/97) with 29 hits in a game.

The two teams combined for 51 runs, a new league record, while the Storm also set the league record for RBIs in a single game. With their 33 runs, the Storm fell one run shy of the league record for runs scored in a game by a team.

Matt Clark, of Lake Elsinore, set the league record for runs scored in a game with seven. He fell a double shy of hitting for the cycle after going five for six at the plate. He added two homeruns and five RBIs.

Each team also blasted five homeruns apiece for a total of ten for the game. High Desert Nathan Adcock started on the mound and allowed eight runs (all earned) on seven hits in only 2/3 of an inning worked. Surprisingly his ERA only jumped to 4.54.

Ironically, on June 20th, Adcock threw eight scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and two hits allowed against Inland Empire for his fifth win of the season. That’s why the game of baseball is such a beautiful sport. Anything can happen once the umpire yells ‘Play Ball!’

The Nationals sent outfielder Ryan Langerhans to the Mariners for infielder Mike Morse. Morse will be assigned to Triple-A Syracuse. From 2005-08 Morse hit .300 with 3 homeruns, 37 RBIs, and 18 doubles for Seattle. He was drafted by the White Sox in 2000.

Langerhans has struggled since making his Major League debut with the Atlanta Braves, hitting .198 in 103 games with the Nationals in 2007 and .234 in 73 games in 2008. Langerhans has yet to appear in a Major League game in 2009.

More of these minor deals are sure to occur in the coming month as some teams might not be able to land a major bat or a major arm prior to the non-waiver trade deadline on July 31st. The majority of these minor trades will either help the Major League team’s bench or will help their Minor League teams during the final couple months of the season.

Canseco takes credit for introducing steroids to Major League players in his book Juiced. His tell-all account named the names of Mark McGwire and many others that he claims he either injected with steroids or players he helped use a steroids regimen. Canseco followed up his first book with one titled Vindicated. Canseco still, to this day, stands by his accusations of injected other players on the teams he has played with throughout his career.

Manny Ramirez is just the latest player to test positive under Major League Baseball’s steroid policy and drug abuse policy and be suspended. Prior to Ramirez, there was J.C. Romero, Sergio Mitre, Matt Lawton, Felix Heredia, Jason Grimsley, Guillermo Mota, Neifi Perez (twice), Jay Gibbons and many more. As you can see, Rodriguez and Clemens are missing from this list.

[ad#baseball]

Rodriguez recently admitted in an interview with Peter Gammons of ESPN that he took steroids during a three year period while with the Texas Rangers. Canseco named Rodriguez as one of the player that he introduced steroids to during his time in the Majors. Supposedly Rodriguez tested positive for a banned substance in 2003 and was the only name leaked from a list of over 100 players that tested positive that year. 2003 testing did not come with suspensions. The new league steroid policy did not take effect until the 2005 season.

The other player listed in the title of this article, Roger Clemens, has also not faced any suspension for using steroids during his Major League career but the accusations have been running rampant regarding Clemens. Former New York Mets employee Kirk Radomski revealed a list of names of players that he witnessed using steroids during his time as a clubhouse attendant. Also, Clemens’ trainer, Brian McNamee, revealed to Congress and baseball officials that he helped Clemens with a steroid regimen while he was still playing.

The list continues to grow as the tests return with positive results. Quite a few Minor League players have tested positive for steroids under Major League Baseball’s steroid policy and have been suspended for a specified period of time as well. One of the most notable Minor League suspensions involved current Braves center fielder Jordan Schafer. Schafer never tested positive for steroids though. He was ratted out and convicted by the league on circumstantial evidence. He served a 50 game suspension in 2008 while with the Braves Minor League organization.

Schafer made his Major League debut on April 5, 2009 and homered in his first-ever Major League at-bat off of Phillies starter Brett Myers. Other players that have been suspended while playing in the Minors have had trouble righting the ship and making it to the Majors following their suspension. Minor League players have to follow the same rules and regulations as Major Leaguers do despite not playing in the Majors at the time of the testing.

As the steroid era continues to fade into the night, less and less players are testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. With the current rules, a first positive test will net a player a 50 game suspension. A second positive test will net a player a 100 game suspension and a third positive test will net a player a lifetime ban from America’s Pasttime. Baseball is trying with all its might to remove drugs from its culture but it looked the wrong way for too long. The sport will be forever damaged because of steroids and this includes records that have been broken.

As the baseball world continues to deal with controversy after controversy when it comes to steroids, the league’s officials are trying to weed out the offenders one by one. A-Rod admitted steroid use in his previously mentioned interview with Peter Gammons of ESPN, Ramirez tested positive and then had his medical records acquired by the league, and now the Rocket is denying all allegations against him in a recently released book about his career. The book is titled American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime and it was written by four New York Times writers. The other controversial book recently released is titled A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez and it was written by Selena Roberts of Sports Illustrated.

These two books reveal some incredible stories of two of baseball’s most prodigious players in Rodriguez and Clemens. Will these books provide further damage to their reputations? Will these books further damage the image of Major League Baseball? These books contain information that both players deem to be hearsay or lies so we might never know. Many people around the sport of baseball felt that the Steroid Era ended in the early 2000s, when MLB’s drug testing policy got stronger, but as we see today it is still going strong throughout not only the Majors but also throughout the Minors as well.[ad#baseball3][ad#baseball3]