Last week, “The Mitchell Report” was released, a 409-page document exposing baseball’s ongoing steroid problem and disclosing the names of some of the biggest stars in the game as users of performance enhancing drugs.

Among them were surefire future hall of famers Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, as well as former Los Angeles Dodgers players Eric Gagne and Paul Lo Duca.

It’s a black eye on the face of Major League Baseball and the players named in the report, but more importantly, it’s a reminder that junior college and high school sports, where the game is still pure and played on an even playing field, should be commended.

It’s nice to know that you can go to an EC basketball or baseball game and not have to worry about whether the players you’re watching are loaded up on human growth hormone.

Part of the problem in pro sports is money; if a guy who plays your position is taking steroids, you have to do the same thing or else you’re out of a job. Also, for a player who is just good, a little help from HGH or Steroids can make him “great” and get him a multi-million dollar contract.

We don’t have to worry about that with junior college sports. There is no money to be made or fame to be had. There’s no worry about losing your job to some young hot shot coming up from the farm system.

That’s not to say that junior college sports are entirely clean of any kind of performance enhancing drugs, that would be a ridiculous assumption to make and probably one that is untrue.

The fact remains, though, that what little use of it there may be is dwarfed by the huge amount of people that are playing for one reason and one reason only; the love of the game.

So if you’re sick of watching baseball and football players that look like the Incredible Hulk, take in an EC athletic event sometime where the game is still just that; a game.