Saturday, April 4, 2009

Lying, Not Steroids Plagued Baseball

It is hard to blame baseball players for using steroids. Just like it’s hard to blame a college student for drinking coffee to stay awake during class or a struggling model from getting plastic surgery. The list could continue. These days, in all walks of life, everybody is using something to help them be the best they can be. That’s why it is now impossible to be surprised when you hear of another player who took steroids.

The 2009 chapter of Major League Baseball begins tomorrow. Naively, I’m going into the new season with the mindset that everybody is clean. And if someone is dumb enough to use steroids, they’ll get caught.

I’m also going into the new season with a new out look on the era that has forever tainted the integrity of the game and will always have fans questioning the legitimacy of statistics.

During the steroid era there were no cheaters, only liars.

Don’t get me wrong. I am adamantly against steroids and so bothered by what the performance enhancers have done to the game. But looking at the issue from both sides, it’s become very clear that without proper preventative measures, the issue was inevitable.

It starts from the moment you step onto a little league field. The moment a child falls in love with the game. The moment becoming the next Derek Jeter or Johan Santana becomes a dream. The moment baseball becomes a passion.

Parents tell their kids, “If you dream it you can achieve it.” Tommy Lasorda once told a young baseball player, “If you work hard enough and do whatever it takes, you will be a pro ball player.” I was only 14 at the time, but if Tommy told me I could do it, then I believed I could do it.

Doing whatever it takes. That could mean anything. Waking up at dawn to run five miles everyday, hitting off a tee, exhausting yourself with countless shoulder exercises, etc. What if you still aren’t good enough? Do you ignore your dream? Do you forget Tommy and stop doing “whatever it takes”?

For many, it took steroids to achieve their dream and get to the Big Leagues. It took steroids to earn hundreds of thousands more than they would of working as a store clerk or deliveryman. It took steroids to leave poverty on some Caribbean island and create a life that others could barely imagine in their dreams.

It’s not that players wanted to take steroids or even enjoyed it. I’d be surprised if I found one player who actually took pleasure in sticking a needle into his butt or a player who was happy with the side effects. The fact is, the drugs were available and players needed to use in order to keep up.

Pundits will point out that Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron put up exceptional numbers without the use of steroids. This argument is naïve and unfair. If steroids existed and were available players would have used them. It’s not as if players back in the day had a higher set of morals than today’s players. Pitchers constantly gave themselves unfair advantages by throwing spitballs and doctoring the ball despite breaking the rules in doing so.

So in an era when almost everybody was “juicing” it is difficult to call these players cheaters. Who exactly were they cheating? Before 2002 there was no penalty for a positive test. And it wasn’t as if they were cheating the “clean” players. Those players had an equal opportunity to use steroids, but simply chose against it.

The demons of the steroid era were the liars. The players who told the media they had never injected. The players who sat in front of Congress and pointed fingers saying they knew nothing. The players who achieved incredible statistics but failed to own up to their secret formula for success. The liars who cheated the fans from the truth.

People were quick to throw Alex Rodriguez (above, right) under the bus after word of his 2002 positive test came out just about a month ago. But A-Rod came right out and admitted he did it. Instead of being condemned, A-Rod should have been applauded. He failed a drug test during a season when there was no penalty for steroids. Since baseball instituted a penalty, he has tested clean time and time again. A baseball player not cheating, but instead, following the rules.

If the likes of Bonds (top), Clemens, Palmeiro (above), and the continuing list of liars had just admitted to their usage from the get go, the baseball world would have been quick to forgive and understand. These players did whatever it took to be the best they could be.

Instead some of the greatest players to play this great and historic game may be left out of the Hall of Fame. Not because they are cheaters… because they are liars.

3 comments:

  1. I think the morality argument in terms of the historical progression of baseball is not addressed enough. Pressure mounts in all fields, as professionals try to beat the previous records, although conditions [of many sports throughout time] often vary periodically. I'm optimistic as well that Bonds and ARod heightened the issue and awareness of it that will result in the death of steroids this season.

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  2. You are entirely accurate in asserting that it is the liars who were the real "demons of the steroid era." If they had just been honest about their use, there would not be as much of a stigma behind steroids today. Yet since they are shrouded in so much controversy and secrecy, steroids are already stigmatized as a career-ruining drug. Certainly, the argument against steroids is wholly valid, but hiding something makes it a bad thing, no matter what.

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  3. It's hard for me to call baseball, America's Pastime, when you have players that cheat. A-Fraud is one of those players that the public, kids, and fans could look to as someone that would never take steroids. However, he did and lied about it. I find it disgraceful when players tell the world that they "did not know" what they were putting into their body. It's BS.

    Then again, I am also someone that has never liked baseball, despite being a sports fan. Baseball is slow, boring, and even some of the players are fat, out of shape, and sometimes appear un-athletic. However, I also realize that it does take skill to throw a 100 mph fastball, as well as being able to hit it with a piece of wood. In addition, how can any sports player perform at a high level while chewing tobacco. That is not a skill. LeBron James and Peyton Manning would never perform well if they chewed tobacco during their respective sports games. Wait, what was the topic of discussion again...Oh yea: steroids.

    Steroids should never be used in sports. They are horribly unhealthy for your body and cause extreme rage. Imagine running into Chicago Bears Linebacker, Brian Urlacher, if he were on steroids. Bad News Bears for you.

    Yes, the lying is terrible as well. These athletes are heroes to many kids across the country and globe. Using steroids is plain and simple cheating and dangerous. Lying about its usage depreciates moral values.

    So, hit the gym baseball players. Take notes on the workout regiments used by many professional football players and basketball players are doing. There is no miracle drug for staying healthy while also being in great physical shape.

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