Posted on 01/20/2004 8:45:42 PM PST by JohnHuang2
WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush, former part-owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, urged those in professional sports on Tuesday to end steroid use because it sends the wrong message to American children.
Bush said some professional athletes were not "setting much of an example" for young people by using performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids that can build muscle and stamina but may have dangerous side effects.
"The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character," Bush said in his annual State of the Union Address.
"So tonight, I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now."
A longtime sports fan who rattles off baseball statistics like an expert, Bush was managing general partner of the Rangers in the 1990s before running for president.
Performance-enhancing drugs like steroids are banned in most sports although enforcement of the rules varies. Major League Baseball only recently began its own program to eliminate steroids from the baseball diamond.
Several NFL players have recently tested positive for a new designer steroid and American track athletes and baseball stars have given evidence to a San Francisco grand jury investigating a California lab suspected of producing the steroid.
The World Anti-Doping Agency late last year bitterly attacked baseball and NFL authorities for not cracking down harder on drug cheats, and suggested the International Olympic Committee consider imposing sanctions on U.S. sports in a bid to make the White House act.
01/20/04 23:38 ET
Um, I was kidding. However you're actually serious and believe an executive should be sticking his face in private matters such as this. Which leads me to believe we might actually wind up with a "Department of Major League Baseball Abuse of Substance and Steroids"
DMBASS for short.
How about urging the Rangers to acquire some decent pitching instead? .....even if it requires trading the quarter billion dollar man to do it.
For people with the right body chemistry, creatine works. Never taken it myself, but I've seen the results firsthand and there's no denying it.
What amnesty? He's even said it's not amnesty.
I used to favor Archie Bunker on Hemroids. :)
I'm not afraid. I'll just tell Bush I',m an illegal alien looking for amnesty.
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