Posted on 12/07/2004 8:27:12 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
SO athletes use steroids to perform better. Wall Street traders take Ritalin and everyone uses caffeinated drinks during work to stay alert. News anchors get face lifts and actors take Botox so more people watch them. What's different about athletes?
Yet, this weekend you would have thought that Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds had committed some unspeakable crime. Commentators spoke of them "falsifying the product." Saturday, Sen. John McCain promised hearings and threatened legislation imposing drug-testing standards if professional baseball does not crack down. By Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist made a similar call for legislation, and McCain said President Bush would sign such a bill.
Athletes may have more at stake than most of the rest of us. They may go a little farther in competing, but the risks seem pretty mild. This spring a baseball players' union representative, Gene Orza, claimed that steroids are "not worse than cigarettes." With over 4,000 people playing major league baseball over the last decade and claims that 40 or 50 percent of players are using some form of anabolic steroids, what is striking is how rare baseball deaths are and that these are not really related to "performance-enhancing" drugs. Take the last two years:
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
YEs, but Dane, the key fact you are missing is the relationship.
Back in Aarons day (he started in 54) Relievers were genrally failed starting pitchers, who carried worse ERAs than Starting pitchers, so it was a net PLUS to be facing one.. Over time, SPECIALIZED Relief pitchers came into existence, and that ratio has dramatically reversed....
Back in Aarons day (he started in 54) Relievers were genrally failed starting pitchers, who carried worse ERAs than Starting pitchers, so it was a net PLUS to be facing one.. Over time, SPECIALIZED Relief pitchers came into existence, and that ratio has dramatically reversed...
And the relationship of Bonds and Giambi using steroids to boost power is null and void to you.
The point being, a batter like Aaron never knew if an "inferior" relief pitcher, could have a good day and relief pitch the game of his life, and this was without steroids, but pure adrenalin from his natural born and God given adrenal glands.
Look I have no problem with steroids in baseball, but be honest about it, and not proclaim that players such as Bonds, are greater players than Ruth or Aaron, without acknowledging the truth that steroids played a part in such players as Bonds performance.
Not making either allegation.
Just pointing out that you could make an argument that everything deserves an asterisk.
Records are a nice thing, but they are inextricable from the context of their times.
And for those that think this is limited to this choice few, we shouldnt forget that the Anabolic Steroid Control Act (making them a verboten ClassIII substance) was not enacted by the U.S. Government until 1990
Just pointing out that you could make an argument that everything deserves an asterisk.
Records are a nice thing, but they are inextricable from the context of their times.
And for those that think this is limited to this choice few, we shouldnt forget that the Anabolic Steroid Control Act (making them a verboten ClassIII substance) was not enacted by the U.S. Government until 1990
Uh when did Barry Bonds start to get bigger? It wasn't 1990.
It was 1999.
Like I said I have no problem with baseball players using steroids.
My problem is their and their union's refusal to acknowledge it and besmirch players before them(by thier saying they don't use steroids).
What is so hard about saying that steroids didn't play a part in such players such as Bonds and Giambi's success.
I can surmise why, it's called pride, and pride always goeth before the fall.
I concur 100%
Glad you concur, although I don't believe that you would concur that there should be an asterisk by Bond's record when compared to Ruth's or Maris's accomplishments, steroid free.
Those who wish to play the sport but are not prepared to fill their bodies with drugs are effectively excluded. Unless of course, they are prepared to play second fiddle to the juiced up supermen who surround them and don't mind getting their butts kicked, week in and week out.
Performance enhancing drugs take sport one further step away from its original purpose.
First you say it isn't, then you turn around invalidate your statement. If steroids are banned by sports, then the sportsmen competing cannot use them in that league. Do you understand that? At all?
There is no further need for government intervention at that point. Period. End of story. Reclassifying steroids and other performance enhancers in the SAME CLASSIFICATION as cocaine is not just ridiculous, but dangerous. Using the DEA's same standard as they do for hemp products, ie; a trace is too much, then every mammal on the planet, particularly us males, are now illegal to own or consume.
It may be stupid, but it is NOT YOUR DECISION. Period. Not in a supposedly FREE country where we are free to suffer the consequences of our actions.
Are you sure you wanna go down that path?
So you would join Ralph Nader in saying that the FedGov needs to Nanny us through life? Maybe you would be happier in Canada or France....
No. Performance enhancers like steroids are ALREADY BANNED by the various leagues. Using them is cheating. Keeping them legal for the general populace does not mean that the leagues need to make them legal as well. You guys just don't frigging get that do you? All you see is one more thing for your political heros to feel good about as they are banning something icky.
How about when they get around to AWB Part 2? Will you still feel so sanguine about them banning stuff outside their Constitutional mandate then?
Good question?
/sarcasm
Are you really agreeing so completely with Biden and Feinstein?
A couple cups of coffee or tea a day isn't going to do great harm to you, in general. A couple hits of steroids a day, however, will cause damage, and that damage can be tremendous.
As to Ritalin and the other stuff you mentioned, I would say those aren't the smartest choices either.
This is NOT about Tax monies!
That has nothing to do with taxes and everything to do with an overreaching government on BOTH SIDES of the isle.
MLB was perfectly capable of handling the situation. We don't need Biden and McCain f*cking things up for everyone. The last thing we need is one more thing our government can throw us in jail for. Especially since their reasoning has more to do with CONTROL and less to do with just governance.
This is not about sports...its more....
It will eventually involve stem-cells too, and that will involve tax monies too.
I'm no fan of steroids because they will just screw up your body
But I also think Congress should stay out of this .. because it's a guarantee they will make things worse
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