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 ...
Any suggestions as to where we can expect to find a repsonsible media? Children are told the dangers of drug use, yet they continue to find access to and use illegal drugs on a daily basis.
This will be my last post on this site. It is more than obvious that a number of individuals have yet to become adults and more than a few have injested a substantial amount of illegal drugs, thus imparing their intellect and judgement. I choose to separte myself from the likes of:
45 posted on 12/07/2004 9:06:44 AM PST by hobbes1
49 posted on 12/07/2004 9:08:12 AM PST by freddiedavis
There has probably been additional comments since I started this post and undoubtably more will follow, but those posts will go unread by me.
Don't leave McGwire out of that list.
Let he who has not 'leadded' his pencil cast the first stone!
Its been real and its been fun.
"If steroids were to remain legal, there is nothing from preventing professional sports clubs from BANNING them in order to compete. It does not require the likes of McCain and Biden to step in and regulate them for them.
Your whole argument is based on a false premise.
Whatever happened to small government conservative? Are we all Big Government Nanny Staters now?"
Ok, so lets legalize all drugs, coke and crack are performance enhancers and so is speed. If you don't see a problem here, take a longer look.
It's not based on false premise. If all athletes take steroids, they'll have to keep taking them, and more of them, to remain competitive until they're private parts fall off or their hearts explode all for our entertainment. That's stupid.
It was obvious at the time that the Clinton team was the source of the leaks, but a crucial difference is that Clinton was the official target of that investigation. In the BALCO case, the athletes are not the target. The athletes don't have the same incentive to "get in front of the story" that Clinton did, because it's far less certain that their testimony would get out anyway. Clinton also had a joint defense agreement with many of the witnesses whose testimony was leaked, and I'm not aware of any such agreement in the BALCO case, so the circumstances don't seem quite so analogous upon reflection.
I suppose it's possible that a grand juror was paid off by the media (Do grand jurors have possession of sealed testimony, or sufficient access that would facilitate this?), which would be a huge scandal for the Chronicle, but the simplest and most reasonable explanation is that the leaks came from the prosecutor's office.
Yeah, but you're guilty of it too. You generalized that all generalizations are wrong -- but it's a fact, that all computer programers are fat slobs who eat take out Chinese food.
Very simple. The players are human beings who have families and lives to live - not cloned beings for the viewing pleasure of sports nuts.
Points taken.
Nominate for "Worst Opus Ever."
Nothing if they put an asterik by Barry Bonds name if he beats Hank Aaron's home run record of 744 home runs and his single season record of 71 home runs, stating "chemically enhanced".
My husband is the sports nut, not me. However, I would much rather cheer for that player that has sacrificed certain things to get there, versus someone who popped a pill and got muscles as a result. Thats just me.
Its not even about intellect or judgement...its about responsibility, honor, and setting a good example. Grownups understand that. 30, 40 and sometimes 50 year old teenagers don't. They'll always be around to exhibit dumba$$ behavior and spew backwards logic...towing the line of amoral pop culture 30 second teaser society and all the nonsense that it entails. They're hopeless.
A point could be made however, that the idolization of pro athletes is the root of the problem you describe...athletes using roids, setting a bad example for kids...(cheating and doing it openly...for personal gain and success) This is obviously wrong, but its even more wrong for these same kids having to resort to pro-athletes for their role models. Again...and absense of parents (a.k.a grownups) with integrity, honor and a sense of responsibility is to blame. I'm positive that government stepping in to help "solve" this problem is not the answer...I think when people stop filling stadiums to see these guys play juiced, the problem will take care of itself. I still can't understand it myself...I do pretty good financially...and I wouldn't drop $150-$200 to see a Cubs game.
Will they also put an asterisk by Hank Aaron saying *Never Faced Specialized Relief?
Why not allow corked bats ? Anyone who doesn't understand the difference between natural talent and drug enhanced talent has a screw loose.
Please, don't flounce off...Maybe some Pamprin would help....
Huh? Hank Aaron faced relief pitchers in his day. They were not an unknown commodity in the 60's and 70's.
Don't go. You've simply run into a few representatives of the "drugs uber alles" hyper-libertarian crowd that infests FR. They're a known quantity at an otherwise fine site. Just consider the source and carry on posting.
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