Is It The 'Roids or the Records?
I don't like cheaters and I don't like perjurers and I couldn't care less if Alex Rodriguez spends the next nine years getting booed (if you're sympathetic, envision Madonna giving him a nightly cuddle to soothe his bruised ego and saying "Now now, Alex, it will be all right. Here, count some more of your money.") But does no one find it unusual that less than two weeks before we began bewailing the Shame of A-Rod, we celebrated the biggest day of the sports calendar by crowning the champion of the National Manifestly Juiced-Up League? How is it that we don't care if the bonecrushing behemoths of the gridiron build themselves up to the size of rhinos, but every time we find out some baseball player has been using, we act like we've just lost our virginity. To Santa Claus. Who also shot Bambi's mother. And, we're told, doesn't really exist.
Perhaps it's the records. The quarterbacks and running backs and receivers of today are not so dramatically eclipsing the achievements of their hallowed predecessors that we feel we're being made fools of when we cheer. But when Roger Clemens wins six Cy Young Awards and says he's clean, or bulky Barry Bonds passes Hank Aaron and credits exercise, the insult to our intelligence is just too great. It's embarrassing enough to hero-worship these self-absorbed jocks, but it's outrageous to be scammed.
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"we don't care if the bonecrushing behemoths of the gridiron ... but every time we find out some baseball player ..."
It may be that we are overlooking baseball players.
One thing that can be said, however, is that football and baseball players who choose the 'roid route are not paid with taxpayer funds.
In contrast, when you see some of the more modern police officers who are obviously more bulked up than their previous counterparts, and when they know that steroids are illegal, it might be appropriate to direct some concern towards their usage.
I think that all the people who are upset about this have been living in a fantasy world. Professional athletes have been using steroids since the 1970's. It has not been a secret. What we do need is a new crop of baseball writers who are honest with the fans and themselves.
Every one knew that they were using steroids. Why then are you feigning surprise?
Please let us come up with a different way to elect people to Baseball's Hall of Fame because the current Baseball writers have absolutely no business making that decision.
I am neither a Yankee fan, nor an ARod fan. I am a baseball fan. I'm sick of all this hand-wringing and venom directed at Rodriguez for a positive test ,that was supposed to be kept private, from 5 or 6 years ago. Is everyone going to gloss over the fact that there were over 100 positive tests? Just because someone wants to tarnish his image, he alone gets outed? And the press and public, like little lap dogs, obediently slobber all over it.
Anyone who follows baseball, and hasn't figured out that steroid use was an ingrained part of the culture of the game for a decade or so, is simply clueless. If there were 100 positives in the series of tests in 2003, you can rest assured that there were 500 undetected users.
If you'd like to simply scrub all mention of Major league Baseball from the record, and history books since the '80s, fine. Otherwise all these startling revelations need to cease. They are neither startling nor revelatory.
Alex Rodriguez is, and has been one of the best baseball players of his generation. A positive test from years ago changes that not a whit. I applaud his honesty and contrition. Others would do well to emulate his example.
Seems to me that you are guilty of the naivete you are trying to put on everyone else.
If recognizing hypocrisy is how you define naivete then I'm forced to agree
Pro athletes in America have left the world of pure athleticism behind and joined the world of commercial entertainment. Their product is no longer athletic excellence, but dramatic, crowd-pleasing spectacle. They sign multi-million dollar contracts with the understanding that they are to make the spectacle exciting enough to sell tickets, concessions & paraphernalia to profit the enterprise, or else. Is it any surprise that players feel pressured to deliver the spectacle at all costs?
The American public has a lot to do with this mindset, since we crave displays of excess, like monster truck rallies, or professional wrestling, or Dennis Rodman. When Americans say "it's like X on steroids!" they are typically making a statement of admiration for something which is bigger, badder, and totally over the top. The fans and the management are demanding really big entertainment, and they are merciless to losers and also-rans. It then seems utterly schizophrenic to belatedly insist upon "purity of essence" as well.
Perhaps sports fans should figure out if they want the big-time showmanship of American pro sports or the pure athletic endeavor of the Olympics or NCAA events. But it seems disingenuous to deride A-Rod or Bonds for doing whatever it takes to deliver what the fans and their management demand.
This is what I think about performance enhancing drugs. Any player who admits to using, or is discovered using should be stripped of all personal records for the season the admission or discovery is made. For those wishing to be the "best ever" in their sport, this is the ultimate penalty. If the stats are lacking because of this "lost year" and it cost them the Hall of Fame, too bad. I don't know how the contracts work, and it may not be possible to withhold funds from a cheater, so I will leave that alone. If a team wishes to cheat by knowingly or permitting a player to use these types of drugs, then shame on them. They should be exposed.
It's a hell of thing that exposing this abuse of the sport brings no penalty, other than public embarassment, to these "athletes". What does it show our children - cheat and you still prosper? There has to be some punishment. A-Rod basically uses his steroid year as the stepping stone to a $279 million, 10-yr contract with the Yankees? This is just so wrong.
Jamie you forget a major difference between the two sports.
Football by design is dehumanized. From top to bottom the players are hidden in grotesque armor. Helmets cover their heads creating a Barry Bonds size dome. Cages and in some cases plastic visors hide their faces. Their bodies are covered in layers of padding ostensibly for protection but it has become as much a style as a necessity. Football players are treated as cogs in a machine. The parts/players are shifted and swapped from moment to moment as the circumstances dictate. The plays are called long distance via electronics. The actual persons calling the plays hidden far away in booths at the top of the stadium so that if you can even afford a seat at the game you have no Idea who is managing the game. The Sport has so hidden and covered its humanity what do we care if the body underneath has been pumped with drugs. The attraction like with wrestling and destruction derby is the collision and impact.
In Baseball we see human beings in competition. We can see the faces and the arms. The hands gripping the ball or the bat are not hidden from our view with tons of tape and padding. Players are encouraged to doff their cap when accepting the plaudits of the crowd as opposed to the mechanical Toy dances done in football. When that is tampered with it alters the game and not for the better
I am very impressed by your quick description of the big difference between these sports.
Where to start? "grotesque armor"? Anyone who says helmets and pads are as much for style as protection has obviously never run into a 250 pound athlete at 15 miles per hour while they are running 15 miles per hour at you. Star personalities abound in football as in baseball and when you have a list of more than 100 football players who cheated we can compare cheaters from the 2 sports.
The NFL and the NBA are basically freak shows. Baseball can be played by normal or, even smaller than normal people. The baseball records are viewed as attainable by any better than average player if he has the talent and devotion. Football and basketball records are attained by the team's help. A quarterback can't have a completion if noone catcdhes the ball or noone blocks for him. Basketball players have a team system to feed the shooter or channel the other team's shooter to a bad spot. Baseball is very individual oriented. You throw it, you catch it, you hit it. Any average Joe can fantasize about playing baseball while Basketball and football require one to be carnival material. What A-Roid and the others have done is pass the everyday guy's game into another freak show.
Baseball can be played by "normal" people so long as they are playing against other "normal" people. Even players who are not juiced have a skill set that is far above the regular fellow. That is why there are 9 guys on the field and thousands in the stands. Like any other sport, baseball depends upon execution. Timely execution at that.
People are bigger these days than ever, for all kinds of reasons, most likely not very good. But no one should fool themselves about size and the ability to play.
Land of hypocrisy.
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