"Yoooooouuuu . . . Plaaaaayyyyyy. . Tooooooooooooooo. . . .Winnnnnn. . . .Theeeeeeeee GAAAAAMMMMMMMMMe!!!!!!!!!!"
It's the bottom line, and the only line!! And if you don't believe that then have a nice little conversation with Tyrone Willingham, Ron Zook, Art Howe, Lenny Wilkins, Dennis Erickson, Maurice Cheeks, Flip Saunders and see what they might have to say about that.
And haven't we been taught since kindergarten that we must always try our best? Aren't we always expected to excell, and do so by any means necessary? Or is it only by any ethical means necessary? There's old sports adage: "If you aint' cheatin'; you ain't tryin'" . . . So by using steroids to enhance my performance am I cheating or am I just trying harder than the next person to achieve excellence? Am I just willing to take more of a risk than the next man to endure the shrunken gonads, the overstressed musoskeletal system and other short- and long-term side effects for that extra edge? What is the role of free choice in this?
Another thing that bugs me is the argument that steroids are an "unnatural" means of performance enhancement. What this hell does that mean?! It's sort of redundant, don't you think? Think about it. . . Performance enhancement doesn't take place without some sort of external impetus or stimulus. . . . An athlete stretches so that he or she is more limber. They lift weights in order to get stronger. They jump in the whirlpool when their muscles are sore. When they blowout their ACL, tear a rotator cuff, or snap an achilles tendon, they have surgery to repair them.
Which brings me to my boy Barry Lamont Bonds -- he is after all the first and only reason we are even considering the issue in the first place. You gotta love him, simply for the reason that he referenced "Sanford and Son" in his diatribe on the first day of Spring Training. Personally, I'm savin' up my sheckels so I can cop an authentic Bonds #25 S.F. Giants home white to sport around the 'hood. But I digress. . . .
Anyway, . . . So, Barry is an asshole. . . He is going to pass Babe Ruth's 714 before the 40th game of the season. . . He's been linked to BALCO, an outfit which traffics in natural and synthetic performance enhancing substances. And the fact that he was already otherworldly talented, and may have dabbled with such substance merely adds insult to injury. So what?!! He is simply doing what he is supposed to do . . . HEEEE ISSSSS TRYIIINNNGGG . . . TOOOOO. . . BEEEEEE . . . THEEEEEE . . . BESSSSTTTT HEEEEEE Cannnnn . . . . BEEEEE!!!!!!! And he is doing so with what happens to be the state of the art in these days and times.
Give me a break with all this garbage about astericks by his records. As Jose Canseco has asserted all along the use of steroids and HGH have been widespread in baseball for at least a decade. Put simply, it is the state of the art. . . the prevailing practice. And let's not forget that it has long been common practice for baseball players to pop greenies, stoke up on caffeine and other stimulants for an edge. Just ask Jim Bouton. State of the art! So you mean to tell me that if I dig up evidence that Pete Rose took speed before games you're going to put an asterick by his name on the alltime leading hitters list?
And let's go back to the question of surgical procedures. . . All athletes have some sort of procedure performed at some point of their career, and in nearly all instances it's done to facilitate their longevity. How can you deny that this is a form of performance enhancement. Furthermore, you can deem it an unnatural means of enhancement because the sole purpose of surgery is to repair natural wear and tear on an athlete's body. So if we are going to condemn Barry Bond, Mark McGwire for their use of so-called unnatural performance enhancers, then we have to lump Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens and others right along with them because the latter group have all had their careers extended through periodic tune-ups under the knife. I don't see anyone clamoring to put an asterick next to their names. There's only one athlete that I can think of who played in the modern (i.e. post-War) sports era that could even come close to measuring up against such absurd standards: Sandy Koufax . . . . And he literally pitched until his arm fell off.
I defy you to name another.
2 comments:
What's the Big Deal ??
The Senate Committee on Government Reform...and the subpoenas...
The Senate subpoenas? . . . Understand, first of all, that there isn't a damn thing Congress can do about the issue since MLB enjoys an exemption from anti-trust laws. So it's basically just for show.
With that noted, I can think of several reasons why you go through the motions anyway and they all revolve around political convenience and expediency. Put simply, Baseball players are an easy target. They're rich, spolied, pampered and they get paid for playing a kid's game. They are part of a union, and this union is being portrayed as being obstructionist when it comes to the issue. And many of them are people of color, so that's another factor.
There's a lot of political hay to be made to be made demogoguing on this issue. It's a gimme, the equivalent of getting mulligan on the fourth hole of an 18-hole round of the latest congressional election cycle.
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