Sports are about being better. Better than the guy who is sitting on the bench waiting to take your spot. Better than the athletes who came before you. Better than what is expected of you to keep your role on a team.
Each athlete struggles. Especially in baseball which has more than 6 levels of play before the major league level, an athlete struggles to get better. Hit the ball harder. Hit it more often. Catch the ball and make the plays. Move up a level in the minors and start your process all over again. The percentage of players who make it to the majors from the minors is extremely small. It's a nearly impossible struggle to get to the majors.
Can you blame a player for taking a PED? You tell them there is a pill or injection they can take, and be better than the other guy and expect them not to want it? A drug that makes their workouts more beneficial. Or returns them to the sport faster after injury. Why wouldn't they want it?
Babe Ruth was swinging a tree at the plate. In the era when so many records were set, the players would go back to the clubhouse and have a drink and cigar in between innings. The sport has progressed, become more diverse and more competitive. Instead of just being better then white men in America, now you have to be better than up and comers from Japan, the Dominican Republic, and a variety of other places. As the sport progresses, the means to be better progress as well.
I don't know what's right. I don't know if it's cheating because it makes you better, faster. I can't blame any one of these men though, in a sport and country that is so competitive. You have to be better, or you aren't anyone.
2 comments:
here's my input on this. as a loyal sox fan and a huge admirer of the big papi, and what manny did for the team back in his days it's a shock. i'm still not one hundred percent sure if it's true. but the problem isn't who is on the list, the problem is two-fold. 1- the testing was agreed to on the basis of the results being unreleased, slowly the results are being posted. if i were on that list and my name was released you can bet your ass i'd be on the phone with some lawyers.
2- the blame for the steroid era falls (in my eyes at least) squarely on the shoulders of a mr Bud Selig. if 104 players tested positive for PEDs in 2003, why wouldn't you work your ass off to corral them right then and there. instead of taking baby steps to "stop the spread" if bud selig cared at all about the integrity of the game and not making money there'd be stricter penalties, and the whole steroid problem, wouldn't be a problem. if it even is a problem.
It wasn't illegal back in 03 when these tests were taken. It was exploratory to see what percentage of players were on them.
Where is the disconnect? Where did we start saying "this is bad?"
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