This Is Me On Steroids

I could personally care less about professional sports figures using steroids -- the problem is that there is an enormous amount of competition to get into the pro ranks --- and if juicing is "what it takes" to make it as a pro athlete, you're going to get an epidemic of steroid use among college and high-school athletes.

@p - Agreed.

James, there's also another aspect to this that is PARTICULARLY important in baseball. Baseball prides itself on statistics and history more than ANY other sport - the idea being that aside from some general differences in the era a player performed in, we can use the statistics to compare, say, Albert Pujols to Babe Ruth. Part of the charm of baseball is this ability to debate - with statistics - the merit of players from wildly disparate eras.

No other sport really has that. No one honestly believes or even argues that football today is similar to football in the 1950s, or that you can use statistics to compare Shaq to Wilt Chamberlain in basketball.

And that's why steroids in baseball is such a problem. It ruins the illusion that we can compare players from this performance-enhanced era with players from an era in which such drugs were unavailable. You simply can't debate whether Barry Bonds or Ted Williams is the greatest left-handed hitter of all time when the former (allegedly) used steroids and the latter didn't/couldn't have. (By the way, Ted Williams will always be the better hitter...)

Now, if Charlie is resurrected on Lost due to some Dharma-created regenerative drug....well, THAT will be a steroid scandal.

If you're fine with losing that illusion, that comparative sense of baseball's history and mythology

I am not a die-hard sports fan, I watch a baseball game on TV every couple of years, and I tend to think that what adults put in their own bodies is their own business. Not a great example to set, but whatever. @ p_lukasiak - Yeah, the health detriments for kids is all I would worry about.

My husband, on the other hand, has loved baseball since he was little, and becomes highly morally-indignant at players who taint it with steroid use. So for those who are moved by the "spirit of the game", it obviously means something more. So, again, whatever.

@chaddogg: "And that's why steroids in baseball is such a problem. It ruins the illusion that we can compare players from this performance-enhanced era..."

But it is an illusion to begin with, right? The ball's not the same, the balllparks are not the same, the equipment's not the same, the training and science and medicine are not the same. Which is to some extent true as well in distance running (something I know a little more about than baseball) or swimming or what have you.

I'm not saying by this that indignation at steroids is baseless. (As I said, bottom line is, cheating's cheating and naturally people don't like cheaters.) But I guess I am saying that when you look at the reasons for it, they're really--as shara says seems to get at--based more in emotion, and in ideas about intangible concepts about what consitutes purity, what is and isn't "natural," etc.

Not to mention how useful at capturing the real essence of the game are those old timey statistics anyway? See the Michael Lewis book (err title not at tip of tongue) on the revolution in baseball stats and the Oakland A's. It would imply that said statistics are inaccurate in many areas anyway.

Err also meant to add..in addition to the impact of drugs at high school / college level, would said downward spiral also not tilt sports to the rich(er), as those who can afford to juice would have an edge over those who couldnt at the high school/college level and end the rags to riches stories of many professional players from very poor areas/countries..(though statistically if you are relying on sporting prowess to get out of poverty, you might as well buy some lotto tickets too).

@ AnonymousDude - that may be a valid concern - potential class implications of juicing. However, as I recall (sometimes not so clearly. . .), young people of all socioeconomic levels managed to find access to illegal substances when I was in school. . .