I'm asking honestly: Assuming that the league has not established a comprehensive ban backed up with a comprehensive testing policy, why is taking steroids cheating? Everyone acts as it this is obvious, but I don't see it.
Players drink Red Bull and Gatorade to alter their performance. They spend countless hours in the weight room to give themselves a competitive advantage. They train at night, on weekends, nearly 365 days each year to play better, run faster, hit harder, and entertain better. We ask them to hit more home runs, so they do it, and then we pay them more. We ask them to hit quarterbacks and running backs harder, and they do it, and then we pay them more. Why is this form of self improvement cheating but others are not?
Steroids didn't hit the home runs for Barry Bonds. They didn't throw the pitches for Roger Clemens. They might have helped each of them perform better, but if both the pitcher and the hitter are on the juice, who has the advantage? Aside from producing a more entreating and exciting game, what difference does it make? These are grown men. Unless you are going to do everything possible to prohibit this, let them put whatever they want into their bodies.
"Former commissioner Fay Vincent told me that the problem of performance-enhancing substances may be the most serious challenge that baseball has faced since the 1919 Black Sox scandal," Mitchell said in the 409-page report.
"The illegal use of anabolic steroids and similar substances, in Vincent's view, is 'cheating of the worst sort.' He believes that it is imperative for Major League Baseball to 'capture the moral high ground' on the issue and, by words and deeds, make it clear that baseball will not tolerate the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs."Eric Gagne, Troy Glaus, Gary Matthews Jr., Brian Roberts, Paul Lo Duca, Rick Ankiel and Jay Gibbons were among other current players named in the report. Some were linked to Human Growth Hormone, others to steroids.
"We identify some of the players who were caught up in this drive to gain a competitive advantage," the report said. "Other investigations will no doubt turn up more names and fill in more details, but that is unlikely to significantly alter the description of baseball's 'steroids era' as set forth in this report."
The Balck Sox scandal was about taking bribes to lose games. This is about players using substances to perform better on the field. They simply are not the same thing. They are not even close.
I don't get it. I honestly don't.
UPDATE: Even if you don't agree with me on the issue of cheating, we can all agree that stements like this are utterly absurd, can't we?
Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT): Let me just say that they were deceitful… They weren’t cooperative. And they were arrogant. And they were like, “How dare you question us,” kind of attitude. And I want you to know I don’t take offense at that. There are certain things as a member of Congress I don’t like. But personally, I was just stunned by it because I haven’t see worse behavior in anyone in my 20 years in public life in Congress.
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