Weighing in on Steroids

I’ve heard the argument, with regards to steroids, that maybe we should just let the players all take whatever they want. Then it will be a level playing field. What would be wrong with that?

That is a reasonable argument. Also, I think it isn’t far from what was happening in baseball.

I’ve said this analogy several times now. If during a test to my students I said to them, “You all know the rules. I’m going to be back in fifteen minutes.” Then I left the room. If I found that 80% of my students cheated how could I blame them? They are competing on the same curve as the person sitting next to them. If the vast majority of the competition was taking advantage of an edge wouldn’t you too? I wouldn’t blame the 80%; I would blame me for not enforcing policy better.

I don’t blame the players for using steroids in a time when there was no penalty against it. So stop blaming them. Blame Major League Baseball. We recently found out A-rod did roids too. Many people were shocked, because they wanted the golden boy to pass up the villain Barry Bonds on the all-time homerun list. I wasn’t shocked, nor should anybody have been shocked. If the teacher isn’t in the room most of the kids will cheat.

I’m happy about Manny’s suspension. Baseball has policies in place now to keep players from using steroids. If someone breaks a rule, there should be consequences. Now Manny is out for 50 games. Good. We have rules in place against performance-enhancing drugs. Now, if the rules are broken the rule-breaker should be punished.

Stop calling Bonds a cheater. They all took steroids and he was just that much better than everyone else while he was on them. That’s why he became the game’s villain. If you want to bash Bonds, fine. Rip him for being an egotistical, selfish, inconsiderate asshole, not for being an amazing ballplayer that happened to use steroids too. *

Now tell the players to stop taking illegal performance enhancing drugs; the teacher is in the room.

*Click here for a good Bonds-bashing '06 article without critizing the steroid use.