Is this the future of professional sports, or simply one of the stupidest video games ever?
With all the stink lately about Barry Bonds and his 'alleged' steroid abuse I got to thinking about why it is that we as a society think that it's a bad thing. It seems like it's much the same flawed belief that there was some magical period in the past when our society was a perfect example of morality and respect. No such time actually existed.
Barry Bonds is a professional athlete. He is paid to hit home runs, mostly, and it seems quite logical that he should do everything to improve his ability to do that. It seems to me that he only does harm to himself, physically, and the other harm is one that is perceived and comes from the fact that he is being compared to stars of the past who did not use steroids.
The first one is really odd. There are few other laws that I can think of that make activity illegal that only harms the person doing it. You might think that drug laws are in this category, but many drugs have a dramatic effect on crime. The laws that have regulated things like (consentual) sodomy are on their way out, as went laws regulating interracial marriage, etc.
The second one is the real crux and is a symptom of our societies obsession with nostalgia. Just look at all the attempts to determine who the best players of (insert sport here) of all time. It's a futile exercise. Hank Aaron never had access to the level of science that today's athlete's do. I doubt he was groomed from the age of 14 (or younger), but instead played baseball for the love of it and just happened to be probably the best home run hitter ever, regardless of how many home runs anyone who comes after. The number starts to matter far less. Realistically, 20 years from now, some kid will start in MLB at 18, play 30 years and hit 1000 home runs. Even if he never uses steroids, he'll have had far more at bats, in addition to all the other health and fitness benefits. It's just retarded.
The other side of this coin is the arbitrary line that we have drawn relative to these 'enhancements'. Tiger Woods had his vision corrected from 20/20 to something higher than that. Many other athletes have done so too, including many MLB players. Why is this better than using steroids? If you could graft muscle tissue onto your own, would that be different? If you replace a pitchers shoulder with a titanium replacement that never wears out, is that different? If a basketball player has his arms lengthened, is that different? And if so, why?
I say let the pros use whatever they want. The amateurs, however should be tested regularly, and if you're caught, you're done, forever. No ifs and or buts. Why? Because 99% of kids that play sports never play professionally. It's never their job to hit home runs (or whatever) and steroids can do some really bad shit to you, and usually at an age that society has deemed you are not adult enough to make dramatic life-altering decisions.
I look forward to seeing a team entirely composed of Hulk-like cyborgs.
7 comments:
Did my brother actually own that ridiculous game? Because I almost certainly remember playing it...
So, you have, of your own accord, elected to get into the great "Soap Opera for Men," which is professional sports.
Let me say briefly, I don't really care much, one way or the other.
That said, my gut reaction is that baseball is incredibly boring, and what once was found interesting in a much slower-paced entertainment environment doesn't have a chance of competing in today's world. Statistics, history, and pageantry is all baseball has got. That is why it is such an amazing sticking point. You don't see that kind of strutiny of football players, who are almost certainly engaged in performance-enhancing drugs of one kind or another.
I'm not much of one for laws criminalizing self-inflicted damage, but I think a sport has the right to try to ensure a fair playing field. I may not have the right to tell Barry Bonds what he can do to his own body, but should I be forced into an ultimately lethal practice of drug use simply to remain competitive? It seems wrong at a very gut level.
On a side note, baseball has only itself to blame for inability to regulate drug use. The players' union in that sport is unbelievably powerful and yet another reason those unsufferable fuckers (and by that I mean the vast majority of Major League players) don't deserve to have an audience at all.
It is a soap opera that I almost entirely view from a distance. I don't watch professional sports (or really any sports) much anymore.
I happened to catch part of a Lakers/Mavericks? game (<5 minutes) a couple of weeks ago and found it to be some of the worst basketball I'd ever witnessed. I watched Kobe dribble slowly down the court to the three point line and shoot, making a relatively easy shot with absolutely no one guarding him at any point. There appears to be no sense of urgency. Like us, these guys are just going to work, and can't wait to get out.
The Barry Bonds stuff has been in the news as of late so I figured I would put my two cents in. The unwillingness to honestly deal with the problem, particularly by the players union (as you say) leads me to believe that a free for all is the only honest way to deal with it.
I've seen some pretty exciting pro basketball, too; though I'll concede that the general level of effort does not approach that in the college game, and that the whole thing is quite insulting to fans that fork out exorbitant amounts of money for tickets.
I think that I have around 165 career homeruns. Both from baseball to whiffle ball. Remember the famous World Baseball Classic that had us against some German punks in Ames. We kicked their asses. That was one of my favorite memories from Ames. You guys rocked for playing that game. I know that you dudes don't really dig the game, but it is one of my passions.
I suck at bat sports. Against the Germans you guys were cranking homeruns, and I was lucky to get a double. I'm comfortable with my suckiness so that doesn't deter me from playing, but it is not my first choice of sports. I will be a basketball guy until I die.
I bet you'd positively ROCK at cricket.
Don't flatter me with faint praise. Beeyatch.
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