The Roids
Just when you think the damn steroid mess has finally cooled down for a little while, something like this happens. Oh, Raffy... I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about steroid use by professional athletes. On the one hand, I recognize that they get paid to be the best and perform, and if they want to take the risks involved with 'roids then so be it. But on the other (possibly heavier) hand, I will always be a hopeless Romantic with respect to sports in decades long past. I yearn for the golden ages of yore, when the great athletes dominated their sports with equal parts raw talent and overbearing personality. Alack, never again.
Now, we live in an era where the biggest story arc for the past couple of baseball seasons has been fucking steroids. It's tough to imagine a Sportscenter I've seen lately where they're not at least mentioned in passing. And then of course you have the whole Congressional intervention bullshit. What the fuck. Still, regardless of whether or not we agree with their use, we all as fans have the right to enjoy this sport and every sport without having to hear about who's accusing who of what every day of our lives. More importantly, we have the right to enjoy them as a fantastic escape from the bullshit of every day reality, as a place where politics are left behind and we are united in our common passion. To mar sports with public scandal is to steal from the fans that purity that they not only want from sport itself, but that they themselves bring to the game.
At the end of the day, this will all be history - and history is what counts in the long run. That's why it is absolutely essential to acknowledge that a man with 3,000 hits, damn near 600 home runs, and almost 20 years in the league, is a Hall of Famer. Period. No caveat. No asterisk. Period. The sad part is that everyone and their dog, including aforementioned Congress, will get in their say and be able to to take a piece out of Raffy before the day is done. I guess all we can do is hope that he is still standing when the dust clears, and that the league is able to retain some semblance of dignity... for the fans.
posted by Anonymous @ 6:42 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I partly blame Sports Center for this whole problem. If they would show highlights other than homeruns there wouldn't be such a need to bulk up. I like baseball as its played by guys like Ichiro and the UT baseball team: manufacture runs by means of fundamentals. If a guy lays down a sack bunt he's not cheered on anymore. Hell, he only gets his bonus if he cranks 40 or more out of the park or if his slugging percentage wows the crowd. My grandfather loves griping about the modern day sluggers. They either hit a homerun, pop out, or strike out. There's no dynamic in that. So I say all those people who only care about homeruns are propogating a sport that requires steroid use to supply fans with the entertainment they say they want because that's what they're fed by the media. Well, that should get a least a couple of you talking.
uh, i guess i'd have to say steroids are bad mmmk, intervention by congress is bad mmmmk, and only hitting homeruns is bad mmmk. oh and i agree that espn can suck my left nut, although i do like seeing homeruns for some stupid reason.
if i were a major leaguer, i would use steroids, no doubt about it (at least until they were made illegal, which was very very recent). And if I were called in front of congress about it, I would lie about it. These guys dont get paid to play good baseball, they get paid to sell a product, to entertain. Having grown up watching Raff swat balls at Arlington Stadium, (defunct)I have a tremendouns soft spot in my heart for him. At the congressional hearings, he was the only one who sounded like a human being, or even looked like one. I just hope he is truthful when he says that steroids not knowingly used, but thats just too naieve. I guess this goes to show you cant trust men with mustaches.
steroid give strength and speed. Thats why sprinters use them, as for codys thoughts of yester-year i think baseball has always been about homeruns and isnt sportcenter, think of ruth and aaron, we talk about them today because they laid down some major wood. So let us hope that congress will actually do something soon that is actual policy and not fucking americas passtimes. (sports, underage drinking, and video games)
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