First of all, I admit fully without hesitation to being a huge Yankee fan, but much more than that, a huge baseball fan. I'm sick and tired of all the steroid news and accusations the last few years. I've never been a big fan of Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens. And I sure hate to hear that A-Rod is the latest moron to have injected his body with deadly drugs.
But...if in fact you are against steroids in baseball, you are now smack on the side of the U.S. Government and Jose Canseco. And knowing their track record, maybe it's time to re-think our opinion.
As I said earlier, I'm not a fan of Barry Bonds, but boy was I a fan of seeing and hearing the crack of his bat when he connected. And I booed every second he rounded the bases. Or to see the fireball and hear the popping of a catchers glove when Clemens unloaded a high hard one. And as much as A-Fraud would fail in pressure situations, the chance that he connects is why you're there.
We live in a new era for sure and it's hard giving up our past hero's for these impostors. Mickey, Willie and the Babe will always stand the tests of time and will remain in our hearts. And I will argue that both Bonds and Clemens were HOF'ers before their first injection. It's time to forgive and forget.
I was sitting around yesterday watching the Buick Open golf tournament from La Jolla and the thought occurred to me that golf too is guilty of adding steroids to their sport. The difference is that they allowed their illegal injections into their clubs and balls. Think how we shudder to see Tiger scorch a drive of 350 yards. Think Hogan, Snead, Palmer and Nicklaus would have loved to have had the present day technology when they dominated?
And how about the NFL? That league is all about steroids. I mean guys 275-300 lbs with no body fat running sub 4.5 second forties. Jim Brown would have gained double the yards with the Mack Trucks of today clearing holes for him. Just close you eyes and look away. It's entertainment.
Training and workout structure has come along way since the days of Babe, Mickey,Willie, Jack and Arnie. The majority of professional athletes back in the day had to carry a job in the off season to pay their bills. They didn't have time to train and they certainly didn't have the luxury of a personal trainer. Let's face it. Today's athletes are the best conditioned in our history. The competition of their sports demand it. And with a widening appeal of the money sports offer and the increasing number of participants from outside the Unites States, the competition for jobs are at a boiling point. So athletes turn to performance enhancing drugs (PED's) for an edge.
In closing, let me state as emphatically as one can, that I do not and will ever look favorably upon an athlete who has to stoop to PED's as a way to compete. It's a killer as in a death sentence for those individuals. But let's also learn to accept we have a whole new paradigm for sports and its athletes and even it means re-writing record books, who cares. We have much more as humans to care about right now.
3 comments:
Baseball's hopeless romantics need to get over themselves. The sport is stronger than ever, and that's for more important than their disgusting self-righteousness.
They believe themselves to be guardians of some romantic history when in fact they do nothing more than earn a wage by writing 1,000 words a day.
Let them all in the Hall. I won't forget they used enhancers, just like I won't forget Ty Cobb was a racist sonuvabitch or that Bill Mazeroski wasn't much more than a helluva nice guy.
Well said.
Maybe the HOF can place an extra large Giants cap on Bonds bust to cover his pea brain.
If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'.
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