Can We Have A Real Dialogue, Please?
by Peter Bean on Jun 13, 2006 2:02 PM CDT
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PrintI don't mean to be a lone voice crying foul on this issue, and I would most certainly refrain from bringing it up in this space if we weren't in the midst of a ridiculous witch hunt that's grossly skewed public perception of the issue at stake. Both on this blog, as well as many other college football blogs, authors and reader commenters alike have galloped about on high horses condemning the wretched state of the game of baseball, it's one-time glory a distant memory to them because of the rampant abuse of performance enhancing drugs.
As this is not a professional sports blog, I'll do my best to not go on at too great a length, but there are a few key points that need to be made.
First, for the football crazy out there, be careful where you throw those stones. The football house is almost certainly one made of glass.
As noted in the Pro Football Talk Rumor Mill:
Sorry, folks, but at a time when baseball is finally facing its long overdue day of reckoning for years of rampant abuses regarding performance enhancing drugs, the NFL should be taking aggressive steps to prevent the eventual embarrassment that might arise once it's revealed that players have rampantly been using HGH.
Then again, it's not as if the NFL ever took much of a black eye for its own history with steroids, primarily since the individual effects of using steroids or HGH or other prohibited substances aren't as noticeable as in the inherently one-on-one setting of pitcher versus a batter.
More relevant to our collegiate universe, you can bet with near certainty that if it's rampant in the NFL, it's rampant in the collegiate ranks, as well. Where is the storm of outrage at football players gaining extra edge? Where is John McCain when you really need him?
This goes beyond mere hypocrisy, though. Far too often the cries of outrage are cloaked in moralistic nostalgia for by-gone eras of purity in competition. In this case, I hand the mic to Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus:
What we do know is that baseball has a long and celebrated history of cheating, from John McGraw through Whitey Ford. What we do know is that for many years, players used amphetamines like I use the [Delete] key. What we do know is that some of the game's best players have been highly competitive to the point of pathological.
There's no doubt in my mind that some percentage of players would have used PEDs in the 1920s, 1940s or 1960s had they been available, just as some percentage of players would have voluntarily switched teams if the rules had permitted them to do so. Pretending they wouldn't have done so is silly, and garnering quotes from old men in support of the idea is worthless.
Doesn't it strike anyone else as odd that baseball, despite having the most stringent steroid policy in American professional sports, is the sport that's being constantly belittled as a vast wasteland of cheaters and the morally bankrupt? As if competitors in other sports, or in other eras, simply played by the rules in some glorious honor to the spirit of fair competition? Players, coaches, and owners in every sport, from every era, have done whatever they can to get ahead. Only in baseball, though, has the maelstrom reached a boiling frenzy of outrage.
What I think about PEDs in baseball is beside the point. What you think of it is beside the point. It's how we talk about it that's important, and I've seen far too many otherwise rational and reasonable people devolve in to pompous, hypocritical moralists about this particular issue.
Put it in check. Take a deep breath. Get the proper perspective here. You can't have a dialogue when the entire conversation is one-sided condemnation.
Back to Joe Sheehan to conclude:
That's not where we are right now, though. Where we are is in the middle of a maelstrom of accusations, mistrust, grandstanding and denial. Whatever actual problem exists has taken a backseat to the perception that a dozen years of baseball can be labeled "The Steroid Era," a neat phrase that ignores almost everything we know about how the game was played in those years. Issues that should be debated across hours and days, in hushed tones and with plenty of time for reflection are instead hammered out in seconds and minutes, with time taken only for station breaks and bottom-of-the-hour score updates.
But the evidence that we have--the positive test results over the past four years--indicate that the problem of PEDs in baseball has been blown well out of proportion. Moreover, the level of outrage in the media's coverage of the issue has been out of step with the trends in attendance, ratings and general interest in baseball. The game didn't suffer over the past dozen years; it grew by virtually every measure, and continues to grow today.
Amen.
--PB--
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I think it's cultural
Also, if I was being really cynical, baseball is the safest refuge for people who want to express what's good about sports in data, and introducing the idea of rigging the data shakes the foundation of comparability of data -- but in statistical terms, the data's not really comparable anyway...
Not strictly what you were getting at, but that's my $0.02 about why the tenor is so different for this one sport for this one problem.
Good arguement
Here's my problem with this: I don't want either of my sons taking drugs. Period. If they see their baseball hero taking drugs to improve his game, what's to say they won't in order to improve their own? Same with football, basketball, and whatever sport you want to add.
I will grant you that Baseball is the scapegoat right now. The NFL needs to steer clear of the offshoot that Baseball is spraying. The only way to do that is to root out the problem. Can that even happen in this day and age? I doubt it. With every new test to uncover the truth, another comes along to hide it. But should we just throw up our hands and say "oh well, we tried. Just let the cheaters be."? No. Emphatically - NO!
As much negativity as there is in MLB, they deserved it. To the extent that there is a which-hunt, no. The media does need to back off a little and let MLB handle their issues. But the media should cover the stories from afar. Let the public be aware what this is going on. Otherwise, how would we teach our children what to look for?
This is a debate that will rage for quite some time. I'm standing tall on the "Clean up sports" side of the fence. But not for the purity of the game. Our children shouldn't idolize drug dealers or drug users. That is the biggest offense to me.
Excellent posts
That statement couldn't be more true. With the stories of the emerald chessboard, the Splendid Splinter, the Iron Horse and the Yankee Clipper baseball has always held our attention.
Football has its lore also and fans at all levels, high school, NCAA or the NFL, have shown over the years just how far they will go to root for their teams- throwing a snowball at Santa comes to mind.
Over the years baseball has always shown restraint and civility in how it portrays its sport. Excluding the occasional Disco Sucks! night.
I find it ironic that the sport that has always tried to portray itself as civil and pure has a longer history of cheating and cheaters .
Spit balls, corked bats, rosin bags and such have shown the lengths to which players will go for a competetive edge. Let's not forget about the bandbox ballparks that cater to the home team.
I am against all forms of drugs use, but you will find more sympathy for football players because of the pounding their bodies take for minimal glory than that of a player who juices just to get the ball over the fence.
No house is clean I know and there is no excuse for bad behavior but the public is a lot more tolerable of those who put their bodies at risk versus those who can't stand to over shadowed.
Nod
But there should be a dialogue about how they're being used, to what extent, and how best to clean them up.
Instead, though, we get "Player X is a horrific human being that should be banned from anyone's sporting thoughts forever!" And all this nonsense about how the sport is ruined, and how it's different than it used to be, and so on.
Talk to your kids, explain to them that some people go too far to achieve what they want, and teach them the difference between right and wrong. Then we can all talk about what's going on with athletics without acting like athletes are the root of all problems.
Nonetheless
It has had a history of cheating in various ways and always manages to move on.
It is the way of life for Americans. After 9/11/01, it was Jack Buck and baseball who told our country it was ok to go on with our lives. At that time, a baseball stadium was where everyone could go to get away from everything and just have a good time.
To this day my favorite sports memories (besides a couple of rose bowls) come from the good old days when I went to Astros games in the Dome. Nothing beat that.
The game will always be changing and there will always be something for the media to pick on, but it really comes down to the fans who make it so great. We know what baseball is really about.
And besides, the use of banned substances made the game more fun to watch for one summer (Sosa-McGwire 98), sad as it may sound.
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