Baseball and Steroids

Not exactly an FFXI topic, but this is something that's been burning at me for a while.

I really hate the media. In a sense, I'm part of the media by writing this blog, but I write this because it's fun and healthy for me to do, not because I'm being paid to do it.

(I don't even have Google$en$e enabled on this thing even though it keeps pestering me to do so).

Most of the news outlets today thrive on extreme opinions from the "left" and the "right". They're constantly looking for any shred of racism that can be blown out of proportion (Sen. Reid's comments anyone?). If it's not bloody, verbally abusive to some minority, or dramatic, it's not newsworthy.

"Media" doesn't just include news outlets though. It includes Hollywood. It includes television shows. Shows like "American Idol" that allegedly interact with fans. Shows like "Survivor" that capitalize on a human being's innate desire to be better than everyone else...no matter the cost. Shows like "Big Brother", "Real World" (in it's heyday), "The Bachelor" where you essentially find the most morally bankrupt, dumbest individuals on the planet, shove them into a room on the premise that nothing is scripted and have audiences eat up the resulting mayhem.

Anyone else wonder why we're so far behind scholastically from countries like India and Japan? Hell, not even just scholastically...you could lump the word "physically" into that as well.

Before I go further, I want to clarify that yes, I'm aware Japan has a lot more of the, how should we say, "smut" programming on their airwaves than we do, but it would seem that their citizens at least have the ability to differentiate between reality TV and reality itself.

This brings me to the title of my post today.

Baseball and Steroids.

I grew up watching Baseball. I'm a life-long Braves fan. I remember as a kid, nearly crowding my grandmother out of her recliner while watching the TBS broadcasts of Dale Murphy, Phil Niekro and the likes on Braves teams that always managed to finish last (or close to it).

I remember collecting baseball cards when a guy named Mark McGwire came into the league. I had his rookie card from Topps. I don't have it anymore as I think I sold it in order to buy a Super Nintendo, but I still remember the way it looked and thinking..."I bet that guy could smash the piss out of a baseball."

A few weeks ago, news broke that Mark Mcgwire was returning to baseball. The guy had been dogged by steroid allegations for the better part of this decade. Especially after he famously stood before a congressional panel (the same panel that ultimately forced MLB to put a drug policy in place) and stated "I'm not here to talk about the past. I'm here to be positive about this subject."

News of his return meant that the question regarding his stats was finally going to be answered.

"Were they steroid fueled?"

Baseball's renaissance happened because of the home run chase of 1998 between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa trying to chase down Roger Maris' then 37 year old record of 61 homers in a single season. Both men ended up breaking the record with the final result being McGwire 70, Sosa 66. I was captivated that year along with most of the nation. Baseball had taken it's place (at least temporarily) back as the nation's past time.

Yesterday, McGwire comes out and admits that yes, he was steroid fueled and the media has gone crazy. The biggest thing that he's being knocked for at the moment is:

He didn't own up to the fact that steroids pumped up his numbers.

I get it's a talking point, but really? The media has hounded this guy for literally decades about his use of PED's and now they're going to be nitpicky about this one particular point? Writers who have Hall of Fame votes are going to keep him out of the Hall of Fame because he didn't just flat out say "Yes, PED's inflated my numbers?"

If you read the entire transcript of McGwire's interview with Bob Costas (who irritates me quite a bit when he does interviews because he tends to ask the same question over and over and over again until he gets the answer he wants), McGwire flat out says that there isn't a pill or an injection in the world that will cause your hand-eye coordination to increase, thus PED's did not help him hit more homers.

PED's helped him get back on the field if you believe his primary reasoning for using them to begin with. More playing time = more homers if you follow the media's nitpicky point about this. The oft injured slugger spent a ton of time on the Disabled List and cites these frequent injuries as the reason he would juice up. I'm not dumb/naive enough to believe that he only juiced up while he was injured in order to get back out there, but c'mon...the media is making such a big deal out of this one little issue that it's no f***ing wonder athletes just leave the media to speculate about what is and isn't the truth. Did the roids add some distance to balls he hit directly? I'm no roid expert but I get the feeling that if I were to shoot some roids up right now and not go to work out, I still wouldn't be able to hit a ball out of the infield of a little league diamond.

No no, it's because McGwire roided up and then actually went to work out some more that he was able to hit balls that far. Is that really so different? Sure, there are long term health risks and I'm not condoning their use, but the guy put in the time after he used them. It wasn't like he just injected himself with something made from horses and could instantly bash a ball 800ft. Is that really any different than a guy in the cubicle next to you drinking a 5 Hour Energy and working later than you do? The guy is being penalized for being a maniacal work-out nazi.

Again, not saying illegal substances should be involved, but I'm of the mind set that, yes roids helped him recover faster from his workouts so he could...go work out again and make himself better, stronger, faster, etc.

When I hear people like Peter Gammons, Jayson Stark, Dan Patrick etc all hammer the point of "If he recovered faster from injuries or from workouts, yes, it inflated his numbers and I want to hear him admit this", I have a few questions:

Is there really a time-table or standard that's been set for how long a player should be out from an injury? Torn ACL? Out a year minimum? Come back sooner and it's safe to assume that PED's played a part in the recovery? Broken wrist? Out 6 months? Come back later and the guy doesn't give a crap about baseball cause he's getting paid anyway?

Is juicing up really any different from the "greenies" the generation before the "Steroid Era" took to keep themselves awake?

Is using the technologies of today too much of an advantage over what Babe Ruth, Warren Spahn, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, etc had?

My favorite thing about all of this is the outrage from fans. It's easy to sit on your couch and profess "I'd never do something like that!" when said person doesn't have a contract that pays them 20 million smackers per year potentially waiting for their signature.

"HE DESTROYED THE GAME!"
"HE NEEDS AN ASTERISK BESIDE HIS NAME FOREVER IN THE RECORD BOOKS!"
"ROGER MARIS IS TURNING OVER IN HIS GRAVE!"
"IT WAS ALL FAKE! I TUNED IN FOR NOTHING!"

It's pretty amazing what the anonymity of the internet can do for someone's opinion.

What's even worse is that a lot of major news outlets actually use these people to bolster their outrageous points.

Take this article for example:

Ban McGwire From Baseball

Mr. Wilstein wants to do exactly what the article says. I read through that article and really wanted that 5 minutes of my life back. Intestingly enough, the guy has some history on the subject:

Editor's note: Steve Wilstein is a retired Associated Press columnist and author. His AP report on Mark McGwire's andro use in 1998 gave the public its first look at what became baseball's "Steroids Era." His work was cited as pivotal by former Sen. George Mitchell in his 2007 report to the commissioner of baseball on steroids in the sport.

Who blew the whistle on the spitball era? Who blew the whistle on the pine-tar era? Who blew the whistle on the corked-bat era? Why are there guys who were found guilty of all these various atrocities in the Hall of Fame? Why is McGwire being put on the same level as Pete Rose?

Think about it for a second and ask yourself the question:

If the primary issue here is, "the playing field was not level", how do you go about proving it wasn't? Was McGwire the only one who juiced up during that era? What about that pitcher who suddenly found life on his fastball despite being at an age where speeds normally decline? What about that pitcher who may have needed a little extra oomph to his fastball in order to land that next huge contract. I'm not saying it was all right for players to juice up, but the notion that the playing field wasn't level and because of that, players found guilty of PED abuse should be banned from baseball is absolutely ludicrous.

The vast majority of players were on them. It was baseball's dirty little secret. What happens if an owner put pressure on McGwire to return faster from an injury? Should the owner be banned? Should a manager be banned if he tried to suggest it?

The point is, you cannot isolate one player and you cannot isolate one era to be stricken from the record books. Players are voted into the Hall of Fame because of their stats against the rest of the players from that era. A guy like Chipper Jones (of my beloved Braves) has never been linked to 'roid usage, but likely won't make the Hall of Fame because he played in the Steroid Era.

Pete Rose was banned from the game because he willingly put himself in position to alter the outcome of games for his own personal profit.

Steroid usage isn't so different, but steroids are a by-product of technological advances and aren't so different from that elliptical machine that helps an athlete build up his knee strength faster after major surgery. Gambling has been banned from baseball for far longer due to it's known effects on the outcome of games.

Want to talk about McGwire's andro usage? While organizations like the NFL and IOC had banned it at the time, the government had not. How do you hold that against someone? It wasn't illegal to use and it wasn't banned by the organization you worked for. Did he stop using it after the govt and MLB banned it? He says he did, but who knows. We know we certainly didn't see a jug of it in his locker after a game anymore.

The public in general is tired of the 'roid talk.

Myself personally, I'm tired of asshat writers and talk show hosts who have to nitpick every single syllable of a star's words just to captivate their audiences. If they have to do that, then they need to find another profession or society is dumber than I thought it was for continuing to listen/read/watch them. The general public knows that any athlete is always looking for an edge. A NASCAR driver is looking for some modification to their car that would lower their wind resistance by a fraction. An NBA player is looking for a pair of shoes that would add an extra inch or two to their jump. An NFL player is no different than an MLB player in that they're looking for something that would make them bigger, faster, stronger, whatever stat they need to excel and be better than anyone else. Does this make it right in some cases?

Not really no, but it's what, we as fans, have come to expect. We want to see records broken. We want to see the people that we pay millions upon millions of dollars push themselves to the limit. We want to see balls flying 500-600ft. We want to see a linebacker knock a running back out of his shoes. The mass media apparently just wants something to run into the ground and act as if they're reflecting the public's opinion in general.

You want to question something, question things like polls. Does ESPN.com's latest poll asking if McGwire should be allowed into the Hall of Fame accurately reflect the public's opinion?

Is there a bot running somewhere in ESPN's headquarters manipulating the results in order to get the most reaction?

Whatever you believe the answer to that question is, likely reflects your general views on the subject and what is more likely to reflect the true opinion of most casual sports fans.

That of:

Just shut the f*** up and play ball already.