Steroids in Baseball

There are of course numerous stories available about the subject of performance enhancing drugs in Baseball. However, this one caught my attention more than most.

I can't say I disagree with the basic assumption that Big Mac pretty much convicted himself of using rhoids by not answering any questions regarding his personal history and steroid use. BUT I honestly think it is wrong to crucify the guy the way he has been since Thursdays senate hearing. In '98 the Media was looking for a feel good story and along came the great race between Mac and Sosa. Before you knew it the two of them were demigods. One a wholesome all American monster with the perfect swing and the other a philanthropist extrodinare in his economically depressed homeland. Both made out to be shining beacons of hope in a troubled sport and held up for the adulation of the masses.

Mac is now being derided as a pariah who provides a horrible example to all the youths who idolize him and is now at least partially held to blame for the growing use of dangerous performance enhancing drugs in youth sports. The press now seems to be saying he might as well have been going out and injecting HS kids in his spare time as it couldn't have been any worse than having used them himself during his career. Some senators went so far as to compare him to Ken Lay of Enron. Someone partly to blame for the loss of retirement income for thousands of Enron employees. Guy perhaps made a personal decision to use drugs, Guy is convicted of gypping thousands out of their nest eggs. Call me crazy but I am going to go out on a limb here and say that was uncalled for. (to the authors credit he says the same in his article)

To me there is a constant here. Media portrayal of a man. In this case the same man. In one time he was the hero and now he is the villain. Of course they are just reporting the news right? To me the question occurs why did the media not question the sudden power surge that led to the homerun race in the first place ? I am not saying there were not rumors around the time but very few were interested in questioning Big Mac's prowess that year. Most were interested in the gripping story of two players going down to the wire to break a long standing single season homerun record. No matter the fact one was the perennial strikeout king of the league and the other an oft injured talent of the highest order and that both showed a marked increase in musculature in the year or two preceding their historic chase of the single season Homerun Record.

Is Big Mac as bad as he is being made out to be? I don't think so. Was he as good as he was made out to be in '98? Again I don't think so. In the end Mac was a baseball player in a business with big money and huge amounts of pressure to perform. Is it surprising that he and others through the years may have sought an edge? Yet again I don't think so. Will this continue to happen ? Most definitely. It is a certainty right up there with Death and Taxes. All in all there is nothing new about professional athletes seeking an edge in their profession.

As for Mac's Records I don't think there should be any *'s associated with them. For one he was never convicted of using Illegal enhancing drugs and like it or not we live in an innocent until proven guilty society. For another, having played baseball, I just do not believe steroids can greatly affect someone's ability to play the game. At best they do the same thing they do in the weight room. They allow your body to perform at a higher level for longer sustained periods of time. Thus IF Mac used them he was just capable of performing his best more of the time. Not perform better. Make no mistake about it. Mark McGwire was an outstanding baseball player and one of the most talented hitters to ever play the game. This does not a Saint or Devil make. He is someone who perhaps made unwise decisions in his life. How does this make him any better or worse than all the rest of us? I can say one thing about him right now and that is he did not lie under oath, which is less than can be said of some Presidents of the United States of America and quite possibly of others in that same room. So lighten up sports fans and view this whole mess with some perspective. It is a great game. But it is only a game. I for one think our Elected officials could certainly have found a more productive use of their time for Saint Patrick's day 2005. Instead they chose to spend it dragging baseball's dirty laundry out in a highly publicized political stunt.