Drugs, Cheating, and the Purity of America's Pastime

Drugs, Cheating, and the Purity of America's Pastime

Most children who have grown up in an American household have at one point in their lives looked up to sports figures as heroes. Whether it was your grandfather telling his stories of watching Babe Ruth become a legend, your father's stories of Mickey Mantle and the legendary Yankee teams of the 1950's and 1960's, or your own memory of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chasing the home run record, the feeling of wholesomeness that baseball provides has always found its way into many people's hearts. Steroids have tarnished these sacred memories, casted doubts in the minds of many on the legitimacy of records and statistics and finally affected the way younger players play the game.

Baseball, America's pastime, is embedded in the fabric of society. The players and teams have come and gone, but the thing that remains constant is baseball's ability to unite people as well as families. My own personal experience of this came right after September 11th, 2001. Following the tragedy that was 9/11, the country needed something to help everyone return to normalcy. In our moment of weakness and uncertainty, baseball helped calm my nerves. Fifty three thousand three hundred and twelve brothers stood up in unison and took back their lives. The electricity of that game, the sense of regularity in my life, and the knowledge that millions of people were finding comfort together with me during such a hard time, helped me feel a sense of closure that the worst was behind us.

It is the mystique and aura of the players, the exciting tales behind them, as

well as the history of the game that keeps us interested as fans. These are the reasons why people, children especially, see these players as invincible, and perfect in every way, shape, and form. What would happen if after a century of inspiring stories, and incredible tales of heroism, the inconceivable notion that these players were not perfect, took prominence? Or that many of these superstars cheated their way to the top?

Recently the topic of steroid use in baseball has been everywhere in the news. It has finally come to the attention of Major League Baseball, and now the general public, that a vast percentage of players have been using illegal performance-enhancing drugs. This not only casts a cloud of suspicion over which players are using steroids, and makes one wonder which players are genuine, but it tarnishes the reputation of the sport. It puts into question every player that has ever played the game, as well as all the records and statistics that have been kept as a measuring point of success throughout the history of the game. This latest discovery of steroid use has the chance to step on the hearts of many young fans of the game, and turn away the most loyal of fans. This whole situation has the opportunity to become a crushing blow to a country at war in need of its national pastime; a country that needs its heroes.

The most rampant issue regarding steroids in baseball lately has to do with the investigation of BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative), its dispensing of steroids, and the players that willingly accepted them. Aside from the fact that these are illegal

drugs, and several BALCO employees face federal punishment for distributing them, just as someone selling heroin or cocaine on the street would be, the investigation must be able to tell us which players accepted and used the steroids which they were given. So far the only discovery that has been made was that three superstar players Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, and Jason Giambi, allegedly received the drugs from BALCO, but there has been no proof as to when, or even if they were definitely used by them. (Wada Williams)

The fact that three of the most prominent, popular, and notable players in the game had been given steroids radically changes the public's perception of them. Whether or not they used the steroids given to them is another story in itself, but the mere fact that they have put themselves in this situation casts a huge cloud of doubt over their recent performance. There is no reason for the public to judge these players favorably, or support them in this case when so many signs are telling people that they are guilty. If the players want the American people to support them through this rough time, then they need to provide us a reason to do so. One way to vindicate themselves would be to take a drug test, and prove to the public that they are clean. (That is one way you can look at it.) You can also fault Major League Baseball itself for not taking action sooner. With millions of dollars being allocated to those having the best statistics in the sport, players are constantly looking for an advantage. When there is this kind of money and honor at stake and there is no foreseeable punishment or consequence for your actions, aside from the immoral characteristic of being a cheater on your conscience, who can blame them for being driven to such drastic measures in order to advance themselves?

In so many other sports, there are stringent rules and testing regarding drugs and steroids. The Olympic drug testing policy is indisputably the most stringent of any sport.

The games are a worldwide competition seen by billions of people throughout the globe, and the people running these games are not willing to sacrifice the dignity of the Games. If someone has won a race, or plans to, because they have used steroids, or anything else to enhance their ability to win, the committee will find out about it. Going back to the 1988 summer Olympic Games in Seoul, Spain, track star "Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal he won in the 100-meter race after he tested positive for an illegal steroid" (Johnson). Johnson had won the race in an unheralded amount of time. Everyone was singing words of praise for the man, until a few days later when the results of the mandatory drug and steroid testing given by the committee came back positive for steroids. Johnson was immediately stripped of his title, and the humility and embarrassment were left with him, not with the pure name of the Olympics. Baseball can learn a few things from the way the Olympics conduct their games and the strict standards they have set for themselves. I believe that by testing players in baseball, as successfully as they do in the Olympics, it will instill a fear in the players' hearts of being shamed, and therefore reduce the steroid use. In addition to this, I think that if someone were naive enough to think that they could still get away with this, only the credibility of the player would shatter, not the game