So that baseball star, Mark McGwire has admitted what apparently most people suspected for years, that he cheated by taking steroids and steadfastly lied about it over and over again.
I just wish the sports people would make up their minds. I think there is great pressure for these guys to cheat, to be a little bit better, to break records, to sell ads, to bring in the fans and so on. Either allow everybody to take all the drugs they want (the guy with the best pharmacist wins) or get serious about not tolerating players juicing up.
What do I mean by not tolerating that behaviour? I mean making all the records of cheating players disappear….not an asterisk, a disappearance. I mean firing guys who get caught and really trying to catch them. Pile on the shame and embarrassment. If it’s a bad thing, treat it like a bad thing.
Today I heard a radio commentator suggest that now that Mr. McGuire has “come clean” they might let him in the hall of fame. Geez, that’s the same as saying its OK. If you believe it’s OK, lets not pretend it isn’t. Let them pump themselves full of the stuff and say who cares. I just don’t want to see the sports establishment claim it is against doping but encourage it by allowing it to be profitable to cheat.
27th Street 
I love how he said it wasn’t the steroids that won him his home run ‘title’.
And really, what’s the point in confessing when everyone already knows the truth?
If it is possible to declare a winner in something then it is likely that someone is cheating trying to win. You can call that Sal’s 3rd law of life. One evening after not having played chess for about 20 years I decided to go to MSN zone and try out a few games against other total amateurs. To my horror the site was loaded with much screaming about the cheating there. How do you cheat in online chess? Turns out it is easy, when I move you key my move into another computer which runs a sophisticated chess program. When it moves you key the move into my game. Why cheat? God only knows, maybe so someone you dont know using a fake name will think you are better than them. I am especially dumbfounded by people who play online poker for real money. They dont seem to realize that 3 of their opponents could be sitting in the same room on 3 different computers and manipulating the betting. The corollary to Sal’s 3rd law is that if it is possible to bet on an event then it is likely that someone has found a way to rig the outcome.
Interestingly, the baseball/steroid issue is a bit more complicated. Back when the bulk of this was going on there were no rules in place to prohibit steroid use. While clearly tainting the game it is pretty tough to crucify someone for not doing anything wrong or against the rules while he is doing it. Most of the players who have been badly hurt by the drug thing are the ones who lied to their fan base about it. People will forgive almost anything (just look at Clinton) but they dont like liars.
The whole idea of asterisks in the record books is pointless anyways, especially in baseball. Thirty years ago pitchers were totally dominant in baseball. There were guys who threw so hard you couldn’t see the ball much less hit it and some folks racked up records of 30 wins in a season. The league decided that wasnt very exciting so they lowered the mound by 6 inches and that instantly destroyed pitcher domination and hitters owned the game. But none of the pitchers who worked from what is now an illegal mound height have their records tagged with a *. When the hitters arent producing enough home runs to generate exciting things like home run races the league orders the ball makers to tighten up the internal windings making for a harder juiced up ball that travels farther. Does this cause asterisks? Nope. Your home team has crappy pitching? No problemo, just move the outfield walls back 15 feet and watch your pitchers look better. Professional sport is just a business and I cant get excited about watching the day to day adventures of any business.
Interesting comments, Sal. I didn’t know about the pitchers mound.
1969 was the year that the mound was lowered after Denny McLean won 31 games in 1968 and other pitchers had astounding seasons. McLean is the guy who grooved a pitch to Micky Mantle to let him hit his 535th home run and become the home run leader of all time back then. The next batter held his bat out over the plate asking for an easy pitch too and McLean knocked him down with his first pitch. No one has threatened the 30 win mark since they lowered the mound.
I am not sure what has changed in baseball over the years but my memory tells me that the pitchers were simply better back then even after they lowered the mound. Perhaps I am recalling the days before batters started juicing up on steroids. I recall watching a Yankees game on TV in the late 70’s where Ron Guidry struck out 18 batters in 9 innings. Dominate doesnt begin to describe what he did to opposing hitters. He threw a slider that looked like a 90 mph fastball except it it broke left or down or both as it crossed home plate. It is interesting that the steroids helped the hitters a lot, but in many ways the pitchers adapted. In order for steroids to be useful the hitters needed to use their new found strength to take the big swing for home runs. Many of the power pitchers like Roger Clemens and Jack Morris developed a split finger fastball to counter that big swing. The pitch is thrown with topspin and looks just like a fat fastball except that just before it reaches the batter the spin causes the ball to bite downwards and often bounce in front of a wildly swinging batter. Of course some pitchers are reputed to have adapted by adopting a steroid regime of their own.
You’re scaring me. Nobody should know that much about baseball….
This almost assures that I will never sucker up the money to go to a professional sporting event again. I wasn’t much of a sports fan before, but the steroids scandal in baseball sent me packing.
Then again, the ethics of these guys is not different from what one sees in other walks of life either. That’s a rant I could blow a stint trying to type out on a blog.
a customer at my bookstore today told me, “So what if he did steroids. Hes still a great ball player.” I can just blow off this attitude ( is he saying that celebrity should allow for this? Or talent? ) but there was a 16 yr old girl behind him (yes, I asked her age) who was taking this in. I asked her if she knew that was wrong..and she said she wasnt sure if it was or not. That is the tragedy; there are kids looking up to these athletes.
My only surprise is that a ‘sportsman’…and I use the term loosly these days…tries to pretend he/she hasn’t.
Shame for the legitimates mind.
How do we really know?
Well ranted, sir. The only reason this latest doper fessed up was so that he wouldn’t lose his fancy new job.