Selig's head still in the sand

Oh my! Lions, Tigers and MLB's commissioner!

During an interview in between innings of Red Sox-A's game, Selig said steroids are a societal problem.
Baseball is just a refection of society.

 

Because nobody other than baseball players has ever used steroids.

Seriously, it may have been more appropriate for him to say it is an issue within the entire sports world, but the problem does go beyond just baseball. And even then, there are some people who are not athletes who have used steroids to get bigger and stronger.

 

When has it not been in the sand?

 

Considering that the police commissioner of Boston just announced that he wants 'roid testing for the entire force, I'd say Bud wasn't too far off.

 

I'm sure that an overwhelming minority of the population uses steroid, but the same cannot be said about baseball's populace.
Also, I didn't care for the way he dismissed the issue during the interview.

 

I didn't see the interview but I don't think his assessment of society as a whole is very far off base.

Doesn't excuse the fact that it's been a massive problem in baseball for close to 20 years now.

 

His head was in the sand for a long time, but he's not really wrong here. Steroids, and increasingly HGH, present problems beyond sports.

 

Steroids is a societal problem. It's a lack of integrity in feeling like it is ok to cheat to get ahead. It's caring about superficial things like looks instead of a person's character. It's taking a me-first philosophy to the extreme.

How many of these ballplayers over the last 20 years who took steroids have displaced legitimate players from careers in baseball? Sports in general need to shoulder a huge burden of responsibility. Instead of creating incentives for agility and cunning play, it's all been about power. Move the fences in, play for the three-run home run, because home runs sell more tickets. It's been the continued selling-out of sport to entertainment. And, paradoxically, it almost gets hard to blame the individual players for taking steroids given the *ridiculous* amount of money they stand to make.

Because we have let our principles erode as individuals and as a society, we actually feel sympathy for cheaters instead of tossing them out of the game. We seek the hollywood recovery instead of protecting those who played honestly all along. I know it's not simple to just toss someone from anything, but, as a society we have a lax attitude toward cheating.

Selig needs to shoulder his share of the blame, but it is very accurate to blame society as a willing contributer.

 

There was a huge spread in Sports Illustrated on steroids in non-sports society two weeks ago. I just heard the interview, and it sounded like Selig had just finished reading it.

 

Bud was right and the SI story was right. As I've mentioned before, I'd bet that U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman's district, which includes Hollywood, has the highest per capita steroid/HGH usage in the country. It's athletes, yes, but it's also actors, models, musicians (huge in the rap world), wanna be models, people who just want to look good at the beach, 55-year-olds who want to keep looking young, etc.

I'm far from a Bud supporter but he has done anything but bury his head in the sand on the issue. In fact, he kept the spotlight on baseball and spent tens of millions of dollars by hiring private lawyers to investigate the history of PEDs in baseball.

 

Roids in a police department to help the cops look bigger, badder and more intimidating? NFW!

 

There were more cops than ballplayers caught in the Albany prosecutors' office investigation into online sales. The headlines weren't as big, though.