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The Steroid Culture

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by GB-Hack, Mar 11, 2008.

  1. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    But what is the definition of a "natural state." There is nothing natural about tendons that can throw 90-mph. That's why those tendons tear. But transplanting a leg muscle into an arm and calling that "natural" just so a player can resume a throwing regimen that is not natural at all and that would injure 98 percent of the population if they tried it? I just don't buy it.

    If a player gains needed weight and a little muscle by drinking protein shakes or making like Popeye with the spinach, is that altering his natural state? Anything a person eats or drinks (or injects) will affect his ability to perform certain tasks. For all their problems, steroids are useless without HARD WORK. So it's not necessarily a lazy man's way to get stronger. It's just a more effective (and potentially damaging) way for a hard worker to get stronger.

    Fair point. But some would say we are already past that line. To Paul Simon ("Where have you done, Joe DiMaggio?"), the line was crossed 38 years ago. To me sports is less fun because of commercials after kickoffs, 43 timeouts in the last two minutes of basketball games, at-bats that last 10 minutes and Tim McCarver trying to find a hidden meaning if a player scratches his nuts. Robots call lines at tennis matches now . . . and that has been a huge success. But it means the good 'ol days of players berating umpires is ancient history. So be it.
     
  2. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Bob, I know all the things contributing to the pressures and sick financial rewards, which have led to PEDs, and perhaps eventually those Cyborgs I was joking about. I don't think there is an "answer," actually. Not unless attitudes change. Unless there is a backlash, and use gets stigmatized to an extreme degree because the public wants no part of it, the cat is alreadu out of the bag, as people are pointing out.

    You can't stop those travel teams and the intense (and insane) competition being encouraged for youth. But there are side effects to those year-round traveling teams that are not healthy, and my hope is that we swing back in the other direction and start pining for what we are losing out on. When I was a kid, I played LOTS of sports. You didn't specialize under a parent's prodding, even if you were naturally better at one sport -- and can you really even tell this with 8-year-olds? It made for better athletes, because you pick up different skills from playing lots of different sports and it ultimately benefits you if you have the talent to excel at one chosen sport. Plus, it's just more fun for kids. And that can't be understated. We have taken the fun out of it. And my hope is that eventually things get to a perverted point that someone has an epiphany and says, "This isn't fun the way it used to be," and things start swinging back the other way. A lot to ask for, but it's probably the only semi-realistic hope there is. It's going to take a public groundswell, not an act of Congress or pro athletes and leagues faux policing themselves.
     
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