Steroid use taints image of great American sport
Steve Mayer
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: Opinion
Sports fans must realize baseball players and other professional athletes are doing their jobs. In any workplace, hard work is rewarded and honesty is expected. McGwire and other steroid users broke that trust, cheated themselves, the fans, their teammates and their sports.
Can you imagine how many home runs Babe Ruth would have hit had he used steroids? Or how many fewer McGwire and Bonds would have if they had not taken them?
While other honest professional players were working hard day in and day out, players like McGwire, Bonds and Sosa had an unfair advantage using steroids.
Do steroids really help players perform better? Well one thing is sure; Bonds and McGwire both had great swings. However, anyone knows steroids make players physically stronger, and in almost any sport, strength is a huge asset.
Then there is the claim players such as Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettite and Mark McGwire use, saying they took steroids to help recover from injuries. Steroids quicken the process of recovery for injured players unnaturally. It is unfair to those players who battled back from injuries the right way.
Players like Bonds, McGwire and Sosa completely overshadowed the accomplishments of Maris, Ruth and all other MLB players who played the game fairly. Suddenly, Maris and Ruth's accomplishments seem miniscule compared to what McGwire and Bonds did. But at this point, who really knows if Bonds' and McGwire's records are actually valid?
I hope those who cast votes for future Hall of Famers keep the cheaters out. If they don't, we'll be teaching our children a bad lesson: Cheating may still get you into the Hall of Fame.
e-mail: mayersm@sbu.edu
Can you imagine how many home runs Babe Ruth would have hit had he used steroids? Or how many fewer McGwire and Bonds would have if they had not taken them?
While other honest professional players were working hard day in and day out, players like McGwire, Bonds and Sosa had an unfair advantage using steroids.
Do steroids really help players perform better? Well one thing is sure; Bonds and McGwire both had great swings. However, anyone knows steroids make players physically stronger, and in almost any sport, strength is a huge asset.
Then there is the claim players such as Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettite and Mark McGwire use, saying they took steroids to help recover from injuries. Steroids quicken the process of recovery for injured players unnaturally. It is unfair to those players who battled back from injuries the right way.
Players like Bonds, McGwire and Sosa completely overshadowed the accomplishments of Maris, Ruth and all other MLB players who played the game fairly. Suddenly, Maris and Ruth's accomplishments seem miniscule compared to what McGwire and Bonds did. But at this point, who really knows if Bonds' and McGwire's records are actually valid?
I hope those who cast votes for future Hall of Famers keep the cheaters out. If they don't, we'll be teaching our children a bad lesson: Cheating may still get you into the Hall of Fame.
e-mail: mayersm@sbu.edu
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