I have no idea where to post this but, the San Francisco Chronicle will report tomorrow that Jason Giambi has admitted to using steroids.
I don’t have a link, but KPIX (CBS) TV in San Francisco has just reported it.
I’m afraid that this will lead to news that Barry Bonds has also used steroids (Giambi says he got his from Bonds’ personal trainer) which may or may not be a big shock to baseball fans.
Sigh.
Here is a the story.
Cafe Society would probably be best. I’m guessing that there isn’t going to be much of a debate over this.
Yeah, I have to agree. This isn’t surprising. Between his weight loss and the pituitary tumor, the signs were very strong.
I was reading a commentary by Mike Celzic on the MSNBC news site, and was pleasently surprised by something he wrote about how people like to be lied to. He stated “Something like half the country refuses to hear that evolution is a fact and that the biblical story of creation – whatever of the two versions in Genesis you want to believe – is a nice story, but nothing more.”
I thought it was a nice change of pace from the onslaught from the far-right in the news lately. It was especially surprising to me when it was in the middle of a sports story.
So he juiced. Big deal. Fact is, he still has to be able to hit a baseball. Can you hit a baseball, juice or not? Didn’t think so.
If he wants to wreck himself to hit a few more homers, that’s his problem. It’s none of my business.
I think Jason Giambi is the tip of the iceberg. If you ever watch a game on ESPN Classic from the 1980s or before, the players all look like runts compared to what they are today. There’s just way too many athletes from high schools to the pros taking way too much risk with their health just to get a little edge on the next guy. I favor getting tough and banning anyone caught with that stuff for life. Make it tough enough so that the incentive to use these drugs is far outweighed by the consequences of getting caught.
Why is that? It’s their health, it’s their business. How does the death of a single athlete affect you? If you have kids, you tell them what the consequences of juicing is, you forbid them to use the stuff, and then you rigorously enforce the rules. For your children.
Once your kid grows up he can make up his own mind. Which is how it is now, and is how it should be.
It’s not my business, and frankly, I wouldn’t much care, except it’s not fair to the athletes who don’t use steroids. You shouldn’t have to put your health at risk by injecting harmful chemicals in order to play professional sports.
If the consequences of being caught juicing are “you will be thrown off your sports team and not allowed to play again, and may likely face criminal charges” wouldn’t that be a pretty good deterrent for parents to throw at their kids? How is “well, Joe Slugger used, but he’ll probably play again next year, and he’ll still be making millions of dollars a year, but don’t you go doing that yourself” an effective deterrent for kids?
And you don’t have to put your health at risk to play professional sports. Not everyone juices. It’s a choice you have to make for yourself. Hundreds of athletes are very successful without the juice, and all are at least good enough to make the bigs without it. If they want that extra edge at the expense of their health, I say let them have at it.
And fairness in sports? Hah! If sports were fair I’d be the starting goalkeeper for Manchester United. Instead I was lucky to get off the bench. Too bad, so sad. I mean, how unfair it is. They get paid millions of dollars to play a kid’s game. How unfair and brutal their lives are. Boo hoo hoo.
The health risks are not what concerns me. I agree, it’s their choice to make.
But the use of performance enhancing drugs is cheating. It’s against the rules, period. If baseball continues to ignore cheaters then the whole game is degraded.
If we let the pros get away with it, then the incentive for our kids to follow suit is still there. And honestly, I am not sure that it affects only the athletes. If an athlete dies prematurely, it affects their children and it affects the rest of society (more fatherless children, more strain on health resources, unknown genetic impact, etc.)
An effective deterrent for my son will be the total withdrawal from all sports for an indefinite period of time. If he grows up thinking that it’s OK for children to juice, I’ll make sure that whatever benefits he may get from the stuff are wasted by not allowing him to participate. I strongly suspect it won’t come to that, however, because I (gasp) pay attention to what my son is doing.
That said, when he’s an adult, there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. It’s his business and his only. If he wants to throw his life away I can counsel him, but I can’t make him stop.
That’s one of the things that comes as part of the deal when you become a consenting adult, the right to make a decision and the right to live with the consequences.
If the rules are changed it won’t be against the rules anymore, will it? And like I said before, all the juice in the world won’t give me the ability to hit a baseball. So the athletes are already supremely talented to begin with. It can be argued that it makes a great player greater, but even if Barry Bonds is a juicer (which I’m not convinced of) he’s still a tremendous player. 7 MVP Awards is astonishing, juice or not. The stuf does not make you that much better. In baseball, at best you might see an increase in distance. I’d venture to guess that it would amount to a few dozen dingers over a career if you’re somehow lucky enough to hit as many as 500. Small change.
So, what will your son draw from the Giambi case, if Giambi walks? “I can play clean and be a mediocre hitter–or I can juice up and be a superstar! And even if I get caught, I can still play ball and make millions!” Seriously, I can’t believe if your 18-year-old son took steroids, you’d really be thinking to yourself, “Well, that’s his decision as a ‘responsible’ adult.” Would you be thinking the same thing if he was taking cocaine? Heroin?
To put it another way: if MLB puts the hammer down on Giambi, that does not undermine your parental authority. Rather, it enhances it. You can now point at Giambi and say, “THESE are the consequences of steroids. Giambi had money, power, superstardom. Those things are all gone now.”
That’s one way of looking at it.
Look, I am an advocate of the legalization of all drugs, without exception. Government does not need to be the father that I am supposed to be. It is my job to help my son make an informed decision unitl he’s old enough to do so without my help. After that, he can come to me for help but otherwise he’s on his own. I’d cry like a little baby if he got hooked on smack, but guess what? Short of killing him myself, I can’t stop him once he’s old enough to decide for himself.
Airman, I’m surprised at you. You’ve seemed very level-headed in the past, but I think you’re off on this one.
I admit that some of what you’re saying is true. Yes, the positive benefits of juicing are minimal in many cases. Yes, the athletes are really only hurting themselves. But changing the rules to accommodate people who break them doesn’t change their behavior – it only changes the limits they will willingly exceed.
Steroids are a controlled substance. Whether or not you agree with that, it remains. I can’t simply waltz into my local Osco and pick me up some anabolic steroids. So it goes beyond rule-changes to a game, and now it’s a Federal affair.
So let’s say, for example, the gubmint rules that steroids are legal to a certain milligram for usage. Player A that didn’t use steroids before might get on board, see how they work out. But Player B, that’s been taking steroids the entire time, now decides that since they’re legal to a certain dosage, that he can safely take 2x or 3x that dosage. Now, because you’ve legalized the first dosage, it becomes more difficult to test for cheating.
In the long run, steroids cause a lot of health problems. I don’t think you’d ever disagree with that. In the span of a generation, players would be willingly risking their lives to play a game for American amusement. And once the public heard about all their former heroes battling cancer, you can bet there’d be an outcry. Then we have this issue all over again.
Steroid-legalization doesn’t solve any problems. It creates all new ones. The beauty of baseball is in the playing it, not in the enhancement.
I would never have guessed you’d take the stance you have. It surprises me.
You may have a right to make adverse decisions that affect your own life, but if you consent to the rules of a game, then you should stick to them. Even if you believe people have a natural right to take drugs, surely it’s a given that adults can consent to abrogation of said right. Agreeing to play a game is agreeing to play by the rules. Expect to be strung up if you cheat.
Ummm no. But my comments are based on they rules as they currently exist. Use of performance enhancing drugs is not allowed. It’s cheating and shouldn’t be tolerated.