Fast Fiction

1. I think you make an excellent argument against the further expenditure of federal tax dollars on this issue—however, I think you might be overlooking a far less obvious evil.  For every individual athlete that actually makes a major league baseball roster, there are literally thousands of other athletes that never make it this far.  Nevertheless, they share the same dream of making the big-leagues, and often dedicate their lives to this unattainable goal.  More often than not, these aspirations take root in one’s childhood years, which, needless to say, is a time particularly ill-suited to thoughtful/rational decision-making that takes into account long-term consequences.

   So what happens when steriod-free “Johnny Baseballdream” has to compete against a juiced “Johnny Baseballdream”?  To mix sports metaphors for a moment, the only way for clean Johnny to “hold serve” is to use steriods too.  When you take two athletes of equal ability and add steriods to one, the athlete of the juiced variety will almost invariably be significantly more successful on the field (see Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds, etc.).

   Is it really fair to put clean Johnny in such a precarious position:  use steriods or watch your dream fade away?  For better or worse, the only way to avoid putting our children in such a position is to level the playing field and do our best to get performance enhancing drugs out of the game.

   Also, to a lesser extent, baseball is a part of the American fabric of life.  Although you may not have any particular fondness for the game, there are multitudes who hold a passion for it.  Additionally, unlike any other sport, statistics are the lifeblood of baseball.  Fans pour over them, compare them, argue over them, and honor them.  The introduction of perforance enhancing drugs in the 80’s has rendered these stats almost nonsensical for the last 25 years, and, accordingly, has struck a singularly unique blow to baseball fans. 

   Finally, Major League Baeball has been afforded by Congress a privledge no other industry enjoys: an Anti-trust exemption.  For reasons I need not bore you with, our goverment has deemed baseball an important enough part of American life to grant it a legal monopoly.  Consequently, MLB is immune from any and all competition.  So, considering the fact that MLB has been afforded such a remarkable priviledge by our federal government, and is immune from any and all competition (i.e., including a competing zero-tolerance league, for instance), isn’t it justifiable that our government spend some time and money on this issue?  Isn’t it at least more justifiable than investigations into video games and rap lyrics? 

   Just my two cents.

   Comment by Glen Zipper on 8/07/06 at 10:20 am

    

2. The government doesn’t care if players use steroids, just like they don’t care if Nike employs 7-year-old children in “whereever” to make they attire for $1/day. And another thing: MLB has been uncouraging steoirds for decades. If Selig really wants to put the screws to Bonds than he could.

   Comment by Damian Pieper on 7/07/07 at 6:20 am

    

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