I want to make one thing pretty clear. I've just about had it with this whole steroid controversy, what with it's secret lists and tainted records and bloody syringes. I'm having a hard time even caring about it, because as Craig pointed out below, absolutely nothing surprises us anymore. We've become desensitized to it all.
As baseball fans, we've forced ourselves to look the other way just to move on and enjoy the game we love. Take a look at Mannywood, for example. Baseball in the late-90s and early 2000s are like a troubled uncle. Yeah, the dude was pretty messed up for a while, but he keeps saying he has cleaned himself up. Let's just give him the benefit of the doubt, okay? He'll turn himself around. Really, he will.
That said, it's quite different when news like this concerns the team you root for. Even though I'm not a Red Sox fan, seeing David Ortiz hit that home run against Paul Quantrill in Game Four of the 2004 ALCS was one of my favorite memories as a baseball fan. It was positively thrilling. But I can't help but look at Ortiz differently now. I've grown quite tired of reconsidering all the moments I have enjoyed.
I'm mad at these players, but cognizant that performance enhancing drugs aren't so cut and dry. Thus, it's not so easy to just pass judgement on them. Even Bob Gibson has said that he might have considered using PEDs if they had been around during his time. We have to accept that we are watching and rooting for some very competitive individuals. Not just against the other team, but in even keeping a roster spot. This do-whatever-it-takes attitude is what made David Ortiz from a mere nice player in Minnesota to a prolific slugger in Boston. As long as there are advantages to be had, players will seek them out. Period.
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I guess Minnesota fans can feel better about the decision to let Ortiz go. I wouldn't be all that surprised if he had been clean prior to the 2003 season and not being offered much in the way of a big league deal was what motivated him to do steroids after signing with Boston. This is pure speculation on my part, but it makes sense.
I can't say that I agree. If one does whatever it takes in other professions to succeed in the same manner the outcome could be disasterous. If lawyers cheated to pass the bar (they would be disbarred) or doctors cheated to pass the orals (they would not be allowed to practice medicine). I don't think you should be so quick to let the fact that David Ortiz cheated morph into the fact that he is a competitive person. Additionally, he was asked if he did steroids and lied, lied, lied. Perhaps, I would be more willing to chalk it up to competitivness if he admitted what he did when asked and said something like, I did it because I am competitive and wanted to compete at the same level as all the other players are are taking steroids. Instead, he decided to lie about it and deny it.
This is not new and I find it insulting to us to hear anybody say it is. Especially HOFers who say they would walk of the stage if any of these guys got elected. They corked bats, they did amphetamines (just ask Willy Mays about the Red juice in the dugouts), they doctored balls, they pretty much did whatever they could then too. The only difference between then and now is what is available.
Funny, when a sox player gets outed and won't admit it, it's ok. But when a yankee gets outed, he get's crucified.
Double standards abound.
Why is it ok for Ortiz and Manny to take steroids but not Arod. Why was Arod the bad guy. I look at it like this. Pro atheletes have known about steroids since the late 60's early 70's so anybody who has played after 1970 should be in question. Even Hank Aaron as he could have extended his career with them to break the home run record. Rose could have used them to play a couple more seasons. Why is it assumed that the late 80's was the begining. I personally think they have been used since the 70's and there are a lot of Hall of Famers who used them already.
Clemcal, your argument makes no sense. If a doctor or lawyer cheat on their exams, it does NOT make them a better lawyer or doctor. Clients do not receive benefits by hiring a lawyer who cheated. Patients do not get better care from a doctor who cheated. In baseball, if you "cheat" by taking steroids - and I put that in quotes because I don't think it's the right word to describe the violation - you ARE a better baseball player after. So yes, being ultracompetitive DOES in fact come into play. More to the point, as Outside the Lines showed in such vivid detail, look at what steroids might be able to do for you. If you are Sammy Sosa, you could take steroids and lift yourself and your family out of poverty and help your whole community, or you could not take steroids and maybe improve your own situation to a small amount over the poverty line.
And unlike your doctor or lawyer, you do your job better by violating the rules. Real easy for us fans to say "how could you!" But if the difference in YOUR life were as extreme as it is for many of these guys - one side of the steroid line or the other - you might have a different view.
Sorry Betaphi, I can't agree with you either. What if I am the type of person that chokes when taking exams, then cheating on the exam to pass may just be the thing I need to become a great lawyer or doctor. In my opinion, my argument isn't nearly the stretch as saying that taking steroids may lift yourself, your family and your community out of poverty. Steroids were against the games rules, against the law and were cheating, pure and simple. The fact that lots of people were doing it does not, in my opinion, make it okay. The fact that you are a competitive person, does not make it okay. I am a competitive person, however, I don't cheat. IF he took them to lift his community out of poverty then he should have considered the consequences if caught. Some of those consequences would be that many many people will consider his athletic feats nothing more than a fraud. Incidentally, lying about the entire thing multiple times and making holier than thou statements does not incline me towards sympathy either.