The Problem With Steroids

The new admissions about Alex Rodriguez using steroids are raising many more interesting questions than they’ve answered.  At some point, we’re going to have to decide how good we really want our performers to be.

Rodriguez apparently tested positive for steroid use back in 2003.  He was a mere superstar back then and still destined to become a Yankee and the highest paid player ever.  He also regularly denied any illegal use of substances and was routinely thought of as one of the “good guys” in baseball, unlike that unlikable Barry Bonds.  Unfortunately, just like that unlikable Barry Bonds, Rodriguez got noticeably larger.  Sure he was juicing, but people like to believe the smilers and they like to disbelieve the scowlers.  So people believed guys like A-Rod and Roger Clemens and didn’t believe Barry Bonds.  Turns out it didn’t matter. 

This steroid thing was caused by baseball itself, you know.  After years of acrimony and work stoppages, things really hit the fan with the strike which killed the post-season in 1994.  Ironically, the strike was over a salary cap which the owners demanded to save them from the greedy nature of—other owners.  It was typical of baseball’s inability to govern itself that they repeatedly demanded more from the players, but that’s another matter.  The players wouldn’t budge, the season ended and the baseball gate plummeted the following year.  Baseball needed a fix.  Baseball needed some juice.  Guess what?

Suddenly, baseball players started to change in the off-season.  It had been happening for years, but now it really picked up in momentum.  Shortstops were hitting opposite field dingers, for God’s sake!  It was crazy.  The monsters emerged.  Mark McGwire and Manny Sosa embarked on an epic home run battle in 1998 when they both beat Roger Maris’ decades-old record and McGwire set a record that stood for all of three years until Barry Bonds broke it.  The ball was juiced, the players were juiced and the fans were juiced.  The seats filled up and our pride swelled up, just in time for the steroid allegations to hit the front pages.  Yes, baseball was about to be sunk by its savior.

The biggest news about this steroid thing isn’t Rodriguez, of course, it’s the sheer number.  103 major league players tested positive in 2003, before the new comprehensive bans.  That’s at least 10% of all players, and probably a higher percentage since apparently not everyone was tested.  Sure they were juicing, they were trying to get the most from their bodies in a career which lasts a very short time.  I would guess that nearly half of all the players used steroids.  Why wouldn’t they?

I’m serious here.  I’m a coach of young people and I wouldn’t allow anyone to use performance enhancing drugs under my charge.  But I wouldn’t be able to say that to an adult, I understand the temptations.  Steroids don’t make you stronger, but they give you the capacity for more work by helping your body recover faster.  The odds are thin that any athlete will make it and maybe the steroids can provide that extra margin. 

I think we’re in a tough spot here.  It is now possible for the drugs to be masked until the testing catches up with the masking.  So the cheats always have the advantage.  Now the question is, what do we do about temptation?  I say we accept it. 

Steroids come with their own well-know dangers.  Sexual dysfunction, kidney and liver problems and long-term health issues are all on the list.  Still, when polled, a majority of athletes will take the risk of drugs for the rewards of sports greatness.  Athletes will decide in time that it’s not worth the risk, or they won’t.