What's Wrong with Steroids in Baseball?
Debunking Some Common Arguments About "Performance Enhancers"
Feb 13, 2009
No, really. What's the big deal?
Those who are against performance-enhancing steroids usually argue that they give the user an unfair advantage over the non-user.
But why is it unfair?
Unnatural?
Well, the steroid opponents maintain that these drugs are not natural--unlike, say, vitamins, which anybody can take legally.
Anybody can take them legally, all right. But the vitamins sold in supermarkets and health food stores are no more natural than toupees. To make them into pills and capsules, they must first be removed from food. How natural is that?
If Steroids, Why Not Caffeine?
Apparently no one who's against steroids in baseball has suggested that coffee is unnatural. But of course it is. The beans grow naturally in coffee plants, but one must remove, grind and pour hot water over them to get jump-start juice. And it's no secret that athletes often use caffeine to enhance their performances. Keith Hernandez, for example, has acknowledged his heavy coffee consumption during his career with the Mets.
Any Drug Can Be Lethal
Some argue that steroids can kill. So can virtually any drug, legal or otherwise, when taken incorrectly. Those who believe caffeine can't be lethal should remember Honore de Balzac, whose boundless consumption of Superman-strong coffee undoubtedly contributed to his death at 51.
Which Steroids Should Be Legal or Illegal?
The irony is that certain steroids are legal in baseball and other sports. Cortisone injections are routinely used to relieve tendonitis and other joint inflammation. But they can encourage the player in question to come back before the inflammation has completely healed, and thus risk a much-worse injury. Yet perhaps some other steroids on the banned list could help the player strengthen the troublesome joint, so it's less likely to become inflamed in the first place.
Athletes Shouldn't be Role Models
Yet another weak argument is the one about role models: Kids look up to professional athletes, so the athletes shouldn't take illegal performance enhancers.
Never mind that most of those enhancers were legal until quite recently. Who decreed that pro jocks should be role models? Because they are famous, good at their sports and frequently on television?
Now, there's nothing wrong with good entertainment, and exceptional athletes provide just that. But why should that make them worth looking up to? More than people who save lives daily, like heart and brain surgeons? More than people who risk their lives to protect others, like police officers and firefighters? More than people who are dedicated to helping others, like social workers and clergy?
The Drugs Will Always Be With Us
Any effort to ban steroids entirely will be futile. Given the enormous salaries in pro sports, some athletes will always use illegal performance enhancers to get an edge on the competition. It's human nature. And such athletes will always find methods for coming up clean on drug tests.
Don't Ban Them Prematurely
Instead of banning steroids, growth hormone, etc. outright, study them. Have doctors and other scientists evaluate them, noting which ones are dangerous and in which doses. Make those with the least potential for harm and the most potential for benefit legal to take under a doctor's supervision. And let anyone--athlete, couch potato or anyone in between--who wants to take them do so.
The possibility, of course, that any of the baseball or other powers-that-be will take this suggestion seriously is rather less than remote. But hope springs eternal.
