Steroids and Baseball
By: Jason Cunningham (12/03/2004)
This week is one for the sports ages. There were
leaks in regards to what superstar sluggers Barry Bonds of the San Francisco
Giants and Jason Giambi of the New York Yankees said to a grand jury
investigating the Balco drug scandal. Allegedly, Giambi admitted under oath that
he received steroid like substances from Bonds' strength trainer, Greg Anderson.
Also alleged, Barry Bonds finally changed his story about not using steroids in
his career, however claimed he believed they were pain killers.
People including sportswriters,
sportscasters, and individuals in the media have already blown this story out of
proportion. When once baseball great, Jose Canseco admitted he used steroids and
that many others did in his sport, many of us claimed he had a personal axe to
grind. Maybe Canseco was telling the truth! Yet we should not be
crucifying baseball players who used steroids up until the 2003 season, but they
have been illegal for distribution without a prescription in the US since 1988.
However if anyone believes that the air of suspicion that now follows Barry
Bonds for the rest of his career, should reduce his following, then you will be
proven wrong.
One thing that has not been said in Bonds'
defense is that sometimes pain killers are made of steroids. Just ask a sports
physician, until we know all the facts it is hard to say Barry deserves an
asterisk behind his homerun records. As long as he has not used steroids since
baseball made it illegal, his records should not questioned. If the law wants to
prosecute him that is fine, however baseball did not act quickly in enacting an
effective steroid testing program like football. Giambi deserves the same
treatment of fairness. This talk of the Yankees should be able to rip up his
contract is lunacy. If he was within the baseball rules, then he should be
allowed to play without the threat of losing out on his lucrative deal.
Look I am not condoning the use of steroids.
Personally to me it is too dangerous for your health. Baseball will survive
regardless of what some may think at this time. Before we are privy to the
actual interviews in front of the grand jury, our opinions about either athlete
polarized need not be so polarized.
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