Is anyone surprised? The use of drugs is rampant in major league baseball. Did anyone think this would not be the case?
We have spent millions of dollars and years of man-hours. To generate this six hundred plus page report based on hearsay. Are we not to place asterisks after all sports records? Do we have asterisks and double asterisks for when steroids were legal? Do we need congressional investigations? Do we need more laws regulating baseball? How about other sports? Do we need to investigate the use of pain killing drugs in professional football? Do we need to investigate sports medicine in general?
The obvious question that no one asks is “What about football and basketball? These two sports are much more physical than baseball. It is impossible to believe that steroid use is limited to baseball. Where are the sportscasters and pundits asking the important questions? The answer is they do not want to know.
These issues are important because athletes are role models for our young people. But wait there are other role models for our young people. What about movie and TV stars? What about musicians and musical groups? Every day in the papers and on the TV news these people are getting arrested. If not they are going in and out of Rehab. Shouldn’t we be investigating them also? Should we have congressional hearings? Should we form a commission to investigate the use of drugs in the entertainment business?
What happens after we have these investigations? Whether they are congressional hearings or some other sort of commission, they will certainly find rampant drug use. What then? How do we penalize the drug users? Do we put asterisks after the names of Oscar winners? Ditto for Grammy’s and all of the other self congratulatory awards? Do we establish additional Movie/TV ratings? Should we add a new category? G, PG, PG 13, R and now D (druggie). Where does the D fall in the rating ladder?
No one believes that we will treat the entertainment business the same as baseball. Wait just a darn minute, isn’t baseball entertainment? Yes it certainly is baseball is just another form of entertainment. As are all of the other forms of professional sports. Professional athletes are continually in scrapes with the law. Violent behavior, wife beating, bar fights, assault and battery and other crimes. Are these people sanctioned? Usually not. Some people have been banned for life numerous times.
There is only one sport that polices their own. That sport is auto racing. NASCAR has strict rules of conduct ant they enforce their own rules. Strangely enough NASCAR is one of the most lucrative of all sports.
Much is made of the belief that baseball is the national pastime. This justification is why we have senators, congressmen and other public officials all pretending this is a national crisis. A national crisis is something that adversely affects the whole nation. Some how it is hard to believe that athletes using steroids constitutes a threat to the nation.
It does provide an excuse for media frenzy. The local papers have been buzzing about Barry Bonds for weeks. Many columns have been written speculating about Barry’s guilt or innocence. Would his record have an asterisk after it? Would other people be implicated? Now with the release of the Mitchell report the frenzy grows. We will have months of investigations and speculations. Sports pundits and columnists will be busy for months. The records of many sports heroes will be tainted and reputations ruined.
Like Hollywood, professional sports are entertainment. No one cares that the movie and TV people use drugs. No one cares that many entertainment people have cosmetic surgery and fake hair. Why should we care if athletes have enhancements? After all isn’t baseball entertainment? Why are the rules different for one type of entertainment than another?
The good news is that Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan have moved from page one to the entertainment section.
