Baseball is a very analytical sport. There are numbers for everything so competitive integrity really matters. When a prominent player admits that he used steroids, it’s always a big deal to the people that care about baseball. In my opinion, Major League Baseball has done a great job of keeping the playing field consistent. The talent level is what has changed. The good thing is, talent, for the most part, is relative to the time period. When someone learns a new, innovative way to train, it’s only a matter of time until every other professional knows about it. The problem, or one of the problems at least, is that steroids only benefit a small percentage of the athletes that play baseball. So baseball became unfair.
The biggest problem though is that athletes cannot be asked to sacrifice their health in order to perform better. That’s really the core of this issue, in my opinion. In a league where steroids were being used by its most prominent players, less prominent players and amateurs were faced with an ethical decision that no one should ever have to make.
In the 1960s an athlete might not have understood that drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, and eating a lot of fried food limits ones ability to perform athletically. That knowledge exists now. Whose fault is it that we didn’t know those things in the ’60s? Is it the players that engaged in that behavior? Is it the leadership of the league? Honestly, it doesn’t matter because no one really knew what they were doing. At some point, ignorance is grounds for acquittal.
Can we say the same about steroids? I’m not in a position to say because I don’t know what kind of information was available to people when users made those decisions. Frankly I don’t care about whether or not athletes or coaches or managers or league executives are to blame. That discussion has been had ad nauseam.
What I do care about is the future of nutrient, vitamin, mineral, and other supplements given the reaction and the fallout of the steroid era in baseball. We always hear the term performance enhancement when the steroid discussion comes up. I think the connotations of the term performance enhancement make it a blatant misnomer when it’s attached to steroids. Steroids enhance a persons performance at the price of the athletes health but that’s not the case for all PEs.
In 2010, performance enhancers exist that don’t require an athlete to risk their health. Whether or not a player wishes to use supplements is not an ethical decision but a question of commitment and a willingness to embrace innovations in the field of health science. It takes discipline to maintain the level of fitness required to make most supplements effective. Steroids are the dinosaur of performance enhancement. They’re like asbestos. The results might be great but the risks are too high. Science has progressed and given people better alternatives.
I’m sure players are using performance enhancers in the National Hockey League. As long as those substances are not harming the player, I’m fine with it. The best hockey players are not necessarily the strongest or even the most fit. But improving ones level of fitness or strength or recovery period is not necessarily a bad thing so long as it is done safely and responsibly. Based only on what I see during games, I feel comfortable saying that Pat Kaleta is the most fit player on the Sabres given his remarkable endurance. His ability to accelerate and initiate heavy collisions, often more than one a shift, makes him a physical marvel. Is he taking something to help with his conditioning? Maybe, but he’s certainly not taking steroids. Is Thomas Vanek taking something to mitigate the pain caused from playing physical in front of the opponent’s net? I wouldn’t doubt it. Is pain relief considered performance enhancement? Is aspirin a performance enhancer? Where do you draw the line? I know I’m reaching here but are any of these things really that different or all that bad?
Every athlete is trying to maximize his or her ability to perform. Steroids have been found to raise the benchmark higher than what is considered safe and healthy. Now they’re illegal in every respectable sports league and I agree strongly with that decision. Other PEs help to make bodies more efficient depending on the athletic demands and I feel as though there’s nothing ethically or competitively wrong with that. This is technology. You can either embrace change and use it to improve your life or you can complain and let others pass you by. On that same vein, athletes can either take supplements that make their bodies more efficient or they can continue to just eat Wheaties, drink Gatorade and watch as the the users of PEs outperform them.
If it wasn’t obvious before, I’m all for the usage of performance enhancers. They just need to be safe and used properly. The decision to use PEs should be made outside of the closet too. There’s no reason to hide these things anymore. The opinions of doctors and other health experts are extremely accessible to professional athletes. I’m not worried about abuse from hockey players. I am worried about whether or not the leadership of the NHL is willing to adopt a stance in favor of the healthy application of PEs even though they weren’t available to the players of past generations. I’m always willing to embrace technology and innovation but I doubt that the NHL is in agreement with me on this.
Looks like someone has been watching his “Bigger, Stronger, Faster”*. If you haven’t seen it, please do.
I haven’t seen it but I just watched the trailer. It looks pretty intense. The physical, muscular results of steroid use is undisputed. So are the health risks. That’s why steroids are seldom used by professional athletes now-a-days. The psychology of it all is still interesting to me though.