Steroids have become somewhat of a comedic subject in our society today. The media uses Gary Sheffield’s rants about Barry Bonds and steroids as daily fodder. The United States Olympic Committee made a mockery of the doping tests, which cast doubt on various athletes in Athens. The Serm makes fun of a protein-shake-loving-roommate who goes by the name “Juice.”
Yet, the actions of institutions like the USOC and Major League Baseball have done little to stop the laughs. As much as Sammy Sosa’s biceps may be jokes for David Letterman, professional sport’s best are facing serious consequences.
In last January’s State of the Union address President Bush scorned professional sports for its leniency towards testing for banned substances. Sen. John McCain then threatened government intervention if professional baseball did not get its act together. Congress has even gone so far as to indict the employees of BALCO-a nutritional supplement company-believed to be producing performance enhancing drugs.
Shamefully, professional baseball has done little to proactively eliminate banned substances or even to outlaw substances that are believed to be performance enhancing in nature. Leave it to a nosy reporter to tarnish Mark McGwire’s chase of Roger Maris’ homerun record in 1997 by discovering a bottle of Androstenedione in McGwire’s locker. Baseball certainly wasn’t interested in ruining the public relations coup they had going.
Several years later baseball has done little to improve its stance. With a potential strike on the horizon two years ago, owners refused to place drug testing on the bargaining table because they would have had to make massive financials concessions. What did get instituted is a system that keeps perpetrators anonymous and fails to stay afloat in the fast paced industry of performance enhancing substances. We haven’t even mentioned the various techniques athletes use to bypass the testing system entirely. Essentially, any athlete that wants to dope can find a way around the system.
What baseball, and sports in general, fails to take seriously is the growing dependence of the world’s finest athletes on chemicals that eventually cripple the body. On an equally important ethical level, the use of banned substances destroys the ethical spirit of fair-play.
This week’s death of Ken Caminiti-a former MLB Most Valuable Player – speaks volumes. Although steroids are not believed to be the direct cause, the death of a 41-year- old former athlete is highly suspect. In an interview granted to Sports Illustrated in 2002, Caminiti was the first of his caliber to freely admit to drug usage. Caminiti by all accounts was a great guy whose personality superseded his awesome talent. It is a tragedy that he could not overcome his demons and that his death was not preventable. It is an embarrassment that there are no immediate plans to overhaul the system in professional sports. Baseball is one of the rare fields where tragedy isn’t enough for people to wake up.
