Yes it’s a tired subject, but some still dont’ get it. This is in response to the Sports Law Blog at Why is Steroid Use Considered Cheating?.
This being the “Sports Law Blog” I find it interesting that especially in this article, you neglected (willingly) to mention any references to “precedence”.
First and foremost, beyond any sport rule book, IT IS AGAINST THE LAW! IT IS NOT LEGAL! (Doctors notes excluded)
The ‘fallback arguement’ is less about those from the past (as they too could have used them) as much as it’s about those who choose to obey the law and play as the spirit of the sport intends, which is, bring all the you (and only yourself has to bring) – I’ll bring mine, and the best man will win. When steroids are introduced, the man cheating brings a bench player while the other meets the challenge head on. The terms coward/Peter Pan syndrome come to mind.
As far as eye-surgery’s go… it’s not any other improvement that the guy already had wearing glasses in the first place. And Greg DID wear glasses but mostly wore contacts. Get the facts straight.
HGH, Andro, etc are in the same bucket.. the “meaningful difference” isn’t justified, rather the (knowingly) strong Baseball Players Union was able to keep that off the negotiating table. You should be asking, “why hasn’t the union OFFERED these things to the banned substance list?” — Simple, the union knows that there are too many guys using this right now which would put them out of the game, not by violation, but because those things keep them from the minors.
Back to precedence, the spirit of sport and competition is about fair play (hence rules). Rules are there for those who don’t have the integrity within themselves to play for the competition, the betterment, etc. To those who excuse onfield behavior by coining the phrase “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying”… you know who you are, you should be ashamed to think you belong being mentioned in the same breath as Montana, Mayes, West, Robinson…
