May 11, 2009

Baseball writers have 'roid rage

Listen. I get it. 

Steroids are cheating. They're immoral. The game of baseball is not pure with players using them. But to be honest, when has the game been pure?

The L.A. Times came out with this rambling editorial about how the apathy of fans to steroids is troubling.

(I'm glad that's troubling and not the fact that our free media sees A-Rod's tipping habits at Hooters a bigger deal than him tipping pitches to opponents.)

Hmmm
, maybe it's because the media has shoved it down our collective throats? And now you're blaming us, the fans, for it? Weren't you the ones with Sosa and McGwire-gasms back in the day?

And is it me, or is the baseball media the last party involved to actually figure out that players were using steroids? They're like the guy at the party that doesn't realize things are winding down so he ends up sitting on the couch drinking Keystone all night while everyone is either making out in the corner and trying the shoo him out the door.

But for the media to take the moral high ground, when they're the same entity that builds guys up and breaks them down based on performance, is ridiculous. When juicing spells the difference between millions of dollars in your next contract, and the guy in the other clubhouse who will be pitching against you is doing it, morals go right out the window.

Ask anyone normal person if they were in a position to take steroids and make millions of dollars, they'd probably do it. You'd be stupid not to. In fact, if someone said they wouldn't compromise their morals they're lying. Blatently.

And if you want to talk about pure baseball... well what about baseball before it allowed African-Americans to play the game? Baseball before the designated hitter? Baseball during WWII when the talent was so watered down I could probably play third base? How can we really count those eras of "pure baseball." 

I mean, there's no way Babe Ruth plays in this modern era of baseball. He would have been more likely to be Joe, the hot dog vendor.

Don't tell me that the golden era players wouldn't take steroids if given the chance. They wanted to win and be successful like today's players and they would have done it, no question. Heck, Ty Cobb was a card-carrying racist, and even charged into the stands Ron Artest style and beat the crap out of a fan. Apparently that's cool for baseball writers.

But somebody who's been outed as a steroid user in an entire era of steroid users probably wont get a sniff of the Hall of Fame now. Problem is, we don't know definitively who took them and who didn't. It's a complete wash. It's now who every the media decides to go after and who Selena Roberts decides to write a book about.

So L.A. Times, and baseball media in general, don't tell me I'm a terrible person for being apathetic towards steroids when you're sensationalizing and obviously benefiting from this scandal. You're as hypocritical as them come.

And why do you look the other way when if comes to the NFL? Just wondering guys....

1 comment:

  1. Great piece, I've often wondered myself about how "Pure" the game has ever been, how bout the days of spit/vasoline/sand paper balls? How about corked bats? What about stealing other teams signs? It's these old time "baseball purists" who find it easy to rip the guys now. They prefer when the game was played "the right way"

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