LaxTV Forums | A Forum About The MCLA

http://www.redreporter.com/story/2005/8/18/121748/328

Hint: The Rocket

In all honesty, I can't stand baseball. This whole steroids scandal has done nothing but prove how immoral baseball players truly are. I'm not saying that every baseball players uses steroids, but this is getting rediculous. In my opinion, if baseball is to rid itself of steroid use, put a "lifetime ban" in to effect. Problem solved.

Bring in Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. j/k

ZagGrad wrote:In all honesty, I can't stand baseball. This whole steroids scandal has done nothing but prove how immoral baseball players truly are. I'm not saying that every baseball players uses steroids, but this is getting rediculous. In my opinion, if baseball is to rid itself of steroid use, put a "lifetime ban" in to effect. Problem solved.

Like baseball is the only sport that has this problem. Let's just condemn the entire sport because of the latest media-fed scandal frenzy. Immoral? Give me a break. What makes them immoral, but players from football, hockey, basketball, etc. not? Ten years ago, people were saying the same things about players using cocaine. Were they immoral too? These are people who have problems, but that doesn't make them immoral and it's also not confined to baseball either. Drugs are a problem; no question about that. They are also a problem in locker rooms of all sports, in the workplace, and in schools also for example. Let's just throw the balnket of immorality on all these people too.

Sorry, rant concluded.

if memory serves me right, weren't the players caught using cocaine Baseball players? Gooden and Strawberry are the first two names that come to mind... maybe that was 15 years ago.

Our culture has created an environment where the most important thing is almighty dollar. We talk a big game about the "American Dream" but at what cost does that come. If doing steroids or cocaine helps you perform better than the next guy, and helps get you the bigger contract based on your performance, than what is there to discourage people from using and being "immoral."

I recently read a study where they polled local High School Kids and asked them if they would do steroids if it ment they got to play a professional sport for 7 years but retired to due injury and then died at the age of 55 would they do it. An astounding majority said yes!

What does that say about our culture?

I think we can all agree that the American Culture focuses on Winning, and does not accept anything less than the best. Let's think how the American public tore into the US Men's Basketball team for not winning the Gold medal, even though they played many teams that had much more experience playing with one another. Let's face it, we as the USA expect that we will be the best in everything.
I am not saying that doing steroids is justifiable, but in a culture that only accepts being the "Champions", should we really be suprised that Olympians and athletes are doing all they can to accomplish the goal of being World's Greatest?
I mean, shouldn't we be talking about how Randy Moss likes to smoke marijuana? Geez, maybe that is why he is so damn good, I think as long as there are competetive sports and an emphasis on winning, we will have people doing everything they can do to gain an unfair advantage over their competitors? It is that simple.

The Houston Chronicle is saying there's no truth to the Clemens on 'roids rumor.... I hope this columnist is right, for the Astros' sake. The way they're playing right now, they need all the help they can get.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/3317099

I'm biased in my "argument" because I hate baseball. Sure, you might be able to say the same things about other sports, but who was the last person to test positive for steroid use in football? Hockey? Basketball? Soccer? I can't think of any without a google search. Also, are Marijuana and Cocaine performance enhancing drugs? I don't think so.

Oh, just thought of one football player who narrowly escaped...Romanowski.

It does seem we hold athletes to a much higher level of accountability than the public at large, in my humble opinion. They are only entertainers, after all... if we start drug testing actors & musicians too should they also be banned from entertaining us if the tests come up positive?

What about politicians, members of the judiciary, safety officials (police and fire)... these people who truly affect our lives in more important and substantial ways seem to have a free reign to ingest whatever mind-altering substances they wish to without impunity. Sure, they may have to take a drug test to get into an academy in the first-place, but once in they are only tested if there is shown CAUSE for doing so. But athletes face regular, random testing. Seems somewhat hypocritical to me... We have all read stories about drunks in the White House back in the days before we even labelled alcoholism as a disease. If we are going to condone drug testing as a necessary evil, let's start with Congress, please

I think they should ban every player shown to be on steroids from the Hall of Fame. They might never find any player guilty of using them, but being guilty is not required to being banned from baseball. Joe Jackson and the rest of the White Sux that were kicked out of baseball were never found guilty. They were never found guilty for losing games intentionally. They took the money, but the courts found them innocent on intentionally losing games. They are still banned from baseball. Pete Rose is banned from baseball for gambling. While we assume he bet against the Reds it has never been proven. These guys are cheating and playing with the Faith of Fifty Million and should receive a ban from the Hall of Fame. They should also look at stiffer suspensions. I was a big Raffy fan, and I put him in the hall until his steriod test. Now I say no way. He accomplished many of his landmarks as a DH along with possibly doing all of this with steroids and commiting perjury to Congress. I am not sure if I deport him, but I am getting there.

Wasn't there a big stink raised a few years back about body-builders using steroids? You remember the jokes about the BIG chests and the eenie weenie p....well you get the point!

The point is it's not just baseball players, its a problem in many different sports. Baseball's just the sports flavor of the month, so to speak.

I think one of the reasons athletes are held to much higher standards are because the steroids directly affect their performance. The point of the testing is to hold everyone--and I mean all athletes, whether they are baseball players, swimmers, gymnasts or body builders--to the same standard. Other countries apply the same type of testing to their professional athletes, why should the US be exempt?

As for entertainers, politicians and those in the public and private sectors of the workforce, there are a number of companies that require employees take random drug tests. True, they are not held to the rigorous standards of professional athletes, but it still happens. I believe federal employees are one of the groups tested in this fashion-or at least I remember some of my friends who worked in DC mentioning it. Me, I don't touch the stuff. Never have, never will. Think its a stupid thing to do to your body.

As for Congress, maybe we should require them to TAKE drugs--that way they can come up with some more creative ways of fixing the budget than to sit there arguing over piddly little details and posturing around the senate floor. Just a thought!

TexOle wrote: Pete Rose is banned from baseball for gambling. While we assume he bet against the Reds it has never been proven.

Rose was banned for betting on baseball. Period. It didn't have to be that he was betting AGAINST the Reds -- even betting ON the Reds was explicitly against the rules, and he knew it! If you read the Dowd report, it was crystal clear the Pete Rose not only bet on baseball, but that he did so regularly and from the dugout continually, even during games he was managing. This was not a crime, but it most certainly WAS against baseball rules. Rose was obviously a gambling addict and still is, and it was his continual denials of his problem or that it even existed in the face of overwhelming evidence including phone records, first-person testimony from bookies and creditors he owed money to that caused his lifetime ban -- a ban he AGREED TO if eveyone will remember that fact.

Rose certainly deserves to be in the Hall of Fame based on his stats as a player. But as long as he keeps lying and refuses to admit the obvious, he should NEVER have his ban lifted and be allowed back to manage a team or be inducted into the Hall. But I'll bet anything if he simply made a contrite apology, admitting he DID bet on baseball and is sorry for lying so steadfastly all these years, then his ban would be lifted almost immediately.

We Amercians are a forgiving people. Step up Pete, be a man!

That was a great point with Rose. I had forgotten he did it in a dugout. I still know one of the big questions was if he bet on the Reds. I will remind lots of the older folks that post on this board that most of the college students are a little young to remember the entire Pete Rose event. While there are some forms of sports gambling that are legal such as that in Nevada and horse races Judge Landis instilled the fear of his wrath in the players and they never bet on anything. We should also note that almost every NCAA basketball pool is illegal.

The message that I wanted to convey is that no player caught betting on baseball or cheating at this high of a level should be allowed to make the HOF as long as Joe Jackson and the rest of his teammates are reinstated.

x1dschm wrote:if memory serves me right, weren't the players caught using cocaine Baseball players?

Do the names Hollywood Henderson, Stanley Wilson, Eason Ramson, Len Bias, Cyril Baptiste, Chris Washburn, Barrett Robbins, etc. mean anything to you? How about guys like Lyle Alzado & Tony Mandarich? Are they exempt?

These lists could go on and on. The point is that (1) these guys are not immoral and (2) their problem is not just confined to the sport of baseball. It is a problem for every sector of every community, although the holier-than-thous are quick to point fingers at high-profile people that have problems. It sells newspapers. I'd rather see them point their fingers at the thousands of people who every day get in their car while being intoxicated and put everyone's life at risk. Now there's something for people to get worked up about. In the grand scheme of things steroids in baseball or any other sport is just a blip on the radar.

CATLAX MAN wrote:

x1dschm wrote:if memory serves me right, weren't the players caught using cocaine Baseball players?

Do the names Hollywood Henderson, Stanley Wilson, Eason Ramson, Len Bias, Cyril Baptiste, Chris Washburn, Barrett Robbins, etc. mean anything to you? How about guys like Lyle Alzado & Tony Mandarich? Are they exempt?

These lists could go on and on. The point is that (1) these guys are not immoral and (2) their problem is not just confined to the sport of baseball. It is a problem for every sector of every community, although the holier-than-thous are quick to point fingers at high-profile people that have problems. It sells newspapers. I'd rather see them point their fingers at the thousands of people who every day get in their car while being intoxicated and put everyone's life at risk. Now there's something for people to get worked up about. In the grand scheme of things steroids in baseball or any other sport is just a blip on the radar.

Testify.