Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 16, 2009
It's not About the Children

I just received the latest cover of the New Yorker magazine, drawn by Barry Blit:

ARod New Yorker cover

Barry Bilt New Yorker cover.

I'm in the "screw the children" camp when it comes to reasons to ban drugs. If a child is using a baseball player as a role model, they don't have a proper role model in their life. Secondly, a teenagers are not children. They're old enough to know the difference between right and wrong.

The drug use by Alex Rodriguez, however, does send the message that you can be very successful using performance enhancers. If you want to stop that message, then the government has to bust the player, send him to jail, and take away his money. A life-time ban by MLB just isn't going to cut it. Since I don't believe anyone is seriously considering that kind of penalty, Alex's type of doping could be very enticing.

Alex didn't turn into a monster with his drug use. There's no physical deformity as far as I can tell (and he did manage to father two children). He didn't turn into the incredible hulk, he didn't go bald. There aren't reports of 'roid rage. He's really rich and still attracts women. It's not easy to paint Alex as a monster, so a teenager might look at him and say, "with limited use and the right drug, I can get better and stay healthy." That's tough to counter with dire warnings.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:54 AM | Cheating | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Dave, yesterday, there was a lot going on in baseball. And all you got are these 2 pieces????

Don't get lazy on us. Mauer's got kidney problems; JD still has back issues; Lowell feels negected; Carpenter feels good; it goes on and on, but you don't.

Let's go David, spring training is here and I'm fired up!

Posted by: jc at February 16, 2009 11:31 AM

Brian McNamee was on Howard Stern last week and I noticed that he slipped in a comment that the issues people associate with steroids only happen when you "abuse" the drugs.

Posted by: Adam at February 16, 2009 11:32 AM

Baseball can make the claim "it's about the children", as its history is supposed to passed down from parent to child, with records established being part of that poetic tapestry.

Congress cannot make that claim. If they did, why do they allow abuse of cigs and alcohol (they kill 400,000 and 40,000 people per year) and the abuse of ADD drugs (Schedule II drugs, deemed more dangerous than Schedule II steroids by the FDA) by millions of kids which totally alter college admissions tests and the lives of millions of others.

Congress should deal with the real heath and public policy issues and be concerned with stats other than Hank Arron's HR record. baseball should deal with it's PR black eye through the collective bargaining process. it's sloppy, but it's the mechanism in place to take care of the issues/

Posted by: Bob Tufts at February 16, 2009 12:56 PM

"Secondly, a teenagers are not children. They're old enough to know the difference between right and wrong."

Really? Maybe they're old enough to know right and wrong, but I would never trust a teenager to always do what's right. That's just ridiculous.

RE: New Yorker cover. I think it's supposed to be satire.

Posted by: sabernar at February 16, 2009 02:01 PM

Really? I could be mistaken (I'm not a lawyer), but I believe you are legally considered a child until you turn 18. There's also plenty of research that indicates teens' brains are still developing, and don't necessarily have 'good judgement' yet.

I really don't care about the steroids issue, but you are making some casual and lazy assumptions about teens. (Full disclosure: I have a 14-year old son who plays baseball.)

Posted by: John Seal at February 16, 2009 03:34 PM

Everybody is missing the most obvious issue raised by this New Yorker cover: It shows A-Roid signing an autograph for a kid. Who actually thinks that ever happens with this primadona?

Posted by: Zippercat at February 16, 2009 05:01 PM

The never ending stream of excuses for liars and cheaters.

Posted by: bandit at February 16, 2009 05:21 PM

BTW - Thank God you're not involved in youth sports in any way shape or form.

Posted by: bandit at February 16, 2009 09:22 PM

Dude, usually I'm with you but c'mon. Just because the "somebody think of the children" argument is overplayed doesn't mean it is entirely without merit. And just because my dad was my role model growing up doesn't mean I didn't admire my favorite baseball players also.

Posted by: robustyoungsoul at February 17, 2009 08:23 AM

Kids need to do drop the curls and do more total body workouts.

The nasty truth no one is willing to admit here is that steroids are safer than the US government wants you to believe.

Posted by: Jason at February 17, 2009 12:54 PM
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