Do you or anyone you know fully understand the uproar all these years about steroids in professional sports? I don't.
On MSNBC talk show Morning Joe (Scarborough) June 19 the resident commentators held forth on the topic and their consensus was that pitching immortal Roger Clemens deserves to be in baseball's Hall of Fame, as does Barry Bonds.
I agree.
Clemens was just cleared on all counts of perjury in the lengthy, extra-innings case against him for alleged steroid use. How steroid use has become a crime of such import -- who's the victim? -- is as abstract as a Bill James spreadsheet.
What Clemens did was wrong as opposed to right. So there lies the beginning of the issue. The other part of the issue is that he was a hero to many of our children. Some of these children aspire to be like their hero in sports and would not hesitate to use steroids to accomplish that goal. Steroids are a known carcinogen in addition to having a host of other undesirable side effects. So Bruce, would you want your kids to use steroids? Then there's the issue of perjury and although he hasn't been found guilty, I would suggest that there was at least some evidence that he did and that it just failed to reach a level of being beyond a reasonable doubt. So before you say there is no victim - look at the ramifications of of this problem which is condemned with a wink and a nod in every professional sport. The victims are our children and for that matter our athletes. We haven't really come very far since the Romans would put their slave gladiators against the lions for entertainment. Do we still look at them and value entertainment over their health? Unfortunately, the answer seems to be, yes.