This will be a long rambling mess, but I have a lot to say.

First: what is the objection of hardcores on this subject? It could be:

1. The steroid users were cheating
2. The steroid users were doing something dangerous/hurting themselves
3. The steroid users were gaining an unfair advantage over their competitors by changing their body in a way competitors didn’t (or couldn’t, I guess, but they had an opportunity to)
4. The steroid users were doing something illegal
5. The steroid users take away the purity of the game

I get that people shouldn’t take steroids because they can do bad things to your body especially if they’re not done right. But why is it more of an issue than the fact that say, NFL lineman only have a lifespan of 46 years? They become so big that they die far faster than almost all people to gain an advantage in a sport. The steroid users weren’t doing anything against the rules of major league baseball at the time… I get that using some of the supplements they did was illegal, and they should face the legal repercussions for what they did, and anyone that uses any performance-enhancing drug right now should be punished and suspended as they are.

Using most steroids that players used just allowed them to train faster and harder, so they could recover more quickly and add muscle mass. I’m by no means an expert but a player could just get on a steroid cycle and not work out and be just as bad as they were before. It’s not a magical potion that allows a pitcher to have better control or a hitter to time a pitch just right.

Then there is the issue of where you draw the line of performance-enhancement. Can you just repair whatever damage occurs while playing baseball, and not add anything that could help? Is it ok then to use a steroid or supplement to recover from an injury if it helps in a stronger recovery? I already mentioned lasik surgery, and caffeine is an interesting one to me— is it ok to drink a soda or take a caffeine pill before a game? It’s not against the rules, caffiene can potentially be harmful, and it helps you gain an advantage by doing something your body cannot naturally do. Same thing with amphetamies, they were using them back into the 70s.

What if we came up with a way to improve athletic performance and muscle strength with an effective procedure that carried few health risks? Wouldn’t you want your team to pursue that? If so, then you have to object to the steroid use as a legal or player endangerment issue.

As that Jeff Sullivan post from LL stated above, why are we so outraged about guys using supplements to improve their strength and then we don’t even notice when Gary Matthews Jr. gets a blood infusion procedure to make himself stronger and ready to play earlier than he would have been able to otherwise? Is it ok for a high school pitcher to undergo tommy john surgery if he knows it will gain him 4 mph on his fastball and his arm is otherwise fine?

I will fundamentally disagree about the lasik vs. steroids issue. We’d have to narrow down “steroids”, but there’s not really much proof that they are dangerous if used in the right way or that they really do anything to help a player in his prime years. A broken-down player can definitely be prolonged and helped by the bounceback ability gained from using a drug, but I seriously doubt that A-Rod gained much if any of an advantage by using steroids when he did.

So, finally, do we want to watch a sport with a totally even playing field for everyone based on what they naturally have? Then we’re going to have to eliminate vision correction, any form of surgery, and maybe food. And then is lifting a weight enhancing your performance? It’s training muscles to gain something a player doesn’t naturally have… That’s obviously hyperbole, but if we’re going to allow the correction or enhancement of some things, then where do you draw the line? Tony Gwynn used amphetamines, should he be kept out of the hall of fame? The game is not and cannot be totally pure, and I’m perfectly fine with that. And I don’t understand why people think they have the authority to chastise baseball players for using supplements and steroids, and the media makes it worse. It sickens me to have people try to talk baseball and the only news they know of is “A-Roid”. And baseball is the only sport associated with steroids, the NFL has and had twice as big of a steroid problem, their penalty system is probably weaker than the MLB’s, and the media doesn’t seem to care.

I don’t know why steroids and some other drugs are considered a bad type of performance enhancer and other things are OK. There’s some type of random line drawn.