Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Klosterman on Barry Bonds
I'm not a fan of baseball by any stretch, but I have been a huge fan of Chuck Klosterman since I read "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs : A Low Culture Manifesto". A friend sent me a link to an article Chuck wrote about Barry Bonds that was an excellent read (and I'm not saying that because he tooled on "Crash" in the middle of it).
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4 comments:
I know I'm in the minority on this issue, but I'm not that upset by steroids in baseball, its just another era to talk about, and should be embraced as such. Its a very interesting phenomenon, that everyone is too quick to label as destructive (though let me say that there are legitimate concerns, mostly the effect it has on teens who think they need to juice if they want to be pro ball players). Otherwise, if these guys want to harm themselves for our entertainment, I dont see why they shouldnt be able to, boxers are allowed to.
The thing that frustrates me most is that nobody even talk about weight lifting in regard to this topic. I watched an interview with Mike Schmidt last week that fascinated me. He talked about the debate in the 80s about lifting weights. Very few players lifted weights in fear that their muscles would become too tight to be effective hitters, and therefor Schmidt never lifted weight. So if Schmidt would have lifted weights and broke Ruth's record (which he would have assuming the assertions of increased strength correlates to HRs is true) would people be outraged?
Blake...Last I checked there wuz nuthin ILLEGAL 'bout liftin' weights...
as far as I can tell nobody is concerned with any legal issues as far as the steroid debate goes pertaining to baseball (you will never see any of these players charged with a crime, though Palmero should be). Its an issue of how steroids effect the "integrity" of the game. And the point I was trying to make was that you need to put the debate in the proper context if you want to have a debate that makes any sense. Which I dont see anyone doing. Saying, "steroids are bad" isnt a debate. Saying, "players who PRESSUMEABLY used steroids should have all their records removed from the books" is a debate that requires the proper context, namely that players started to lift heavy weights closely coincides with the steroid era timeline.
(I had written a great comment here but comcast net problems killed my connection after submission dammit).
Essentially I was saying that performace enhancing surgery is also an issue to consider. But I agree with Blake. We pay pro atheletes to perform and what they do is a business and they should be free to do anything legal to enhance themselves. There is the problem with the kids though and that, I think is where the debate gets complex.
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