This Blog is on the Juice!

I have a rant to make. It concerns the impact of steroids in the sports community. Just how exactly is Mark McGwire a pariah, and all of his career accomplishments vacated due to the suspicion of steroid use, while Shawn Merriman of the San Diego Chargers tests positive for steroids, serves a 4-game suspension, and is punished in the court of public opinion by being named one of the 25 best players in the NFL in the same season he was caught cheating? Gerry Callahan of the Boston Herald calls it "A Different Ballgame".
How can any individual defend such a tortured double standard? How does an entire society answer for this?

All we have on Mr. McGwire is some terribly coached testimony in front of a congressional committee - no positive tests, no definitive proof, but no Hall of Fame. Steroids were not even against the rules of baseball when McGwire played. Mr. Merriman on the other hand, was caught - plain and simple. He knew, as everyone knows, steroids are against the rules in the NFL. He knew it was cheating, and he did it anyway and got caught. He also was singled out and rewarded for his underhanded behavior by being named All-Pro, and nearly winning NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Why? How can this be? Why is Major League Baseball being whipped on so bad that all its players are being labeled as cheaters simply by association and the era they played, while definitive cheating in the NFL is not just accepted, but embraced and congratulated. Add to it, my belief that the use of performance-enhancing drugs have a much greater effect on the game of football than baseball. In football - suddenly being bigger, faster, and stronger is absolutely a distinct advantage. In baseball, bigger, faster, stronger does not necessarily make one see, adjust, and hit an off-speed breaking pitch. More muscles do not help there.

As America has accepted the NFL as it's favorite game, and dismisses baseball as 'boring', baseball is being blasted as 'ruined', while football is 'a real-man's sport'. Does that mean real-men can cheat and lie and it's okay because it makes one more violent? America's fascination with the NFL appears to be all about the incredible violence. Not about the history, not about the legacy of the game - not to mention our very soul as a nation as it is in baseball. Maybe this weeks mystifying developments will awaken America to what it seems to know deep down - baseball is still America's Pastime, and is truly the sport that will always matter in this country. That is the only conclusion I can make out this terrible hypocrisy in our perceptions.