Just want to make this clear because SCZA erroneously reported that Mark McGwire "wasn't breaking rules when he was playing."
That's only true if we take him at his word that he only used Andro and nothing else. True, Andro was not outlawed by Major League Baseball when it was spotted in his locker in 1998, but steroids were.
Jose Canseco (the Woodward AND Bernstein of the steroids mess) alleges that him and McGwire shot each other in the ass during the Bash Brothers Era of the late 1980s.
I've heard so many people say steroids were not against baseball rules back then...FALSE.
Possession and use of illegal substances (which steroids are) has been outlawed by Major League Baseball for some time, I think since the Pirates cocaine scandal of the early 80s.
But, there was no testing and therefore no punishment. But steroids were against the rules.
And if all McGwire ever did was take Andro, it wouldn't have been so painful for him to talk about the past.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
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4 comments:
Explain to me then, if there's no testing and NO punishment, why any major leaguer would not take steroids?
Not allowed -- yet no testing and no punishment... is a bit of an oxymoron. Sounds legal to me.
Yes, but no way to get caught and no ramifications for doing it doesn't make something legal. Sure, it was only technically against the rules, but it's against the law and something these players wouldn't want the public knowing about. That is enough for me. These guys knew it was wrong and knew it gave them an unfair advantage over others not doing it. Lets not kid ourselves here: There is a HUGE difference between a player on the juice vs someone who is not: Think Guillermo Mota, think a 4a player becoming a good regular, a solid regular becoming a superstar. Just think how awesome David Wright's power numbers would be if he started juicing. 45 homers? He'd go from one of the best 3rd basemen these days to possibly best all time. Big difference.
It's like stealing when no one is looking. You may be sure to get away with it, but that doesn't make it legal, okay, morally correct, or acceptable. Wrong is wrong. Many players might have been doing it, and even more had knowledge that it was being done, but just because "everyone" is doing something doesn't make it okay. And if we have to hide behind the "technical" rule that it wasn't allowed to properly punish these people for tainting our pastime than I'm all for it.
These players were not ignorant people. They knew steroids were illegal, they knew the benefits from doing them, and they knew what other sports like the Olympics were doing to stop performance enhancing drugs from being done.
Scott,
How about because they'll shorten your life span and shrink your pee pee? The acne and temper are other perks. How about just because you're not a lawbreaker and don't have any illegal drug dealers in your rolodex? A child's hero should not be friends with Beavis.
Of course Shawn is right here. Simply, the rules (laws) governing steroid use in Major League Baseball during the 80s and 90s were the same as in any other profession.
Except in this case they were a performance enhancer.
I think the laws of the land supersede the rules of baseball in matters of what is and is not permissable.
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