Steroids report not a shock
From the Editor's Desk
Arthur McLean
Forgive me if I don't get all worked up over former Sen. George Mitchell's report that, horror or horrors, lots of professional baseball players use or have used performance enhancing drugs.

I could blame this all on my lack of interest for the major leagues. I personally find the pro game to be about as exciting as watching paint dry. I just don't care if some guy who'll make 10 times my lifetime salary manages to hit a little white ball.

I shouldn't knock on just pro baseball here, as I've pretty much lost a lot of interest in most other professional sports as well.

Early season pro basketball is utterly unwatchable, and even after that, there are plenty of games that more closely resemble rugby matches rather than the game I saw played when I was a kid.

Pro football has become so me-too that you could change out jerseys of half the teams and it might be two weeks before anyone noticed. At least in football you have 300- lb. men smashing into each other at full speed.

But back to the report. I don't know why so many people are so worked up about this. Do any of the three major professional sports really go after steroid use by its players? No. They don't now and they never have.

So, don't come to me with all this hand wringing by the associations about steroid use when they're not really doing anything about it.

Why? Because it's all about athletes. It's not about teams, or players or competitors anymore. It's about athletes. The guy who can jump higher, run faster and slug the ball farther is the guy the leagues want. And the juiced athlete gives them that.

I don't think it gives them any better a product, but someone somewhere does or the growing use of steroids in professional sports would not be so widespread today, at least not without a lot of hard work on the part of the cheaters.

But pro sports left the doors to the medicine chest wide open and now here you have it.

Reader Comments

No comments have been posted. Be the first!

Other Stories With Comments:
Article	Comments
Frances Nichols passes at 91	1
Bryant is a contestant in Ms. Senior Alabama Pageant	1
Dunagans to celebrate golden anniversary	1