The view is still great from the top

hey Dodgers fans

I’m a diehard Giants fan as well (but I’ll save any laughing about the whole situation for around other SF fans). I wanted to check over here because, as a Barry Bonds defender, I’m interested in what you guys think about the Manny suspension from a logical/baseball/policy perspective now.

Personally, I honestly still can’t see why there’s all this hysteria about steroids and banned substances in baseball. If I was the baseball commissioner, I wouldn’t have suspended Manny (neither would I have gone after or cared about A-Rod or Roger Clemons either). I mean, fuck, is there a single bit of proof or evidence out there yet that what Manny took was even steroids or HGH in the first place??? It sounds like it was just some sort of medicine that happened to contain a banned substance in it. Sure, he should have been more careful about that – but geeze, who among baseball fans, really cares? If there wasn’t all this media hysteria and growing list of banned substances as a result, THIS NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED.

After constantly hearing crying, whining and complaining about steroids & Barry Bonds, no one has yet to explain to me why taking steroids in baseball gives a player a “unfair” or “unnatural” advantage that’s any more than, oh say, lazer eye surgery, or using surgery & replacing the ligament in a pitcher’s arm after which he throws the ball another 10-20 mph faster than he ever could before the surgery? Older players didn’t have these advantages in the past. (Indeed, they had other advantages – Babe Ruth played for a time when African-American players weren’t allowed in the MLB, Hank Aaron played in a time before the pitcher’s mound was changed). Aren’t athletes always going to try to use whatever new scientific advancements there are to improve their performance? I don’t think steroids is shameful to baseball. I’m not worrying that Pujols will be the “next to go down.” I don’t care. Taking steroids didn’t used to be so “culturally taboo” back in the early 90s and 80s.

Another thing – there are plenty of baseball players who suck who took steroids. No one in the media cares about them, do they? It seems like the only players who are getting in trouble are the guys like A-Rod or Manny who are actually good and valuable to their teams in the first place. Look at the Mitchell Report – more than half of these players suck and no one cares about them – http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3153646 – so steroids really suddenly turn you into a HR hitter? Just honestly wondering how Manny’s suspension affects the way all of you think about this. Do you see now that this has gotten out of hand? Does Manny’s suspension change anything about how you think about the whole issue?
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Here’s what Stephen Colbert said about the whole issue in his book, I Am America And So Can You -

"The big story in sports right now is athletes taking drugs, making themselves better with steroids and human growth hormone. Some people have a problem with this, but not me. News Flash: Athletes perform for our enjoyment. So ‘performance-enhancing drugs’ are really ‘enjoyment-enhancing drugs.’ Bravo, Mr. Bonds.

The fact is, Americans want the best of everything. That’s why Americans won’t watch women’s basketball. Every time I see a lady make a shot I think, ‘I bet a guy could’ve made that better.’ ‘Enhanced’ athletics are the same way. Back in the day when sports consisted of little slow guys hitting set shots, bunting, and staging Statue of Liberty plays, the public was satisfied because they didn’t know any better. But now that we’ve seen huge behemoths with 2% body fat and misshapen foreheads leap over piles of bodies to crush each other’s larynx, we can’t go back.

That’s why I’m proposing the end of all regulations on what athletes do to themselves. If a guy wants to shoot himself up with hormones or chimp sperm, that’s his business. The only thing that matters is performance on the field. Now a lot of people ask, ‘What kind of message would this send to our young people?’ To which I reply, ’Don’t suck. Go the extra mile to actually be good or you’ll be selling insurance.’ With those forces at work in the marketplace of modern scientific body modification, our sports will continue to be the most entertaining in the world."

You miss an obvious point.
It’s wrong, it’s illegal drugs, they’re dangerous, a majority of players DON’T use them, and Bonds has never been man enough to admit he even took them (perhaps that has something to do with the roids shrinking his balls).

If you people have any true respect for the game of baseball and it’s (healthy) future, you will stop defending low life millionaires like Bonds and Ramirez for tainting a great sport.

MLB has to get this garbage past it and move forward, but so called fans like you do not help. Little sport fanatic peons kissing the rich rear ends of egotistical stars. You should be ashamed of yourselves, but of course, like most people attached to their ignorance, you will go on wallowing in it. Oink, oink to you.