Opinion : Steroids in baseball

So Jose Canseco has now admitted that he and Mark McGwire used steroids. First of all, does this surprise anyone? It is not a coincidence that the season homerun mark started being broken on a yearly basis at around the time that designer steroids and drugs like EPO started to become available (they which don’t show up in urine drug tests). And it has been said many times that baseball really doesn’t test that much anyway. But does all this really matter? Sure it is a shame that players feel the need to cheat to win, but I would argue that they are the ones who will lose in the end. Part of being the best at something is having a psychological edge, and if that edge means taking risks with your health, than go for it. If you are willing to put your life on the line for what you do, then you deserve to be better at it and get recognized as such (ask someone in the marines). After all the fans and the media gets what it wants(more scoring). It’s the players who will suffer the lifelong consequences of messing with their physiology (see Ken Caminiti). Many people, from John McCain to Newsweek magazine claim that the real problem with this is that younger men will use steroids. This is much more serious because you will do a lot more damage to yourself when you are still growing. Yet wouldn’t testing at college and amateur levels prevent this? Teenagers trying to make the football team aren’t going to have access to designer drugs, let alone chemists and personal trainers to help them cover it up. As far as drugs go, I have always been a fan of personal responsibility. These drugs are not addictive and the side effects are well known. If you make a choice to do that to yourself, deal with the consequences. Moreover, don’t begrudge professional athletes their own stupid choices. I would rather live to see my grandchildren than hit 4 extra homeruns in a season but I would also buy tickets to see Barry Bonds play.