anybody ever read canseco's book 'juiced' ? i did, i liked it. i grew up watching baseball when canseco and mcgwire were the bash brothers at oakland, when ryan sandberg was the highest paid player in baseball with the cubs. then the strike of 94 hit and i've never watched an entire game on tv since. i've been to a few, but more for the atmosphere than for the game.
canseco said when he got into the game, he was the only one he knew of using roids. he got mcgwire into it and by the time he left (or was ousted) canseco estimated that 70% of all players were using them. some to get big like himself, giambi, bonds, mcgwire, sosa, and some to just stay in good shape for the entire season and heal faster. by the time he left the game, he said guys weren't hiding it anymore. it was done openly in the locker rooms, with someone collecting all the used needles and going to find a mcdonald's dumpster somewhere.
his reasoning that baseball let it go on for so long before doing anything about it was simple. they needed money. since the strike of 94 baseball lost fans. lost fans meant lost revenues, and baseball needed butts in seats, especially for what the players are getting paid nowadays. so how do you bring something fun and exciting back into the sport? a home run race for the record books. mcgwire, sosa, bonds, got people interested again, get butts back in seats and get more money.
i say all pro athletes need to all line up and pee in a cup. anyone cheating is banned forever. or just ban pro sports in general, i wouldn't really care.
i have read that the largest demographic using roids now is high school kids (could be wrong, FF would know better than me), trying to make it to the big college programs, then to try to make it to the pros. it's a shame that raw, God given talent combined with hard work and good coaching isn't enough anymore, it has to be supplemented by illegal substance abuse.
that turned out longer than i anticipated. sorry. but i am with the main point here, why is this national news? working on stopping the decline of the dollar is much more important than stopping a few rich athletes from injecting themselves with needles. but there needs to be a way to educate kids on the dangers of this stuff, and its not worth what it will do to you in the long run.
