BASEBALL + STEROIDS = EXCITEMENT

Written in 2009

Steroids are the best thing that has ever happened to baseball. This may sound like a juiced up statement, but hear me out. Baseball is a game played for entertainment.

The average person spent $26.64 in 2009 at the ball park. Club owners try all kinds of entertaining gimmicks to get you to the park; bat day, hat day, shirt day, walk on the field day and autograph day to name just a few. Save the gimmicks and let the players juice.

The most entertaining Major League Baseball season ever was the 1998 season. Sure McGuire, Sosa, Bonds and countless others juicers had a little help, but that homerun race was all anyone talked about in the fall of 1998. Sure, it had cheater painted all over it. It tarnished a generation of ball players who surely would have made it to the hall of fame.

If you were not following baseball in 1997, I know you were by late 1998. Every news outlet in the known world was tracking and discussing the battle of the long ball.

Actor Jack Nicholson is an entertainer. Should the Academy take his awards away for some of the things he put into his body? That seems crazy to me. Kids idolize baseball players. There are many kids who also idolize Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, Curt Cobain, and River Phoenix.

Players never asked to be role models. They play a kid’s game. Yes they get paid a ton of money, but what entertainers don’t? Should we hold all entertainers to the same standards?

It is eleven years later and we are talking about Manny and A-Rod the two most followed players in baseball and they have used steroids. The only difference between the 1998 season and the 2009 season is the excitement.

Like it or not, steroids are entrenched in the world’s athletic landscape. Players young and old know that steroids help a hitter hit the ball farther and help a pitcher’s arm recover faster.

Let us walk in an 18 year old ball player's cleats for a moment. You use steroids and you get a multi-million dollar contract, get your name on ESPN, befriend fellow entertainers and live the American dream. You will die earlier than the average person, but isn’t living the American dream for a little less time better than not living the dream at all? Steroids made the 1998 season the most exciting baseball season ever.

Major League Baseball please bring back those big boys of summer.....NOT. While that season was exciting and baseball won the ratings battle by no means did they win the ratings war. The league took a lot away from some great players for their personal gain including Bonds, Sosa, McGuire and countless other players. Cheaters always get caught and the Hall doors should never be open for you. A person can never win by gaming the game.