CHEATING WHO?
The biggest story in New England is the report that David Ortiz was on the list of MLB baseball players who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. As a matter of fact, I'll add the New York Times story that broke the news. Let's set the record straight, the reaction to this news borders on hysterical. You hear the "holier than thou" sports reporters calling Ortiz, along with the rest of the players who are trickling out of the 2004 test, as cheaters. You hear the players, and former players, explaining that nobody knew what they were taking back in those days. They claim that you could walk into a GNC store to buy supplements and you could ingest a banned substance without ever realizing it. Of course, you also hear some players admit that they took the drugs, attempting to admit, take the heat, and move forward.
How about the fans. Most say they are disgusted. Many wonder how they can explain all this craziness to their kids. I don't have the answer to those questions, but here is my take. Has baseball lost it's innocence? It never had innocence to begin with. How did people explain that Babe Ruth was so hung-over during games because of his well publicized carousing to the wee hours of the morning? How did people explain that players in the 60's took "greenies", essentially a type of speed, so they could overcome the grind of the long travel and long season. How about the cocaine taken by the players in the 80's? My point is that players have been doing things and ingesting things that effected the game since the beginning of baseball. I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that if you were going to say that steroids had such an impact on the game that this era should be taken out of the record books, I'd have to disagree. I believe the biggest impact on the game has been the players working out all year long, taking supplements, amino acids, protein, creatine, and all the rest of the GNC stuff. The players in earlier times never had these things either. OK, my point is that as the game has progressed through the years, things have changed in the way players have prepared themselves. Performance Enhancing Drugs are just another vehicle they have used. So just relax!
