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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN OPINION
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MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2005
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WWW.KANSAN.COM
PAGE 5A
FACE OFF
Steroids: Home run or strikeout?
Steroids killing competitive nature and honesty of sports
Drug-infested athletes in professional baseball have broken legendary records for years, and now Congress is finally stepping in.
Major League Baseball is not only promoting illegal use of drugs, but also influencing youth that cheating and lying is OK. The league finally has to answer questions about its dark underbelly.
America's pastime, which used to be a celebration of sport, is now a scientific experiment of chemical reactions. Men look like the Incredible Hulk. While they keep growing, the players hide behind lies and cowardice, suggesting another part of their anatomy is shrinking.
Not long ago, steroids were unheard-of in high school athletics. Now one of every 16 athletes takes performance-enhancing drugs. Professional athletes are role models, whether they want to be or not. When kids start looking up to druggies, it becomes a problem.
Donald Hooton testified to Congress about his high school son, who after taking steroids, committed suicide in 2003. "Players that are guilty of taking steroids are not only cheaters, you are
PAIGE HIGGINS
opinion@kansan.com
cowards," he said. "Show our kids that you're man enough to face authority, tell the truth and face the consequences. Instead, you hid behind the skirts of your union, and with the help of management and your lawyers you've made every effort to resist facing the public today."
Just because this problem is in sports, people think Congress should not get involved. Sports are not a necessity of society. It's pathetic that entertainers and athletes are paid more than teachers and doctors. The league, from a business point
of view, is a billion- dollar corporation.
Players who cheat and lie to increase their salaries need to be reprimanded.
Steroid policies in the Olympics are tough. If athletes test positive for steroids.
they are banned from the games for two years. Baseball players who test positive four times might face one-year bans.
What if you found out that your fellow employees were cheating in order to get ahead, and your boss wasn't doing a thing about it, maybe even offhandedly encouraging it? You might end up cheating right along with them. But is that what we are coming to? Are honesty, hard work and integrity really not priorities anymore? If not,
humanity has taken a giant leap backward
◆ Higgins is a Littleton, Colo., senior in printmaking.
Rewards of steroid use can outweigh risks
Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and other steroid users with phenomenal natural ability deserve to be put up on a public platform and pelted with fastballs by the pitchers they undermined for so many years. For steroid users with mediocre talent, it isn't as easy to judge.
The decision of whether or not to cheat is something an athlete deals with all the time. In the case of a minor league baseball player or a professional bench warmer, there is much incentive to use illegal performance enhancing drugs.
The drugs could be a stepping-stone to reach the next level. While teammates are in the locker room "juicing" each other, taking their game to the next level and earning more money and playing time, the mediocre player is faced with the decision of whether or not to join his colleagues in cheating. If he doesn't, he may never realize his dream of making it in the big leagues.
What makes the decision even more difficult is the fact that the people who are there to ensure a level playing field turn a blind eye to the cheating, or even encourage it. In his book, "Juiced":
MATT HOGE
opinion@kansan.com
Baseball Got Big," Jose Canseco claimed that while George W. Bush was part owner of the Texas Rangers, he knew about steroid use among his players, including All-stars Ivan Rodriguez.
Raphael Palmeiro, and Juan Gonzalez.
Canseco, a former major league baseball player and avid steroid user, believes it would be impossible for anyone within MLB not to know about the rampant use of steroids. People associated with MLB insist Canseco is lying, but there has yet to be a defamation suit against him.
According to Canseco, 80 percent of professional players use steroids; other more conservative estimates range from 10 to 30 percent. With it being so easy to get away with cheating, why shouldn't players take the chance of crippling their bodies in order to accomplish their lifelong dream?
Steven Michalik, former Mr. U.S.A., Mr. America and steroid user, said that steroids bring a per- son's personality traits to the extremes.
He also claimed that steroids greatly increased his libido and corrupted his morals and values.
"If you are a little psycho, you become a big psycho," he said.
Michalik blamed steroids for his liver and heart disease, impotence, and even a stay in a mental institution.
Then again, Jose Canseco and some others with extensive knowledge on steroids claim that the drugs can be perfectly safe if used under close medical supervision.
The reasons not to use steroids are simple: They can be harmful to the body, they are illegal and cheating shows a lack of integrity and respect. On the other hand, the incentives to take steroids are possibly even more lucrative: It could help a ball player accomplish a lifelong dream and possibly even earn a multi-million dollar contract.
Imagine that you had always dreamed of becoming a doctor or a lawyer, but when you went to take the
Free for All
Free for all callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded. For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
Great, North Carolina and Illinois are both in the Final Four. Why do I feel cheated?
Have you drugged your child today?
Congratulations, Coach Weber, you've led Bill Self's team to the championship game. Must have been hard.
Terri Schiavo's husband must have taken out the Pope's feeding tube.
God bless the Pope.
I just got punk'd by The University Daily Kansan.
It's the body-massage machine, go.
I am sick and tired of Digger Phelps' matching tie and highlighter combinations.
You're telling me I'm not the only 34D on campus?
You're telling me I'm not the only 34D on campus?
Does anybody else think that "The stories on this page offer only inaccurate information from fake sources. Welcome to the world of make-believe" should be on every,single issue?
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For all the girls on campus who like to wear short skirts, no matter how tan you are, if you have thunder thighs and walk like a duck, you shouldn't be wearing them.
I just save Ann Coulter in the newspaper today, and I hate to say this, but she's kind of a fox.
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Laura Francoviglia
opinion editors
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Steve Vockrodt
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EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
David Archer, Viva Bolova,
John Byerley, Chesed Edgerton,
Wheaten Elkins, Ryan Good,
Paige Higgins, Matt Hoge, John Jordan,
Kyle Koch, Dou Lang, Kevin McKernan,
Mike Mostaffa, Eric Prather,
Erick Schmidt, Devin Sikes, Gaby Souze,
Saracach Stacy and Anne Waltmer.
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