On The Mitchell Report

So The Mitchell Report has created a lot of debate in some groups I hang out in. This is the report that lists a good number of Major League Baseball players as having been involved with steroids and other performance enhancing drugs.

Now I am old school when it comes to sports. I like to know that I'm watching is a fair competition. Some people seem to think it's not fair to hold athletes to a higher standard than, say, a McDonalds worker. I, however, disagree.

These are PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES. They are not called PROFESSIONAL DRUG USERS. Taking the stage as a professional athlete carries with it certain obligations and responsibilities to those who pay to see you. The guy who walks up to bat and then hits it out of the park. Those who have paid his wages should rightfully expect it to be a display of his athletic prowess. Not the prowess of a guy in a lab.

I don't give a damn about the excuses like "I didn't know what it was". That's crap. Everyone needs to take responsibility for their own actions. I guarantee if you've been to the doctor recently and had a shot, you know what it was for, and what it was.

I don't expect the guy at the gas station to be drug free. Hell, to be quite honest, having been a pump jockey myself in the past, I'd be amazed if they WERE drug free, given the cavalcade of drugs I was offered.

But when I sit down to see one team play another, I expect the team that performs the best to have come upon that ability honestly. The results and records are all meaningless if the winner or holder is hiding a syringe behind his back.

Whether steroids were illegal or not at the time is beside the point IMO. It's common sense that receiving a medicinal advantage to perform better in a paid sporting endeavour is both wrong and unethical.