Hearings on Steroid use....so what.

I hope this isn't considered a political post, but aren't their more important issues happening right now? Since when did we need federal involvement is sports?

There may be alot more important issues but I can bet you that if you got school age kids that could be introduced to steroids or have died from steroid usage or are hooked on steroids its a pretty big deal.

Maybe it's just me but I think the entire high school athletes on steroids problem is a moral/ethical/family concern...why the government is getting involved doesn't make sense. It's obvious that we are living in a society that prizes athletic acheivement when Congress is talking to baseball players instead of addressing real concerns about illiteracy and poor academic performance in our country's high schools. If a child's desire to compete in athletics leads them to take steroids maybe there's a bigger issue here than whatever influence a baseball player has on that decision. Are kids still influenced by baseball players? Do kids today even watch baseball? I'm with Donho here and I firmly believe it doesn't matter. The problem is with Major League Baseball and they should deal with the monster they've created. The problem with kids taking steroids should be dealt with by the parents, coaches and a society in general which is more concerned with "Johnny hitting more homeruns," than "Johnny can't read on a grade school level."

On 2005-03-18 08:23, Tiki Rider wrote:
There may be alot more important issues but I can bet you that if you got school age kids that could be introduced to steroids or have died from steroid usage or are hooked on steroids its a pretty big deal.

Agreed Tiki Rider, but still I don't see the need for Congressional hearings. It seems as though the kid issue here is a sidebar to what is actually going on. These hearings appear to be geared towards 'outing' MLB players who have a history of taking steroids, and once again I say 'so what'. This is yet another public shaming that I could care less about. Call me a conspiracy freak, but is this not a convenient diversion from the real issues that are happening right now?

Here's a good way to get kids to not take steroids. Throw some nice 100% factual fear based media in front of them. If I can point to anything my high school or middle school did that worked, I would have to say that it was their anti-drug and anti-drunk driving programs. Real graphic, gorey horrifc stuff...photos and film from accident sites and coroner's offices that scared the bejeezuz out of most of us. I'm not saying it stopped all of us from actually doing drugs or drunk driving, but believe me...it made us think twice and saved us from further damaging ourselves.

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2005-03-18 09:13 ]

My take on this is that MLB is doing very little to curb the use of an illegal drug. The NFL has much stricter rules and the Olympics have zero tolerance. MLB is being run by the Players Union who expect everyone to look the other way unless an individual is caught using 5 times. Yeah, that's the solution.

I'm with Donhonyc is regards to past steriod use being a non-issue, but MLB is just taking token strides to end future use.

As far as the kids... yeah, that part is up to the parents.

It's all part of living in...BIZARROWORLD! Where up becomes down, left becomes right and molehills become mountains (and, obviously vice-verse). A world where "news" stories are reveiwed by spin doktors and PR men to make sure they don't ruin ratings. A world where TV producers can forget about the worries and burden of creating new and interesting shows in favor of just sending hack, muckraking "journalists" into the streets to film "the spectacle" and call it "reality TV". I honestly think this trvial crap is thrown in our face to divert our attention from...oh shit, I spilled my drink. I'll continue this rant later.

What this country needs is a good comedy movie about steroids. Something like Cheech and Chong's 'Up In Smoke' but instead of stoners and marijuana, it will instead portray a pair of dimwitted, fresh-out-of-high-school minor leaguers and their attempts to become stars via steroids.

The plotline/characters could include:

• a crazy trip across the Mexican border, to find those doctors willing to sell them back-alley steroids strong enough to revive a comatose donkey.

• bathroom stall injection scenes, where they are mistaken as being gay

• silly drug side effects, like mistiming a catch so the baseball instead bounces off one's head and over the fence for a homerun

• an evil hyponotist sports-announcer, who secretly induces the crowds to empty their pockets and cheer for star players, and to outfit themselves with special cult robes/hats/uniforms.

• the just-as-stupid-as-the-players sports reporters, who ignore the obvious signs of steroid use in front of them ... perhaps an ongoing joke on how the entire team has been diagnosed with diabetes, and must have 'insulin injections' every day --- yet they still overcome these disadvantages and find the heart to hit lots of homeruns.

• the moralistic anti-steroid team owner with political ambitions, who has his own secret problems with booze and cocaine

• cheerleader girlfriends who mistakedly ingest steroids, and end up looking like like East German Olympic shot-putters. (possible sex scenes with marionettes)

• Have Clint Eastwood as the old, grizzled, hardassed manager, who suddenly has a team strong enough to reach the World Series, which may be his last chance to redeem himself for his idiot managing decision in a World Series 20 years ago. Make sure he regularly says things like 'I don't train druggies'

• Have an ending scene where the players, are now 80 years old, still with rippling muscles, but now suffering from memory loss, loss of eyesight, hearing, bladder control, etc. 90% of the time they live in a nursing home, the other 10% they are employed as guest TV color commentators.

Vern

Ahhhh, but did anyone catch one of the panel members say how they could investigate "anything"? Including drug use in the music industry. Witch Huntin' time is upon us people.

And these are the guys who were screaming about how bad the federal Guvmn't was.

So the baseball steroids thing gets hours of play. Meanwhile no one says a damn thing about the trillions of dollars that are in less than freindly governments coffers that prop up the value of said dollar. Or nary a question of how long countries like China will continue to loan us money so we can buy their products.

Its going to get very interesting, very soon.

On 2005-03-20 17:23, TikiGardener wrote:

Meanwhile no one says a damn thing about the trillions of dollars that are in less than freindly governments coffers that prop up the value of said dollar. Or nary a question of how long countries like China will continue to loan us money so we can buy their products.

TG,
That's an extremely insightful thought.

I think we're in a huge game of chicken. We think countries like China won't flood the market with dollars because it'll kill their emerging economies. They think they could possibly use the debtor nation/dollar issue to influence us on things like Taiwan.

Like I said its going to get very interesting. I don't think a meltdown is imminent, but it might get pretty darned hot.

On 2005-03-18 18:10, Shipwreckjoey wrote:
It's all part of living in...BIZARROWORLD! Where up becomes down, left becomes right and molehills become mountains (and, obviously vice-verse). A world where "news" stories are reveiwed by spin doktors and PR men to make sure they don't ruin ratings. A world where TV producers can forget about the worries and burden of creating new and interesting shows in favor of just sending hack, muckraking "journalists" into the streets to film "the spectacle" and call it "reality TV". I honestly think this trvial crap is thrown in our face to divert our attention from...oh shit, I spilled my drink. I'll continue this rant later.

Hey...clean up that drink yet Shipwreck?

You bring up a good point which is that most of us here at TC had the good fortune to grow up in a time when 'journalism' meant telling the news from a pretty much factual, non-spin angle. There are still some of the old-timers out there workin' ie. some om the '60 Minutes' crew (and don't jump on me about Dan Rather) and that's cool. But the point I'm trying to make is that the current young generation doesn't know dick about Cronkite, Harry Reasoner, Frank Reynolds (remember him), and cast of others that could give a rats-ass about ratings and wanted to report the NEWS. Today it's just a buncha hot chicks on CNN (that is not an anti-feminist statement). I hope you know what I'm talking about.

Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.