Sorry for not getting my column out on time these past weeks. Between the weather, being sick, work, and family obligations one doesn’t have to think to hard as to why there are more suicides during this time of the year. Stressful! So having missed several weeks of wrestling news, why not focus on an issue that is making headlines most recently in baseball. Steroids. Why is it that we only seem to care about the steroid issue in baseball? Is baseball the only sport with records? Is it more sacred than everything else? So why such a fuss over baseball and not everything else? Why is football, cycling, tack and field, and wrestling less of a concern?
The outrage I think lies in how the games are played as compared to others. With football and wrestling in particular, the competitor’s bodies go through the ringer. Devastating injuries occur more often. Life threatening injuries are an accepted risk when you step into the ring or onto the field. With that said anytime we hear of a competitor taking steroids, yes they are trying to get bigger and stronger, but more for the sake of protecting their bodies. To be able to recover from these injures faster.
Baseball is more of a mental and finesse game. Slight adjustments can make or break a player. Change you hitting stance, the release of the ball from the pitchers hand, or your positioning in the field. Steroids don’t make a crappy player a superstar. They just make him a little better. And they take someone like Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens and make them the best of their generation.
We seem to have a huge double standard when it comes to sports athletes and performance enhancing drugs. We don’t look at them the same from sport to sport. This is where the problem really lies. How can we consider Barry public enemy number one and not Shaun Merriman or Chris Masters? It’s up to us as fans to hold everyone who cheats their sport regardless of which sport with the same contempt/displeasure/outrage. Until we are able to do that this will be an ongoing problem for years and years to come.
I want to take the time to wish one and all a happy and safe holiday season. God bless one and all. And God bless our troops who are stationed around the world!