I'm not following baseball (or other sports, for that matter). Nothing surprising to me. On the one hand, a large percentage of people who "make it", in any field, is made up of cheaters. Our culture encourages this. On the other hand, perhaps they should create a new type of sports, "enhanced sports", "augmented Olympics", where all the players are allowed to use these drugs. After all, it's still an interaction between the drugs and the player, not just the drugs. I wonder if the public would then go to these events or to the regular, non-enhanced, events.

AFP Three-time American League MVP Alex Rodriguez decided Thursday to remain with the New York Yankees signing a 10-year multi-million dollar contract.

Financial terms were not revealled, but American media reported that the contract has a base value of 275 million dollars and includes incentives which could push the value of the deal over 300 million dollars.

Two months ago, Rodriguez opted out of the remaining three years of his then-record 10-year, 252 million dollars contract.

Yankees vice president Hank Steinbrenner said then that the club would not negotiate a new contract with Rodriguez.

But Rodriguez reached out to the Yankees two weeks later, a gesture which revived the negotiation process.

This will piss a lot of people off, but for sure since sports became big bidness (end of WWII), infected with too much money, it really has just been about winning at any cost.
I understand the joy of play...but I wouldn't call these people anti-competitive...I think hyper/uber competitive might be a better term.
And the fans...except for Brit football hooligans/fans being worse...they have always made me think of the crowds at the Hippodrome in Constantinople...the Blues and the Greens, wasn't it? or even the original fans at the Colliseum.
The roid freaks are just another step down that road. Much better to stop watching them on the teevee, get out there and do something.
The myth is sweet but it ain't been true for a long time.

there's the case that some purist (undoubtedly hypocritical) a-hole says alcohol is banned and strips Babe Ruth of his records.

OTOH, I was waiting in line to pay for one of my 93 yr old mother's prescriptions. Ahead of me was a kid (from the look in his eyes, mid double digit IQ) nearly as big as me (I'm 6'7") buying some huge (gallon sized) bottle of "supplements". Clearly, he's (high school level) good at football, and thinks that's his life's hope. Extremely slim chance that it is, and a very good chance that pursuing that hope means he's hopeless by his early 20s.

We are as absurd about athletes as we are about movie stars ($20M or more per flick??) and music stars. Give the world a break, go see a local team, a local band, a local play. At least that way, the CEOs (with their long, long "playing" lifetimes) won't be able to pretend they're "competing" with sports, movie and rock stars (whose lifetimes at star levels probably average 10 years). Plus maybe the minor leagues will be able to pay more than minimum wage.

And then, maybe, it won't be a life-or-death bet for poor kids like that.

it's nobody's damned business what anyone does off the job... it's drug testing that ought to be banned and people who stick their noses into other people's private lives exiled to the backside of the moon...

Dave Zirin, AlterNet. Posted December 14, 2007.

Ever had someone spit in your face and tell you it's raining? That's how it felt watching former Sen. George Mitchell's press conference on steroid use in Major League Baseball. The former Senate Majority Leader unleashed his "investigative findings" speaking with the somber, deliberate tones of an exhausted undertaker. Mitchell strained to convey scorn upon both baseball owners and the union for being "slow to act." Yet beneath the surface, his report is ugly sanctimonious fraud, meant to absolve those at the top and pin blame on a motley crew of retired players, trainers, and clubhouse attendants. This is truly the old saw of the magical fishing net that captures minnows but lets the whales swim free.

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