Steroid Crackdown Not About Kids

By Val Thompson

I admire the efforts by Congress to bring stricter punishment to steroid-users in baseball and other professional sports. The baseball players union has been dragging its feet and has not properly dealt with the problem. Commissioner Bud Selig's proposal of a 50-game ban for the first offense, 100-games for the second, and lifetime for the third is appropriate (although I would raise the second offense to an entire season).

However, Congress has missed the point in one major aspect. The reason baseball should crack down on steroids is not because high school kids are "following" the examples of major leaguers and using drugs themselves. Senator John McCain made a plea during today's hearings, hoping to punctuate this point. "This is an issue which is greater than the issue of collective bargaining," he said. "It's about young Americans who are tempted to take these substances into their bodies, and some of them commit suicide!"

That's not what it's about at all. Pardon me for not taking the "won't someone think of the children?" approach, but getting steroids out of the major leagues is about protecting the integrity of the game of baseball, not about protecting teenagers from making dumb decisions. Congress knows that the average mother cares much less about Hank Aaron's home run record than the safety of her own child. That's why McCain is trying to make the problem sound like a threat to kids.

The main problem is the integrity and history of baseball is coming under attack from a substance that makes the playing field unlevel. If a few (or a few thousand) teenagers are taking steroids on the side, that's a decent footnote, but it's not the reason we should be fighting to get steroids out of the sport. The average fan cares more about baseball's illustrious records than whether some teenagers are pumping themselves with drugs. And that's who the sport needs to be saved for: the fans.

Let's pretend that Barry Bonds came out and said he used steroids. Let's say he even specified the dates he injected himself. Then he told kids not to do it. How big of an effect would this have on preventing teenagers from using steroids? I think it would have no effect. Kids don't care if Barry Bonds tells them not to do it, they'll just look at his power numbers and try to duplicate them in the same "performance-enhancing" way.

Athletes should not be held responsible for being role models to kids. If a teenager is dumb enough to take a steroid, it's not a pro baseball player's fault. It's not the coach's fault or the parent's fault. It's the teenager's fault. Let's stop pretending that high school kids are incapable of making a sound decision without first getting it endorsed by one of their major league heroes.

The biggest threat steroids bring to the game of baseball is tainted records, not teenage drug abuse. Baseball, more than any other sport, is steeped in its history. Fans thrive on comparing former sluggers to the home run hitters of today. They love using numbers to compare pitchers from different eras. This is a good thing. In baseball, it may be the most important thing. The records bring generations together. The numbers transcend time.

Steroids put all of that at risk.

Yet Congress is trying to define the problem as just another ill facing today's youth. Baseball integrity is much more valuable than that. It's too important to be clumped together with the effect of "Hollywood's morals" on kids, or Joe Camel cigarette ads.

We're not talking about kids stuff. We're talking about the most endearing and enduring sport in America. And it's facing what could be its biggest challenge.

That's why baseball needs to be harsher on steroid users. Because the fabric of the game could be torn if it's not. I could not care less if high school kids continue to take steroids. That's their own decision, and their own fault. But major league baseball should have none of it, for the sake of the league.