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And I Care Why?

So, there are these guys who hit balls with sticks, right? Then, like, they run around in a circle.

Well, it turns out they're taking steroids. So that they can whack more balls with their sticks.

Apparently, this is the end of civilization as we know it.

Yeah, I don't get it either.

This entry was posted by Michael Reynolds, on Thursday, December 13, 2007. You can leave your response.

“And I Care Why?”

  1. Blogger Burt Likko Says:
    12:29 PM  

    Even if you're not a baseball fan, at least appreciate that this is a form of consumer fraud in a billion-dollar segment of the entertainment industry. It's not like wrestling, where there is no pretense that what is being presented is scripted rather than genuine sport. Lots of people spent lots of money to get a product and what was being delivered to them was something other than what it was represented to be. It's kind of (not exactly) like finding out that your favorite author is a plagiarist.

  2. Blogger Maxwell James Says:
    5:27 PM  

    Mark Daniels is a smart guy. But that article of his is moronic.

    First off, there is absolutely nothing new about substance use in any professional sport, least of all baseball. The substances may have improved over time, but there was as much of this stuff going on in the 1950's as there is now. See Ball Four for examples.

    Second, to contend that this makes baseball "scripted" is ridiculous. Steroids have nothing to do with wins and losses being predetermined; in fact, they have not been meaningfully linked to performance improvements in baseball at all - as TL points out on his blog, hitting the ball is not a matter of muscle mass, but skill.

    Moreover, there is nothing indicating that their distribution among players is weighted towards one team or another. If everyone's using steroids - even replacement players, who seem to be proportionately represented among the indictees - then it cannot be claimed that anyone has a competitive advantage.

    So no, this is not "the worst thing that has ever happened to baseball." It's a problem, sure. But fans who think that it represents a departure from all they hold dear are ignoring many other ignoble moments in baseball history. Some of which, i.e. 75 years of racial segregation - were obviously worse.
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