Joey Harvey is a junior majoring in communication. He can be contacted at [email protected]. Steroids and illegal substances have made a complete and utter mess of the game of baseball.
I call it a game now, rather than a sport, because coming to admit that some of my all-time favorite baseball players cheated their way through their careers feels like learning that pro wrestling is fake for the very first time.
I feel let down. I feel like I just drank lemon juice and have been for the past decade or so.
Yes, I know that taking the “sport” tag off of baseball is a bit extreme, but sports are different from games.
Upon looking at several definitions, one could argue that, for the most part, games are always played to win.
Sports, on the other hand, should focus on other values and virtues, and winning may come or it may not.
When playing sports, you can learn things about yourself, your teammates and your coaches, even from a loss. You can even learn life lessons from this.
It’s not often you can apply things you learn about Spades or Monopoly, mere games, not sports, to enrich your life.
Steroids have made the last 10 years of baseball nothing more than a game. Steroids is cheating, and what could have prevented cheating in baseball is logic.
Logic says that in the world of sports, usually there can be only one winner.
In every game of football, basketball, hockey, baseball, whatever, there is going to be a winner and there’s going to be a loser.
Cheating says that if your team isn’t the winner, then apparently your team didn’t perform as well as it should have, and there’s no possible way that you lost only because the other team really played well.
Logic says not to get down about losing, because for every team’s win, there’s another team’s loss.
Do you know what the average NFL record was this season? 8-8. From the Patriots to the Dolphins, for every win, there’s a loss.
Cheating says a coach should be fired if he doesn’t lead his team to win games, regardless of what kind of character he implants into his players.
Being a terrific role model isn’t as important as finishing with a higher number on the left side of the dash than the right.
Logic says that because someone’s always going to win and lose, sportsmanship plays a big role in sports.
Confidence mixed with humility goes a long way in the public’s eye, and arrogance mixed with obnoxiousness turns people sour.
Cheating says winning is everything, no matter what the cost. If it requires doing illegal drugs, then that’s what you’ll do, whatever it takes.And that’s what many baseball players did.
With a lapse of logic, we’re suddenly to where we are today. Mitchell Report, Clemens vs. McNamee, whatever.
I’m personally tired of hearing about it.
I’m ready to finally watch some baseball where I can enjoy the sport, not the game and know that the players are having fun with themselves and each other, no matter what the outcome of the game is.
So maybe I’ll see you at a Little League park sometime.