Shunning the "Steroid Nation"

I've always hated the World Wrestling Federation, because nothing about the WWF is authentic, right down to the musculature of its performers. More and more, though, professional sports are becoming fake as well. Let's fix the problems with the real sports before the damage becomes irreparable.

Color me naive. A year or two ago, I became friends with someone at the local gym. He was the same age as me, but he was making dramatic improvements in his musculature and his weight-lifting ability, while my improvements were moderate and uninspiring compared to his. A short time later, between lifting sets, I overhead my friend admitting to someone else that he was on steroids.

Americans used to be incensed when East German or Chinese Olympic athletes were found to have used performance-enhancing drugs. We expressed a collective "I told you so" when Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal and sent packing from the 1988 Olympics. But suddenly it's okay when Americans do it? I don't think so.

Major League Baseball is currently beset with what some think is a quandary; it's really not. Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth did not use steroids. Barry Bonds did--for a lot of years. Therefore, Barry Bonds should not be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and Henry Aaron should still be considered the man with the MLB home run record.

I respect that fact that Marion Jones came clean, but it doesn't change the reality that she did not earn her Olympic and other medals in a fair manner. Likewise, Barry Bonds should admit to his drug use. He'll garner a lot more respect from former teammates and fans than he has now.

It seemed last summer and fall that baseball aficionados--especially the San Francisco Giants--were hoping that Barry Bonds would just hurry and hit home run #756, so the rat race could be over and done with. Now that he accomplished the drug-induced feat, and now that the season is over, the Giants have unceremoniously told Mr. Bonds not to let the door hit him on the butt on his way out of San Francisco.

It seems as though the fans can talk about it freely now. It's too bad that they couldn't have sooner.

There are several other players who should be disqualified from further play in the major leagues. Unfortunately, it won't happen, because of America's penchant to be entertained by WWF-style phoniness. Likewise, there are several current and former players who should be disqualified from being considered from Hall of Fame status.

It's not just baseball, though. Football and other sports have become just as tainted as baseball. We have become, embarrassingly enough, a "Steroid Nation". Baseball is simply in the "limelight" because of the less than noble "accomplishment" by Barry Bonds.

That's why I like college sports (and the Olympics) better than the pros. Because, for the most part, the players are clean.

People who are currently using steroids should be banned from major-league sports. If someone wants to make a steroid league, such as a World Baseball Federation, and let all the steroid goofballs play there, that would be fine. I won't watch it, but I'm sure a lot of WWF junkies would.