I see that Manny Ramirez is the latest slugger caught up in the steroids scandal. Inevitably, testing will become more widespread; one of my sons is precociously adept at hitting a 60 mph fastball, and while he's out I plan to scour his room for signs of performance enhancing substances (his bamboo bat doesn't count; it says "Little League Approved" right on it).
This 60 mph business is yet another of those things, piling up like the fateful bricks in the Cask of Amontillado, that my kids can do but I can't. Each is a bittersweet reminder--well, never mind all that solemn hooey, we were talking about baseball.
Did you ever see a game from maybe 25 years ago on ESPN classics? Probably there are snippets on YouTube. Anyway in those days ballplayers were built more or less like the rest of us, before the Herman Munster look became so widespread. Testing can help, but in the long run it may be difficult to stem the rising tide of technology in this arena. Consider the impact it's had on the literary world, where performance-enhancing substances are little noted but widely used--as this testimony makes clear.
I struggle with this every day. Can I really earn my keep here at the Atlantic without pharmacological assistance? If I suddenly start hitting the ball out of the park on this blog, you'll know I found something in my young slugger's room.
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Daniel Akst
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
As long as more and faster are better, and as long as the rewards outweigh the price, 'performance enhancers' are here to stay. Unfortunately for you and me there is something lost in the whole process. One can see it in how we communicate, how we think and how we write.
For medical reasons I have received anabolic steroids for almost ten years now, at doses far lower than what athletes use to gain muscle. While I was still in a high pressure job, they made things go faster, gave me strength, where my body would not have had any - and they made me eat more, and grow a bit of muscle.
After having had an opportunity to slow down my life and relax a bit, I now also know that they change my mind and my mood in subtle ways, affecting my entire being in a way that makes me feel on edge and interferes with my sleep patterns. It also wreaks havoc on libido... I take a break from the stuff every 3 months or so, and I wish I wouldn't have to start taking it again.
If only we as a society could learn to let go, and relax - to get by without the 5 cups of joe, sleep a bit longer and do a few less things. It would mean just excepting who we are and what we can achieve without always facing the need to compete and be the best. Or to put it another way, less sometimes is more.
And do watch out for your son. Perhaps the best way to do that is to talk to him about it. To engage him in a discussion of 'why' taking the roids wouldn't be the way to go. Not from the perspective of 'illegal', but trying to talk about the 'why'. No body seems to do that in baseball these days.
We see them perform and get bigger and bigger. But nobody talks about what it did or didn't do to them. Some people fuck up their sex drive quite a bit. Some permanently need to supplement testosterone afterwards, because natural production declines. (Looking at the aging pro wrestler crowd gives you a good clue.) Unfortunately the media doesn't go there. But the best way some of these guys could redeem themselves, would be if they opened up a bit.
The younger generation, your son, needs to hear from their 'heroes' directly. And baseball needs to keep cleaning up the mess it has created for itself.
Hello folks,
I would like to put a different spin on this. What is cialis if not a performance enhancing drug?
I understand that it does work as prescribed. Where do we draw the line then on performance enhancement. These products are the sponsors of our "hallowed" game.
William, baseball has suvived this and in my opinion we as fans need to take a step back and relax as you advocated. Time, as in viewing events, can add clarity.
The topic is over heated, much like some of the email what-ever-back-and-forth we see.
Thank you for your time.
with love and prayers,
meyer