As most folks know, Barry Bonds is very close to passing Hank Aaron’s record for career home runs. Bonds, I think it is safe to say, is widely believed to have used steroids. This has, of course, caused much debate among sports fans and sports media talking heads. Should Bonds be banned from baseball before the big event? Should the record count? Should the commissioner Bud Selig celebrate the accomplishment? Should Selig acknowledge the accomplishment? Should Selig even attend the game?
Let’s put this in perspective, though. Yes, this has caused much debate among sports fans and talking heads. But EVERYTHING has caused much debate among sports fans and talking heads. There have been some doosies since I’ve started following sports. There was the controversy over putting lights in Wrigley Field for, gasp, night games! Some people thought Cal Ripken, Jr. should have skipped a game rather than break the record for consecutive games played. Some grew indignant when a golfer was allowed to use a golf cart. In recent years, Brett Favre has been afforded the luxury of countless web sites and sports shows giving him the pros and cons of retirement to weigh. (Oddly, no one is debating whether he should change the spelling of his name to mach the pronunciation or change the pronunciation to match the spelling. That’s a debate I’d like to follow!)
First, I’d like to clarify something: INCREASED MUSCLE MASS HELPS YOU HIT HOME RUNS! I’m no doctor and I don’t follow sports talk closely enough to know how widely held a belief this is, but there are some people who don’t believe that increased muscle mass helps one hit home runs. Their reasoning for this? You still need to aim and make contact to hit a home run, and steroids don’t help with that. I’ll take their word for the aim and contact part. But that doesn’t mean that steroids don’t help. I figure there are three aspects to hitting a home run: aim, timing, and power. You need to be able to aim the bat so it hits the ball. You need to time your swing so the bat crosses the plate round about the same time the ball does. Finally, you need enough power in your swing to launch the ball out of the park. The more muscle mass you have, the less you need worry about the power of your swing. You can concentrate on the aim and timing. However, those without more muscle mass have to concentrate on all three aspects, making it much more difficult to hit home runs. So, you’d have to do a lot of fancy talking’ to get me to believe that steroids don’t help one hit home runs.
Second, should steroids be illegal in baseball? I would think so. (I know: I shouldn’t go so far out on a limb.) Steroids give you an advantage in baseball, but so do eating well, exercising in the off season, studying the game and the opponents, etc. Let’s not forget God-given talent. But where I think steroids are an unfair advantage is that the other things I’ve mentioned make you a healthier and better person whereas steroids make you stronger but, at least in the long term, less healthy. It seems silly to expect a baseball player to make himself less healthy to be able to compete in a game. Allowing steroids puts pressure on healthy players to use them to keep up with the players who already do use steroids. That’s where I draw the distinction and why I believe steroids should be banned.
Third, career records in general are pointless. To compare Bonds with Aaron and both of them with Babe Ruth doesn’t make sense. There are too many variables for it to be a realistic comparison:
Rule changes.
More games in the season
Advances in equipment.
Advances in physical fitness.
Advances in medicine (some career-ending injuries are no longer career ending)
Changes in the expectations of professional athletes (especially regarding off season conditioning).
Stadium changes (roofs and dimensions)
These are all environmental conditions which can play a role in the number of home runs one hits. I wouldn’t necessarily say comparing career home runs is like comparing apples to oranges. It’s more like comparing Clementine oranges to Mandarin oranges. But I know it’s tilting at windmills to suggest sports fan not rank everything possible. Have your fun.
And sports debates are fun. More for some folks than for me; as I don’t have the talent evaluation skills to participate. (Although, I’m not suggesting that that limitation has prevented others from participating.) I don’t know what is more American than expressing your opinion on subjects which don’t actually matter regardless of whether the folks to whom you are speaking actually care about the subject or what you think. It’s in the constitution!
So good luck, Barry Bonds. Good luck, Hank Aaron. Good luck, Bud Selig. And good luck to the pitchers who have to face Bonds in the next few weeks.
In closing, there’s a 500-pound gorilla in the room. People just may be waiting to find out what I think about it; since I’ve addressed almost every issue except it. Okay, I’ll give you my answer:
Favre should change the pronunciation of his name to match the spelling.
——————————————————————————–
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer and do not neccessarily reflect those of the rest of the family.
© 2007, Mark Wentz