Cheating is
wrong. That’s what every child is taught from the moment he or she is old
enough to take a test at school or play a board game. It’s the fundamental
principle that underlies every sport and competitive event, a seemingly basic
standard that all are expected to abide by regardless of circumstance or level
of competition. As naïve as it sounds, I’d like to believe that the concept of
fairness holds significant value even in the cutthroat, money-driven world of
pro sports, that the athletes and teams I root for have the integrity and sense
of self-worth to maintain an even playing field and that the outcome of each
game, each season is determined by talent, hard work and a pinch – or an ocean –
of luck. It’s a glorious, ideal world, so simple and alluring compared to our
mundane, messy everyday lives.
Then, every so often, reality
will casually stroll by and slap you in the face, just as it did this past
Wednesday, when the
San Francisco Giants’ outfielder Melky Cabrera was suspended for 50 games
by MLB after testing positive for testosterone, an illegal
performance-enhancing drug. Previously playing for the Yankees, Braves and
Royals, Cabrera was traded to the Giants during the offseason in exchange for
pitcher Jonathan Sanchez (we can all agree
the Giants still, hands-down, won that swap, right?). He emerged in 2012 as
a stunning offensive force, finding himself in the National League All Star
starting lineup and putting up a
number of impressive stats, including a .346 batting average that put him
in line for the NL batting title (which, for those of you who might not know,
goes to the player with the highest average at the end of each season). With
this suspension, Cabrera has not only tarnished his individual reputation, but
also put in jeopardy the season of his team, which has been spent the past
couple of months locked in a tight battle with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the
National League West division lead. That potential batting title, however, is apparently
still his to lose.
At least we probably won’t have to see these dorky "Melkmen"
costumes anymore.
Considering that I’m not a Giants fan and have never had much of an
opinion either way about Cabrera, none of this exactly turned my world upside
down or generated much of an emotional reaction from me, but as a baseball fan,
it certainly made me think.
Of course, PEDs are hardly new to baseball, and legends like Mark McGwire,
Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and countless others have all admitted to or been
accused of using steroids. It wasn’t until recently – 2005, to be precise –
that MLB began to actually penalize players for using PEDS under a
new policy approved by owners and players that resulted, in large part, due
to congressional pressure. Though the program has led to several
suspensions, many believe that steroid
use is still rampant in clubhouses, as players find ways to trick the
system: for example, the
very recent Ryan Braun incident, where the Milwaukee Brewer star
successfully overturned a suspension on a flimsy technicality. To further
complicate matters, debate over how
much of an effect steroids actually have on athletes’ performances is still
ongoing, and for every advocate
of a zero-tolerance policy, there seems to be someone else arguing that PEDs shouldn’t be banned
in the first place.
Now, I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on steroids, and to be
honest, I don’t particularly care what drug testing program MLB uses, but from
a fan’s perspective, I can’t deny that the whole thing makes me feel a little
uneasy. The news about Cabrera officially broke in the early afternoon, and it
was greeted by the sort of conflicted reactions one might expect, ranging from the
schadenfreude felt by rival fans to the angry
devastation of Giants devotees. I can only speculate about how I might have
reacted had this revelation involved someone on my Nationals or Texas Rangers
instead of Cabrera. Perhaps I’d be among those who’d never want to see that
player in my team’s uniform again, or maybe I’d be an apologist, all-too-eager
to make excuses and offer forgiveness. Perhaps it would’ve been something like this.
It’s hard to envision exactly what my thought process would be, but I do know
that I’d be far from indifferent.
The
closest comparison I have is when I found out that Nats outfielder and fan
favorite Michael Morse (a.k.a. The Beast) juiced back in 2003
when he was in the Seattle Mariners’ minor league system. While I undeniably
felt a bit disillusioned at the discovery, it happened years ago, and he seems
to have sincerely recognized his mistake and to be committed to not making it
again. As long as his steroid usage is a thing of the past, it’s not going to
affect how I see him now as a player or a person.
Seriously, though, how are these two pictures of the same
person? How?!
If, however,
it turned out that Morse was still using steroids (again, I doubt it, but just
to put out a hypothetical here), I imagine the most overwhelming feeling I’d
get would be one of betrayal. Contrary to Jerry Seinfeld’s famous quote about
how sports fans are “just cheering for laundry”, it’s impossible for me to root
for my favorite teams without also rooting for the people on those teams, and
more often than not, I wish them well even if/when they do change uniforms.
Would my sports fandom and life be less complicated without this level of
emotional investment in individuals who, as far as I know, haven’t the
slightest awareness of my existence? Of course, and there are many fans out
there who take a much more objective approach to the game. However, when you’re
following the same group of players for weeks, months, even years on end,
letting them into your home via TV or radio broadcasts or paying cash out of
the wazoo to see them play, it’s difficult not to care. If one of them ran into
trouble with steroids or something
much more malicious, it would hit me on a personal level.
Here’s my question, though: is
it wrong of me to hold athletes – or any celebrities, really – to such
standards? After all, whenever a politician cheats or makes some other kind of
legal or ethical violation, we may sigh and shake our heads, but the truth is
that such behavior is seen as merely commonplace. On the other hand, when Melky
Cabrera admits to taking steroids or Kristen Stewart cheats on Robert Pattinson
(a relationship that might have been nothing more than a PR fantasy in the
first place) with her married director, people go
beserk, as though they’re signs of the impending collapse of civilized
society as we know it. We live in a world where we expect more admirable
behavior from people who essentially get paid millions of dollars to play kids’
games or dress-up for a living than from our world leaders. Bad behavior
shouldn’t be seen as acceptable from anyone, regardless of his or her
profession, but maybe we don’t need to keep treating every mistake and misdeed
by an athlete, singer or movie star as earth-shattering news. What have they
done to earn the lofty status of role models anyway?
In the larger scheme of things,
using PEDs is hardly an abominable offense. In a world where taking steroids (theoretically,
at least) might mean the difference between a few hundred thousand dollars and
a multi-million dollar payday, between toiling in the minor leagues for the
rest of your life and getting that big break, where a player could turn a
potentially career-ending injury into just another setback simply by injecting
some drugs into his body, it’s not hard to see why athletes might choose to
juice. Such practices still seem shady as hell and likely shouldn’t be
encouraged or tolerated, but the motivations behind them aren’t hard to
identify with; they’re only human. Instead of vilifying users or getting on
moralizing high-horses about the whole situation, perhaps it’s more productive
to examine what exactly about professional sports is so conducive to steroid
cultures and whether or not that can be changed or fixed.
Remember that “cheating is wrong” maxim? As it turns
out, in sports, as in real life, it’s not always that simple.
Photo Links:
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2011/writers/joe_lemire/08/24/all.underrated.team/michael-morse-usp2.jpg
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