If neither baseball players nor fans care about the ramifications of steroid abuse, should steroids just be made legal?

It has nothing to do with fan tolerance, or industry tolerance, the only real point is when is an atheletic competition based on talent and ability, and when is it based on drugs? The “silent” majority of the people want the latter, but the publicity would seem to favor the former.

Let them use all the steroids they want.

Just so long as we start paying baseball players like teachers and our teachers like baseball players.

i fucking hate the sports figure/role model dynamic that is implied by drug testing in sports.

It concerns me that kids see professional athletes using steroids to get ahead with little ramifications. Manny Ramirez will return to the Dodgers and he will continue to make millions of dollars annually. Alex Rodriguez admitted using drugs to get ahead with little to no backlash at all. Barry Bonds is going to be a Hall of Famer.

As a result, steroid use amongst children is on the rise, most of whom will never make it to the professional level and instead, will only run the risk of destroying their future health in the pursuit of a dream that will never come to fruition.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic Good Answer, the next generation can’t help but be influenced by the so-called success of those before them, without the experience and maturity to know the difference.

Have you seen the movie “Sugar”? (Azucar). It is about bringing up young and hopeful men from the Dominican Republic to play on farm teams for the major baseball leagues. Too many kids and not enough slots…a worthy movie.

I’m a fan and I care about steroids.

Athletes who use steroids are wussies!! They can’t do good enough with their own natural abilities so they resort to drugs. I have no respect for people like that and I hope we never allow ourselves to drop so low as to make steroids legal.

As @YARNLADY said, athletes are paid based on their ability and talent, not on who can juice the most. Just because you do not care about athletes using them, don’t assume that all or the majority of fans don’t care. I admire pure talent, not drug-induced abilities.

Also, baseball is not the only area in which steroids are abused, so why would your one baseball example be reason to legalize it?

@BBSDTfamily I’m not ok with athletes using steroids. I thought my previous response would have covered that. However those calling the shots don’t take the matter seriously.

A lifetime ban from the game (whichever game) for just one steroid positive drug test would send the right message.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic Oh I apologize I misunderstood what you meant.

@BBSDTfamily No worries.
Have a good long weekend.

No. Steroids cause all sorts of physical and emotional problems after long-term abuse. They are very dangerous.

If baseball is threatening to become an over-the-top violent sport, I will lose every bit of love I have for the game. To me, baseball is very Zen. If players and other fans don’t care that the whole idea of baseball will go right out the window if steroids are allowed, then why bother? It will be a gladiator sport then. To the death. Who wants to play/see that?

I can’t believe that as it is, players don’t mind wrecking their bodies for a harderbetterfasterstronger game. And fans turn a blind eye. Don’t the fans see where their looking the other way will get them? Don’t they know that soylent green is…is…people?

If it was not an issue, it would not be an issue.

I don’t see how taking steroids to improve performance is different from any other dangerous aspect of a sport. Football players end up with arthritis and concussion induced dementia far more often than they end up with problems resulting from steroids. Strength is important if you are going to bash your body all around, so if enhanced strength prevented other problems, it would be an advantage to use steroids.

People can do what they want with their bodies, as far as I’m concerned. They can stuff drugs and alcohol into them, and as long as I don’t have to pay for their health care, I would not try to stop them from doing it.

Fighting performance enhancing drugs is a losing battle. The drugs are always one step ahead of the detectors. You only catch the idiots.

From a competition point of view, I also do not endorse rules that limit performance. If baseball wants a hot ball, go for it. If you want dipsy dos, then allow doctoring of the ball. As long as everyone has access to these things, I feel the playing field is level. It’s when some people cheat that I have a problem. The best way to avoid cheating is to limit rules to things that are easily verified—like the distance between home plate and the pitcher’s mound.

I don’t see how using steroids is different from training at altitude, or using oxygen tents, or doing weight training, or managing your diet, or taking advantage of medical advances or any other way we enhance performance. It’s not like steroids reduce the skills needed. You still have to have rapid reaction time, and you have to be knowledgeable. Strength can’t do it on it’s own.