Bonds And Roids

I remember back in the 80's when I played High School sports my coaches, and even some teachers, stressed the evils of steroids. I remember SI doing stories on Olympics athletes and NFL Players (Lyle Alzado comes to mind) and how they were abusing steroids, and the dire results from this abuse.

Since then there are been hushes and rumors, and confirmations, of athletes in different sports abusing steroids. The 2000 Summer Olympics saw the largest number of competitors caught using banned performance enhancers; this past summer rumors ran rampt of alleged steroid abuse by six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. All of these events have lead up to the what has become the largest sports scandal in history, involving BALCO.

Among the players that admitted to taking steroids supplied BALCO is New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi. I saw him this past September, playing in his first game after months of recovering from an "illness". I have to admit when I saw him he looked like he dropped about 40 pounds and appeared to be tired; the kind of tired one would experience from coping with stress. At the time I didn't let myself believe that he had been using steroids, and that time he spent on injury reserve was not related to him trying to go cold-turkey. After the grand jury report came out this week, I know believe he is in the midst of trying to repair his body.

Then there's Barry Bonds. As if there wasn't enough reasons to hate him already, this scandal just pushes him over the top. How can someone not know that he was taking was steroids? If he is as dedicated to keeping himself in top condition, wouldn't it make sense for him to question the things he's putting into his body? To say "I took them, but didn't know they were steroids" is like Clinton asking what the meaning of is is. If, or when Bonds breaks Hand Aaron's home run record, it will be sad day, because he would have cheated himself and baseball fans of a clean record.

I hope the BALCO scandal will finally put an end to steroid abuse in pro sports. If not for the fans, but for the athletes. I mentioned Lyle Alzado; he died as a result of steroid abuse at the age of 42. Exactly how much have these athletes cut short their lives? Sadly, time will tell sooner than we all want to know.