Comments on: Bill James Comments on Steroids

By: Kirk

Kirk — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 22:40:47 +0000

Seriously, why do you need a rule to forbid the use of something that is ALREADY ILLEGAL in this country. This is highly flawed logic. Does baseball have any rules against using crack?

A much better argument would be to say that it was not, up until recently, illegal to use ephedra in MLB and thus since there was no rule about it in 2000 AND it was not illegal in the US, players used it and should not be punished for it. However, NOW ephedra is illegal in MLB but not the US so a player can be punished for using it even though it is currently legal.

By: Scott Ham

Scott Ham — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:50:21 +0000

Why should players be held to a lesser standard than the rest of society? If steroids are illegal in society, and a player has taken an illegal steroid to gain a competitve advantage, that should be morally ok because MLB didn’t negotiate punishment with the players union? Do I have to curtail judgment against a player that beats his wife because MLB can’t suspend him for it?

Sure, it’s easy for me to sit at a keyboard and point fingers at guys who used steroids and call them cheaters. If I lived and worked in the same environment, I would certainly be as tempted ad anyone else. But let’s be realistic about the climate these players created: nobody spoke about it, nobody was honest about it, people received their steroids from the Ridomsky’s of the world. For a mass of people who supposedly didn’t break any rules, they certainly acted like a bunch of guys who didn’t want to get caught doing steroids while playing baseball. Even if they technically weren’t cheating, they knew and acted like they were doing something wrong.

With that type of behavior, if they weren’t cheating, what were they doing?

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:16:20 +0000

This writer seems to miss the essential point of the argument, probably because James himself muddied the waters. There was no “cheating,” prior to 2002, because there was no rule. The so-called “Vincent edict” carried no force of law.

What on earth is so hard to grasp about that? Anyone who claims a player cheated by taking steroids before 2002 is committing slander.

Have you got that part?