Well, over 1,000,000 homes watched the congressional hearings on steroid use in baseball earlier this month, which I guess puts the steroid issue in the category of important issue. For me, this is only another controversy during spring training, which means that the regular season is just around the corner (I got my tickets already) Anyway, some of baseballs biggest stars showed up for the hearing, including 2004 World Series hero Curt Schilling, and homerun whoppers Sammy Sosa and Marc McGwire.
There were of course the typical questions we all get asked at congressional hearing, have you ever taken steroids, have you ever seen anyone take steroids, yada, yada, yada and the like.
However, the testimony that most interested me was from the parents of high school baseball player steroid users who killed themselves, most likely being helped by the depression that steroids can cause. The parents referred to baseball players who used steroids not just as cheaters but as cowards as well.
However, I must disagree. Sosa and McGwire rejuvenated baseball in 1998 with their single season homerun record chase, bringing fans back to the stadiums after the dreaded 1994 players strike. The result of this is interesting. Not just heroes, I have heard some refer to McGwire as an American Hero. All we need now is a Paul Bunyonesque like story about how one man saved baseball …and America.
To call these men cheaters and cowards is not only un-American, it is un-capitalistic. Do we really expect those who achieve the most in capitalist society not to cheat some how and some way to get there?
Unlike the cliché, everyone wins when you cheat with steroids. The fans get to see record breaking baseball, the players get fan recognition, huge salaries, and women who want to sleep with them, the media get to write their stories about record breaking baseball, and the owners get to see their stadiums full of fans. Even these two high school kids who killed themselves win, for they saw what they wanted to see. They saw a life style, they saw huge salaries, they saw the lime-light, and they saw the fame, and like their baseball role models, where willing to do anything to get there.
This is the problem of heroes. We look up to those people who are successful, and people who are successful in capital society often cheat to get there. Success is based on money, on fame, and how many people you can screw to get their. Being that we are taught to emulate our heroes, it only seems logical that steroids would become an issue with children trying to get to “The Show”.
Despite their feelings of loss, I feel that the parents at the congressional hearings are just plain wrong. Instead of letting their children turn ordinary men they do not know in to super hero like “uber-mench”, I think parents should turn their children’s attention to those people who do not need to cheat to become role models. This will of course require that role models not be those who are famous and rich and successful, but I think more then likely people who are happy, and who modestly and selflessly give to their communities and localities.
Not that I mean to completely blame the parents. Only in capital society will cheaters be turned into heroes and role models.
I don’t want you to get the impression that I think that every baseball player is on steroids, or that I think those mentioned above are on steroids. I simply don’t know. But it seems completely capitalistic for us to turn people we really do not know into heroes just because they are rich, powerful, or are superstars.
In a socialist society, these will not be the prerequisites for herodom. Heroes and role models will not be strangers but everyday people who contribute in anyway they can. In a socialist society everyone can be a role model.
The California Kid
San Diego
Ps- Go Dodgers!
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