Thursday, January 13, 2005

TOPIC: Bravo MLB...

Apparently, Major League Baseball and the Players' Association have come to an agreement about a tougher steroid testing policy...it includes tougher penalties - including a suspension for first-time offenders - random testing, and off-season testing...it's a good thing and it's about time...speaking as one who works with teenagers, I see how much professional athletes are worshipped by kids...I was at a freshman basketball game last week and I saw a kid make a free throw, after which he held his finger to his lips, making a "Shhhh!" gesture...again, this was a freshman...do you think he made up that gesture all on his own?...no, he saw some cocky, overpaid athlete do it, thought it was cool, and thought he would emulate him...you see it all the time - kids trying to be everything they think their idol is, including having their bad attitudes...what happens when it moves past the childish gestures and it includes putting harmful chemicals in their bodies so they can be built like Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa?...no one really knows the long-term effects of steroids, but with professional athletes using - allegedly - these products, kids are just going to want to do it, too, not caring about the long-term consequences, potentially sacrificing their health and life for a few fleeting moments of glory...anything the leagues can do to cut down on the steroid and like products is a good thing...again, I say, "Bravo, MLB!"...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Mike--this is from Steve.

What you say is so very true. That's why I am very disillusioned about LeBron. He went to a strict Catholic high school and at the age of 19 happily announced he was the father of his first illegitimate child. There will be many more before he is through.

I may have mentioned this to you before: there was a sportswriter who did an analysis of the NFL and found that 19% of the players have serious criminal records. By serious, we're talking felonies here: rape, assault, robbery, drug dealing, weapons charges, murder, manslaugter, pedophilia, that sort of thing. We're not talking traffic offenses or shoplifting here.

He then did the same analysis of the NBA and in his book documents that 42% of the NBA players have felony charges against them now or in the past. This is shameful. The book is titled: Out of Bounds.

Calvin Murphy is another classic, and he is in no way the worse of the lot. He had a great career for the Houston Rockets as a very small, athletic, great shooting guard. Then he became for years their on-air voice. He posed is a mild-manner family man, oozing family values from every pore on his Republican body. Then three of his daughters sue him for sexual assault and it turns out that he has 14 children--I'm not kidding--by 9 different women.


Bobby Bonds and McGuire before him have totally ruined baseball's most prestigious record, namely homeruns. If Mantle, Maris or Aaron were on steriods during their time, they would have hit over a hundred homers a season. Babe Ruth would have hit 150.

I make this fearless statement: I just turned 60 and I bet you I outlive Bobby Bonds.

When I see Randy Moss playing ball, I am not seeing just an undisciplined savage. I am seeing a living piece of moral decay whose very being gives every kid in America a bad example of what a normal human being should be.He is living, breathing trash without an ounce of respect for anything in this world except himself and his ho's.

If I were still raising my boys, everytime they would be watching an NBA game I would say to them, everytime--guys, this is exactly what you never, ever want to be.
LeBron as a role model--HAH!

[Taking steroids is a concrete way that people sell their souls to the devil.]