"I expect illusion and special effects at the movies, super heroes and super villains aided by computer animation to do the impossible. I expect sports to deliver the measure of what an athlete can accomplish because of innate physical ability and talent honed by arduous training" ("In the Fray"). Skip Rozin wants to see the same moves that I have proposed against steroids in baseball. He wants to see the new records printed in red, and he agrees that we need a stricter policy. In the same article, Rozin also points out that "baseball has the right to be as entertaining as it can, but not to sacrifice the very pith of sport—honest competition and surprise. How "Star Wars" or "Phantom of the Opera" ends is determined by script. Baseball games are determined by luck, the talent of the athletes, and how well they can combine them on one particular day. Steroids radically change this dynamic."

Roger "Maris was haunted by that invisible asterisk because he hit his 61 home runs in a season that was eight games longer than the one in which [Babe Ruth] hit his 60 -- a change in the schedule Maris had nothing to do with. What will Major League Baseball do, somewhere down the line, with the sluggers whose numbers, now considered suspect by many fans, place them above Maris?" ("Steroids and the Asterisk"). When Maris broke Babe's record with eight extra games, the league was responsible for that, not Maris himself. When McGwire and Bonds have broken Maris's record, the season length is the same, but they have individually changed something about the way they play the game. These players have used steroids to boost their performance, which is against baseball's rules and integrity.

To remind you again, the players of baseball are putting their bodies in major danger. Scientists still do not know the long term effects, and steroids may damage the heart and liver, create "persistent endocrine-system imbalance, elevated cholesterol levels, strokes, aggressive behavior and the dysfunction of genitalia" (Verducci).

Sports orthopedist James Andrews says “Major League Baseball can’t continue to leave this door open…steroids became a big deal in football after Lyle Alzado [died] and ephedrine became a big deal after Korey Stringer. You don’t want to see it get to that [in baseball] before someone says stop. But, unfortunately, that’s what it seems to take to wake people up. (Verducci)

Rozin admits that "baseball’s a business, and breaking records is good business. But baseball is also a sport, played under explicit rules and an implicit compact with its fan: we have the right to believe that what we see in a game is real and not a trick" ("In the Fray").

http://espn.starwave.com/media/mlb/2005/0322/photo/a_bonds_i.jpg∞

See: SteroidsWorkCited

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