If there’s a word that needs to be inserted back into the lexicon, badical is it.
Did you miss me while I was gone? Did you even notice? Technically speaking, my blogging sabbatical isn’t over until Monday but I decided to do some housekeeping this morning.
First item, I have a survey I’d like all of our readers to take from Yardbarker: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s
By taking the survey, you’ll be entered in a drawing to win $100 from StubHub. There will also be a second drawing for some Yardbarker prizes. Besides that, you’ll really be helping our site and Yardbarker out with your feedback. So, please take a few minutes to complete it as a show of loyalty to your blogger overlords. Opposition will not be tolerated.
Heard something happened with Barry Bonds. I haven’t weighed in on Bonds because everyone else in the world seemed to have it under control. But, here’s my take. Bonds took steroids and it probably helped him break the record. I’m not too fired up about it because I’m sure other baseball players took steroids too and true fans will never consider Bonds the true Home Run King anyway. This era will forever be known as the “Steroid Era” in baseball, as someone on ESPN Radio (Gammons?) pointed out this week. It’s too late to change that. Every player and every record will be under scrutiny. A shadow of doubt will hang over the game. In fact, some hacky writer will cash in with a book called “The Asterisk Era: How Steroids Cast a Shadow on America’s Game” fairly soon.
Since Bonds has become the face of this whole thing, he’ll take the heat, quite possibly because he’s so unlikeable. But this is a symptom of a much larger problem. I may have a laissez-faire attitude towards Bonds, but in no way do I condone or encourage cheating. However, the problem won’t be fixed by addressing it at the major league level, particularly with that much money and all of those egos involved. You must start with the kids. Essentially, superior athletes are taught two things from a very young age: 1) Winning is everything and 2) You are above the law. With that in mind, why would cheating be surprising? I EXPECT these guys to cheat. Combine that with our intense glorification of guys that play through pain and vilification of selfish behavior, steroids are a no-brainer. They allow you to recover faster from injuries and only potentially bring harm to the individual. They don’t increase anyone’s skill or serve as a magic elixir to improve athletic ability.
When you combine all of the societal and physical factors, it would take a person of exceptional character to avoid the pitfalls of cheating or any of the other indiscretions that plague pro athletes. Character is established as a child, so that would be the logical starting point in attempting to “solve” issues from steroids to dogfighting to fixing NBA games. And as we all know, there is a distinct lack of quality mentors in the world of youth sports from overly competitive coaches to obsessive parents. So, if all these issues in sports get you fired up and you really want to make a difference, volunteer to be a mentor or coach a sports team.
I’m totally on board with ‘badical’. It’s totally fetch.