What IS a performance enhancer? At what point do YOU draw the line?

Question

Aspirin to relieve a headache? What about a cortisone shot? Cortisone is a steroid. (Hmmm, maybe Kirk Gibson ought to give back that 1988 HR, huh?) What about the steroids that asthmatics regularly take? Illegal amphetamines that players have acknowledged taking for decades? What about contact lenses or modern eye surgey which can improve eyesight to the point of being BETTER than 20/20?

Are "steroids" really performance enhancers? If that were the case, then how come most of the players caught suck? If they enhanced performance... wouldn't they be all-stars?

OR, are they recovery enhancers... which allow someone to recover from muscle stress more quickly?

OR are they work out enhancers? Since you recover more quickly you can work out more often.

Steroids do not BUILD muscle... you can't just inject steroids and become muscle bound.

So, take all you want... you STILL have to do the actual work to get better. They won't do it for you.

Does any of this matter?

Technically speaking, a performance enhancer enhances your ability to perform other than your own talents by birth and hard work. So if you get a shot to "make the swelling go down in your elbow" that enhances your ability to perform other than the way you were that morning. It makes you different than you are "naturally."

Answer 1

Yes, it matters. Baseball and other sports are all going to have to band together and draw a line. The line will be random and arbitrary, as many things can be called performance enhancers, like aspirin, cortisone, and even visual enhancers.

The line has to be drawn so that everyone can compete at the same level, with the only difference being their individual abilities and motivations. The line can be drawn anywhere, just as long as everyone can use the same enhancers, and no one has an unfair advantage.

You do raise a very good point.

Answer 2

A performance enhancer is anything that makes a person stronger, more agile, etc. However, not all performance enhancers, like you said are bad. Vitamins, as far as I'm concerned are performance enhancers. The body doesn't produce these naturally and they allow the body to improve.

I'd draw the line at whatever would cause baseball's popularity to decrease. Just give the fans what they want. The line shouldn't be logical. Think about steroids: They are produced naturally, improve performance (with exercise), and are dangerous. If the problem is danger, it should be illegal to stand a foot away from where a 100 mph fastball is being thrown. Perhaps we should look at cortizone. It helps people avoid pain, but part of what is so amazing about athletes is their ability to play through pain. As I said, just give the fans what they want. Logically, you have to ban everything or nothing.

Answer 3

See thats the thing tho, all steroids dont "Enhance performance". Alot simply ALLOW for you to perform, but dont enhance what you do. Cortisone is one of those. It relieves pain, it DOES NOT increase strength in the area you inject. Cortisone is no diff than Capsasin, the hot cream pitchers rub on their shoulders to stay loose. It serves same purpose, it allows for you to do what you normally do, relieves discomfort.. as a pitcher, Capsasin or Cortisone dont add 10mph to yer fastball lol. Performance Enhancers increase muscle mass, increase red cell count, strengthen muscle and tendons, shorten recovery time.. THOSE are wrong. Those go to making you a BETTER athlete than you were WITHOUT them.

Answer 4

Ah, the Bonds lover again.

You obviously know nothing about steroids, and I having spent 15 years in a gym, have seen them and do know that they build muscle. You actually are right on one point; that you can't just inject steroids and become muscle bound. When one is taking steroids, more intense workouts are required to build muscle. You can't work out lightly when on steroids, you have to bust your a$$. Having said that, when one does take steroids, and works out hard, it's very easy to gain 10 pounds of muscle in 30 days, especially when less recovery time is required between workout sessions.so imagine what Bonds could do in the off-season between 1998-1999, when it's generally believed that he got them from Greg Anderson, his jail-bird personal trainer. Yes, steroids are performance enhancers, why do you think they are banned from track and field? Look at Ben Johnson, Seoul 1988. Ring a bell?? They make people bigger, stronger, and faster. Whether you admit it or not, steroids with heavy work in the gym build muscle quickly through hard work. They are also ILLEGAL, which is something Donald Fehr can't quite seem to grasp when he says "Steroids were not illegal in baseball". Well,they are not specifically excluded in the rule book, but they are illegal out on the street, should there be two sets of rules? One for baseball, one for everybody else?

Once again your analogies are tragically flawed. Comparing aspirin and cortisone shots to steroids?? Aspirin will relieve a headache. Will it also help a person of ordinary intelligence to suddenly become a genius? Besides relieving pain, are you suggesting that aspirin could help an average doctor or scientist suddenly rise to the top of his or her field, and find a cure for AIDS or cancer? That is pretty much what you are saying.

Also your inclusion of amphamines also falls flat. They've been around since the 50s, if not earlier. Most players took them, so therefore, where is it that someone got a competitive advantage if most players were taking them?

You also continue to neglect mentioning HGH in your questions. That is what many players are still using, and using a lot. There is no test for it as of yet, so there is still a lot of cheating going on. HGH, which Bonds got from Anderson, also improves eyesight beyond 20/20, which generally doesn't happen in your late 30s, as it did with Barry Bonds.

To me, it sounds like you believe that Barry Bonds used steroids, but are trying to prove that he gained no advantage from it.

Face it, your man is a cheater. He may break Hank Aaron's record late next year, but most won't acknowledge it. You can expect Major League Baseball to step up their investigation to try to bury this fraud from breaking and sullying the most heralded record in sports.