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Confused about A-Rod
vinlyn
Colorado...for now Veteran
I'm not a particular fan of baseball, but I do keep up with the news. Why is A-Rod getting more than double the punishment that the other players are getting? I thought it all revolved around the same issue.
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Punishing cheaters won't stop cheating. We have plenty of evidence to support that. As long as there are obscene amounts of money at stake - to players, teams and leagues - cheating will continue, because that's what drives the cheating.
Expecting people like A-Rod to play nice when he's he's raking in 28 million a year is egregiously naive. Those millions are tied to specific performance metrics and to make that money he must perform. Superhuman paychecks come with superhuman stipulations and requirements.
Tell me, what would you do to get a 28 million dollar payday?
He'll still get his spot in the Hall of Fame. But besides, when you have a couple hundred million in the bank who cares if you make the HoF or not?
I have doubts that Arod will get a spot in the hall of fame. Mark McGuire has not been voted in because of his drug admissions. In fact, he loses votes every year, so he's unlikely to ever get in despite his "achievements."
I agree, there will always be cheaters. But I'm still a fan of finding them and punishing them.
On another note, it's pretty amazing how much we see entertainers to be worth. Anything to distract us from our real lives and what is going on in them. I've been evaluating my entertainment areas for that reason. Entertainment has it's place, but most of us (Americans especially) seek entertainment all day long. On the way to work, at work, during dinner, at home, in bed, even while we sleep. What are we so afraid to face that we need entertaining 24/7? Apparently our lives are that shallow. Lady Gaga distracts me on the way to work, so sure, she's worth $80mm a year. All the internet forums and pirated video services can entertain me at work as long as my boss doesn't find out (not me, I don't work, just saying). When I get home, overpaid network newscasters get paid a fortune to tell me how scary and threatening the outside world is. Then I watch baseball on a tv that makes people rich, with a cable contract that makes someone else rich, and players and coaches and owners get rich while I watch. And the commercials that make me want to go out and buy stuff. Then at night I turn on the tv in the bedroom, too, and at night I put my ipod to go. Nonstop distraction for so many people. Baseball is a prime example.
How convenient.
Regardless of the sport, I think cheaters should be punished. Especially because kids look up to them so much. And because they are ripping off the fans that are paying their extraordinary salaries.
However, friends of mine who are "into" baseball tell me -- perhaps incorrectly, I don't know -- that the majority of big league players using performance enhancing drugs to some degree or another. Whether it's a majority or not, every player who uses them ought to be punished, or every player ought not to be punished. To select a dozen to set an example is what lawyers often refer to as being arbitrary and capricious...a solid basis for a law suit.
The other complaint I have is -- and this is only what it seems like to me...perhaps I'm wrong -- that baseball has pretty much turned a blind eye to this for years and years (we a couple of exceptions), and now Selig (who has been in the job for 21 years) has suddenly decided to do something. When you turn that blind eye away from something, essentially you are condoning it.
If you're going to punish players for that act, punish them all, equally, even if it means you have to shut down baseball for a year.
So, I am sure basically all players of all sports use supplements of some sort. How many of them use substances banned by their sport, I don't have a clue. But I agree it's not fair to select a handful of high profile players just to set an example without being bothers to institute regular testing so that it is fair across the board. It makes one suspect that they don't do that because the # of players who would be suspended would make it hard to play the sport.
seriously....in an historic context how has punishing cheaters reduced cheating?
It's not much different than the law, really. Do DUi laws keep people from drinking and driving? LOL obviously not. But for a lot (not all of course) it does give them reason to stop. Most of the people I know who had DUIs, stopped at one DUI. Obviously not all do, but if it stops a person, then it's worth it. It's a combination of hoping to stop others from doing the same stupid thing and punishing someone for doing it. Same with cheating, in essence.
If some men and women are put under enormous pressure, their morality crumbles. Isn't it odd how "the game" being compromised is more of the topic than Arod's suffering? A game vs our brother falling into unhealthy patterns, and we talk about the game?
Its true I'm not a sports fan though.
I appreciate your sentiment that cheating can be reduced, but I'd still like your take on how, historically, how punishing cheaters for cheating as reduced cheating.
But in my school we had a strict honor code, and my 20 years there we had little cheating, and not once a repeat offender.
But look at other sports. Punishment does not reduce or deter cheating.
Nice, but an "honor system" is not punishment.
Our "honor system" also involved giving "0" as a grade and possible suspensions from school or other penalties.
Maybe it depends on how you are defining cheating, but if you went out to a car dealer, traded in your current car and bought a new car, and the next day found out the dealer had cheated you into the trade-in value and the actual cost of the new car,,,you'd just say, "Ah well, that's life. Punishing cheaters doesn't do any good." And you'd just take the loss?
If they didn't, why have laws, or rules or anything in place, anywhere in society? Why expect children to follow rules? Whoops, they broke a rule so why bother having them at all?
I dunno - I don't have children and don't concern myself with how others raise their's.
It does occur to me that we, inadvertently, engender a mindset in our children that leads to cheating down the road. Much of our attitude towards sport in our society focuses on a win/loose paradigm where winning is, literally, everything. It's win, win, win and there's no such thing a second place - only a winner and a whole bunch of loosers. In our society a Looser is a Bad Thing. The myopic emphasis
on winning evolves into winning at any cost and an attitude of the end justifies the means. But if rules aren't enforced, what the point of rules? Someone mentioned Lance Armstrong. He's an example of what happens when rules enforcement is lax or non-existence and when everyone is breaking rules, if your intent is to win, you have to keep up, so you cheat too. Armstrong's success wasn't because he was cheating. His success came from better preparation (including doping) and raw talent. In the case of A-Rod, his was, in my mind, a calculated risk. To a certain degree, his involvement on MLB was to make a pile of money. Better performance means a better paycheck and PEDs mean better performance. Sooner or later you'll get caught, but in A-Rod's case, he has so much banked, he can just retire - who cares if he's banned?
On the other hand, if we're going to have rules about PEDs, lets enforce them and do so ruthlessly. Kick Dopers to the curb and test everyone before every event and practice. Penalize the team - they should know if their athletes are cheating and if they don't they are complicit. Go after sponsors, too. A sponsored athlete gets popped the sponsor is banned for as long as the athlete.
We must also reconsider the perverse attention we give to sports and the value we place on it. We must train our children to be sportsmen and women and not into cash cows.
I have 3 kids, and they are all involved in sports on some level and I can tell you that none of the coaches or players encourage winning above all else. They encourage fair play and good sportsmanship above all else. About playing with class and respect, for yourself, for your team, for the other team, for coaches/others and the sport itself. So whatever levels kids are learning to cheat and win at all costs, I don't see it. Not in tball, baseball, track, cross country running, cross country skiing, hockey or football. I'm sure that varies by school and even by region (ie the cheerleader mom who killed so her kid could be on the squad). But that doesn't mean it's the norm. The pressure comes, as you say, when the money gets involved. But not everyone seems to lose themselves in it, so much that they'll deflate their morals and cheat to keep the money. And, sports are hardly the only place it happens. Just read an article tonight about a doctor who falsely diagnosed cancer in patients to get a bigger paycheck. So the money motivator happens even in places we shouldn't expect it. But. That doesn't mean that we don't punish those who break the rules. At least they have policies in place where 10 years ago they didn't.