Bonds Tests Positive

I no longer care enough to read stories about Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Brian MacNamee or steroids, unless it involves one of them coming to Seattle and playing for the M’s

They don’t care about the literal rules, because if they did, there would have been no problem once the rules were changed. The need for changing the rules would have been all there would be to get angry about, and since that can be clearly remedied, its not very fulfilling.

But its difficult to ignore the fact that rules and laws are dynamic- they theoretically mimic or are heavily influenced by the cultural mores of society, and are viewed at as an ideal to strive for with full knowledge that mistakes will be made and changes will be necessary. An individual rule or law is generally looked at as an example to be added to later, and it is understood that despite the immenseness and minutiae of law there are relatively few larger, simple morals the law is espousing.

Then there is the problem posed by the fact that baseball and the players themselves are also products of our culture. So a group of people within that culture who attempt to exploit the literal meaning of the rules in order to break the overarching intent are viewed as a mirror. Most people do not like thinking that their culture is selfish, exploitive, and run on greed- even if there is truth in it. So they take out their self hatred and guilt on the biggest and easiest targets. If that target happens to be someone they were told not to like, its even easier to do. Throw in the competitive nature of sports and all of the irrational emotions that get tied up into that, and you have a frenzy.

I don’t think I have ever seen anyone ask why an athlete of Bonds’ ability would do these things. (Other than flippantly stating that he was already a Hall of Fame caliber player, as if advantages of this sort did not exist before 1998.) It is simply looked at as obvious that if he thought he could get away with it, then the things would be done. Maybe that is why it is not usually discussed, because that’s a much more complex issue and possibly the real problem. There are no laws or rules that can fix that. The people themselves have to fix it, one at a time, within themselves and around themselves.

Fuck that, it sounds hard.