The Heart of Sports
All News Is Doping News

By Brad Locke
April 1, 2005

(AgapePress) - Various thoughts as I ponder the over/under on when Michael Schiavo and his lover will get married now that Terri's out of the way ...

Jose Canseco, who admitted using steriods to enhance his baseball skills.

Legislating Sports
I wrote last time about how it's admirable that Congress has weighed in on the steroids scandal. Their actions raise the question, though, of how involved politicians should be in sports-related issues.
 

Shouldn't baseball be allowed to clean up its own mess? Yes, unless that mess involves illegal substances. (An aside: Some people keep saying that since taking steroids wasn't against the rules a few years ago, nobody should be condemned for taking them. Pardon the rest of us who assumed that all illegal activity was banned by baseball; what, do they need to write out policies prohibiting murder and rape, too?)

Sometimes our politicians can go too far, however. A couple of recent examples:

A North Dakota state senator is sponsoring a resolution that would urge Major League Baseball to restore the single-season home run record to North Dakota native Roger Maris -- if irrefutable evidence of steroid use by Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa is found.

A Texas state senator has filed a bill that would prevent the state's college football programs from playing in any championship game sanctioned by the Bowl Championship Series. The bill, presented in hopes of pushing the NCAA toward adopting a playoff system, is similar to one filed by another state senator last month.

These guys sound like fans who have been given way too much power, which ought to give us pause at dismissing them. How many of us would do the same thing given the chance? I probably would. That doesn't mean it isn't a waste of time, of course. It's easy to start meddling in someone else's business, but these senators should just step back and be satisfied with voicing an opinion.

Play Ball!
Nice to finally see Opening Day (April 3) roll around. It would be nice if news of games and hot rookies and hitting streaks got the big headlines, but I get the feeling the steroids issue won't go away. Especially as long as Jose Canseco is still breathing.

Canseco has been selected to appear on VH1's The Surreal Life. The show, which throws seven celebrity has-beens together in a Hollywood Hills mansion, will premiere its fifth season September 4.

This only further damages Canseco's credibility. It's obvious he's trying to capitalize on his perverse celebrity. Not that we should dismiss his allegations. Truth can spring from both pure and impure motives. Still, this teaches us that those who possess integrity and honesty are taken more seriously than yahoos like Canseco. That should encourage Christians, whose source of eternal truth is without sin or blemish.

Dopey World
The World Anti-Doping Agency has released a report that reveals sports consumes $10.8 billion worth of the world's doping products.

It's astounding the price tag attached to sin. Imagine what good the cheaters could have done with that dough. But then, self-gratifying purchases account for most wasted money. Tithing and charitable giving tend to be drawn from whatever we have left over. Don't both God and our suffering fellow man deserve better?


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Brad Locke (fredbob_sports@yahoo.com) is a sports journalist in Tupelo, Mississippi.
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