Congress Subpoenas Seven Major League Players

A congressional committee investigating steroid use has issued subpoenas for seven of the games biggest past and current stars. One wonders where all of the federal concern was on this issue as steroids filtered its way into the elementary schools of America.

Baseball looked the other way while McGwire and Sosa rejuvenate the game. It will now be interesting to see if the MLB will offer these alleged steroid users as sacrificial lambs in the steroid controversy in which they were tacit co-conspirators.

For non-baseball fans (I shudder at the thought of the poor soul who does not have an appreciation of the game) the question might be asked why does this matter to me? The answer is simple and relevant to all society. We have become a society that values bigger, stronger, faster and will take every shortcut to achieve our wanted result.

Baseball is a game of accumulation. Individuals putting forth individual effort toward a series of small details that when taken as a whole result in the finished product on the field that uninformed spectators have in the past deemed "boring." But the enlightened baseball purist, George Will, refers to the baseball as a metaphor for the American experience.

Life too is all about accumulation. Today celebrity trial after celebrity trial go to juries that have watched high priced defense teams mount expert defenses for sometimes guilty clients. Martha Stewart, recently released from "Camp Cupcake" her minimum security home for the past several months, emerged more famous, more wealthy, and with brighter prospects than before her indictment and conviction. What results are we as a society accumulating and what will be the end result?

My thought to ponder is this: is it not better to teach children and society in general how to overcome not having the most money, without breaking the rules. Is it not better to teach young athletes the benefits of overcoming deficits in strength, speed, and size through hard work and grit instead of chemically and even surgically altering their bodies.

It seems that we are far from the society the founders envisioned, a meritocracy that rewarded hard work.