In Defense Of Steroids, Part II

You can read my initial, "Part I", post here

One argument you have probably heard over and over again about steroids and their users, is that while steroids might not have been illegal in baseball, they were illegal to use in the United States. Therefore, alleged or proven users were still breaking U.S. law. It is this argument that is used to put down and look even further down upon steroid users. But I want to use an example to disprove this point.

Player A: Alex Rodriguez

ARod admitted to using steroids (although I'm going to refuse to believe this the same way that a "smoking gun" found in a home without a warrant, although is indisputable evidence, it's still not allowed in court because it violates the 4th amendment, but I digress...). For the rest of his career, he will forever be associated as a steroids user. There will a clout of secrecy and guilt surrounding him forever about his stats and his playing career. ARod (according to his story but that's beside the point) did steroids in a place where it was legal but his being ostracized for it. Even if ARod takes a piss test after every game and is 100% clean from now on and goes on to break the HR record, his career will still be tainted.

Player B: Josh Hamilton (I hope you see where I'm going with this)

This young man has great natural talent and that's why the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays drafted him #1 a few years back. However, Hamilton became addicted to heroin and drugs with relegated him out of baseball during the beginning of his career. Hamilton broke US laws not not baseball laws (Yes, I'm sure there's a technical clause in the MLB contract that you can't do illegal drugs but what Hamilton didn't violate the sanctity of the game). Hamilton put on a great show at the 2008 Home Run Derby and went on to have a damn fine 2008 year and 2009 looks just as good. If Hamilton stays clean, he will probably go on to have a damn fine career. We applauded Hamilton for what he has been able to do. So while he broke US law, we are still proud he stopped and was able to overcome.

What hypocrisy is this!? Let's assume both players never do drugs again and both go on to have careers that force people to look back and say "Damn, those players were good!" People will look back on Hamilton in an extremely positive light. People will be even more impressed that he was able to do it as a former addict. But not ARod. No mater, ARod will always have the negative stigma attached to him. Both men broke the US law and took drugs they were not allowed to take. Except one was related to baseball and one was not. Clearly, the drugs related the baseball appear to be much more "punishable".

So please, stop with the whole "it violated US law" excuse. Also, please read my original post "In Defense of Steroids", so you can get a better understanding of steroids and baseball and why, no mater what, you shouldn't look down on steroid users.