Friday, September 27, 2013

Statistics, steroids & What exactly is Cheating - Part four


Statistics, steroids & What exactly is Cheating - Part four
by Dan Salem and Todd Salem (9-27-13)

[Part one - Steroids, PEDs & Sports. Oh my]
[Part two - PEDs & the Children]
[Part three - Destroying legacies & the Steroid witch hunt]



TODD:
Players cannot pick and choose which rules they want to obey. That's not how sports work. Perhaps certain players think they should be able to wear barbed wire on their boxing gloves and the rule against it is stupid. Or, less severely, what if a baseball player thinks batters should get four strikes before they strike out. Does that allow them to play by different rules? Rules are rules, whether they are good or not. Bad rules get changed eventually but the athletes must follow them until they are changed.

As for baseball gaining credibility back...are they? This whole situation seems to be souring people's opinions of the sport. We are on the precipice of the playoffs and have more great, young players in the league than at any point in my lifetime and yet, all people talk about are the guys getting suspended or the guys cheating. How is that improving public respect?

Whether this is Selig's fault or not, baseball is now, officially all-in on the steroid chase. You really think once he retires, the sport can move on and become like the other sports, because I don't. For whatever reason, MLB will have to fight this forever...until the rules are changed somehow. Baseball has numbers to protect, its history is vast and more important than that of the other sports, and its fans are more concerned with the past than the present. Tainted numbers will continue to be an issue whether Bud is around or not.

It just strikes me as funny that baseball fans are so passionate about their statistics (and I include myself in that group) but fans of the other leagues just don't care. I guess they have already accepted that different eras will supply different numbers. Passing/receiving totals in the NFL are ludicrous these days because of rule changes over the years. Everybody knows this and accepts that Tony Romo is not better than Troy Aikman even though all his numbers are. I am curious if we will ever get to that point with baseball. If, say, HGH is found to be safe and it is legalized, will fans eventually just adjust their frame of reference for what the numbers mean? That seems like a simpler solution than testing, finding and banning all the "cheaters." And once we get there, however many years it takes, we will know that Derek Jeter Junior is not better than Derek Jeter even though all his numbers are.


DAN:
First of all, I agree that you need to follow the rules of your sport, no matter how moronic. But I'm going to caveat this by saying that this generally is limited to the game on the field and that the majority of athletes learn from the very beginning that if the referee does not see it, then it did not happen. You can't have it both ways, expecting players to follow the rules and then teaching them to break them without getting caught. Two easy examples are grabbing a guys shorts in soccer, or holding in football. Its not a penalty unless its called, so most players do it and find their own grey area. I'd also like to throw in sucker punches to a man's genitalia in football. This was all too common by at least some lineman when it was obvious the opponent was not wearing his cup.

Now we move off the field of play and you expect the players to have a higher sense of altruism, when they were already taught to try and get away with things during the game? It can't possibly work that way. Hence the steroids problem.

I'll jump right back into the Major League Baseball discussion now. You proclaimed yourself as a MLB fan who's passionate about his statistics. I do see the fun in comparing the 1920's greats to today's greats, but its a baseless comparison. No one in their right mind thinks players back then were as strong or gifted athletes as today's players. This has nothing to do with drugs and everything to do with medicine, science and simple evolution. So what do you do with your statistics? What do you gain from them?

My favorite baseball stats include the Yankees 27 World Championships and the fact that up until this season they had made the playoffs in 17 of 18 years, all but one season of the wild card era. Those are awesome stats. They hold weight, validity and substance no matter what decade they took place in. The fact that the Yankees have more money is an advantage, but its been proven season after season that having strong management is what ultimately matters, not just money. Hell, the Royals have a better record than the Yankees right now.

The reason I pegged Selig's retirement as the day baseball moves on and lets go of the steroids witch hunt is because they MUST move on at some point. That day seems like the perfect opportunity to let go, move forward and decide that just like the NFL and NBA, Major League Baseball will also live in the present and honor its statistics but not be led blindly by them. The unwritten rules are some of the most fun and stupid things about baseball, but stats are just numbers. They will always change, always fluctuate and never mean the same thing generation to generation. One dollar today is not the same as one dollar in 1950, so why should 30 home runs be the same? Its not. Get over it.


TODD:
True sentiments; let's just move on. But before we go, I have to burst your bubble on one more thing. You realize the Yankees making the playoffs 17 of 18 years in this era is also not comparable to the past, right? There used to be just one team from each league who made the "playoffs" and the playoffs consisted of just the World Series matchup. You had to win the pennant to get in. Your stats don't hold up either. Sucker!


DAN:
Damn it! But I think this proves my own point regardless. Stats are valuable to the individual who values them, but don't necessarily hold up in general conversation, let alone analysis. So why loft them on a pedestal? I think the stats are just fine, regardless of how well they hold up over time. You can't take anything away from Barry Bonds for annihilating the baseball over 70 times in a single season. That was pretty awesome. And so was Roger Maris hitting 61. If Bonds cheated to get his record, then an asterisk is appropriate. The Olympics strips medals, but you can't actually change history. Let's just all admit we loved it and move on.





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