Cheating in Professional Sports.

[Randa]

As I'm sure some people have heard MLB has a pinetar issue rearing its ugly head. Only a year after the Miami PED scandal with Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez, Mike Pineda uses pine tar while pitching against the Red Sox last night. Everybody does it but he rubbed it over his neck and got a ten game suspension. Making the media very annoying about cheating in baseball.

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2014-04-23/michael-pineda-pine-tar-ejected-yankees-pitcher-red-sox-foreign-substance-illegal

So it got me thinking who cares if you cheat in professional sports. I personally don't give a shit. Just don't be so stupid or obvious about doing it. It makes the game better and more interesting and yet there is all this condemnation for using steroids or other such substances.

So my question to everybody is, why do we care if people are doping? Or why do we care if the are using illegal equipment? Or very simply, why do we care if professional athletes cheat?

[Garnef]

Professional = The best at what they do. Cheating quite literally doesn't make them professional, being professional makes them professional. It's the same idea as videogames. Yes, it's really fun, but it doesn't make you a pro, and that's the problem with this.

[Randa]

But in instances like PEDs and Pitching Enhancers it is really cheating, when everybody does it and everybody knows that everybody does it? If everybody does it nobody gets an advantage.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Randa

[Garnef]

But in instances like PEDs and Pitching Enhancers it is really cheating, when everybody does it and everybody knows that everybody does it? If everybody does it nobody gets an advantage.

Point taken, though that still doesn't necessarily make them professional, by definition though. By your explanation, though, no, it's not cheating, just still unprofessional. And that was the main point I was getting at.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Nexas

[Lance Masayoshi]

So it got me thinking who cares if you cheat in professional sports. I personally don't give a shit. Just don't be so stupid or obvious about doing it. It makes the game better and more interesting and yet there is all this condemnation for using steroids or other such substances.

So my question to everybody is, why do we care if people are doping? Or why do we care if the are using illegal equipment? Or very simply, why do we care if professional athletes cheat?

People care because they want to see people on level with each other. Steroids make them stronger than the average person, and so it is unfair..

And steroids have a chance of killing someone, illegal equipment because as it says, is illegal and as I said, some people prefer a leveled game where everyone has a chance of winning or losing.

[Superbus]

It should be noted that on the Red Sox, they have someone (Buchholz) who was also guilty of using pine tar once. Others use it, too. It's an almost open secret, as long as you at least try to hide it.

Pineda, after being nailed two starts ago, went out there and did everything but wear a neon sign saying "I AM SHITTING MAPLE TREE SAP". That's really why he got nailed; he made a mockery of the game. As someone described it aptly, this wasn't drinking in the freshman dorm, this was rolling a keg past the RA's room and inviting him up for a pint.

This would be the PED equivalent of having an 0 for 4 night, and then coming out of the bathroom stall during the post-game reporter scrum with a needle sticking out of your ass while holding a vial that says "STEROIDS" with Lance Armstrong's smiling face on it.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Superbus

[Klokinator]

I think most forms of cheating should be legalized, however only those that aren't harmful. As mentioned above, if everyone can do it, it becomes balanced. Steroids are dangerous, those should remain illegal simply because many players won't want to endanger their lives to stay competitive with the others who don't give a shit. You shouldn't have to inject yourself with a harmful substance just to keep up with everyone else in the major leagues. And if, say, some new cheating format came up like uh, "Gut Punch LOL" where you sock an opponent in the gut to immobilize them, thus giving yourself an advantage, that's another example of cheating that should never be legalized. (Also it's a felony to beat someone without any form of probable cause)

[Randa]

I think most forms of cheating should be legalized, however only those that aren't harmful. As mentioned above, if everyone can do it, it becomes balanced. Steroids are dangerous, those should remain illegal simply because many players won't want to endanger their lives to stay competitive with the others who don't give a shit. You shouldn't have to inject yourself with a harmful substance just to keep up with everyone else in the major leagues. And if, say, some new cheating format came up like uh, "Gut Punch LOL" where you sock an opponent in the gut to immobilize them, thus giving yourself an advantage, that's another example of cheating that should never be legalized. (Also it's a felony to beat someone without any form of probable cause)

So you shouldn't hit people in the nuts?

It should be noted that on the Red Sox, they have someone (Buchholz) who was also guilty of using pine tar once. Others use it, too. It's an almost open secret, as long as you at least try to hide it.

Pineda, after being nailed two starts ago, went out there and did everything but wear a neon sign saying "I AM SHITTING MAPLE TREE SAP". That's really why he got nailed; he made a mockery of the game. As someone described it aptly, this wasn't drinking in the freshman dorm, this was rolling a keg past the RA's room and inviting him up for a pint.

This would be the PED equivalent of having an 0 for 4 night, and then coming out of the bathroom stall during the post-game reporter scrum with a needle sticking out of your ass while holding a vial that says "STEROIDS" with Lance Armstrong's smiling face on it.

Oh yeah bulcholz had sunscreen and pine tar on his arm. I think it was in Toronto when the tv analyst got upset.

But i guess what I'm trying to say is, should we be concerned about them using these substances? And why do people get so upset when it's revealed people use them? Why are people upset with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemons for making the game more interesting?

Edited April 24, 2014 by Randa

[Superbus]

So you shouldn't hit people in the nuts?

Oh yeah bulcholz had sunscreen and pine tar on his arm. I think it was in Toronto when the tv analyst got upset.

But i guess what I'm trying to say is, should we be concerned about them using these substances? And why do people get so upset when it's revealed people use them? Why are people upset with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemons for making the game more interesting?

The concerns with pine tar are that a pitcher might get a bit of extra bite on a breaking pitch. Big whoop.

The concern with PEDs is that they're illegal - actually illegal - and are completely against physiology, force kids to make decisions about their bodies that they're not ready to make, and unnaturally prolong the career of the athlete using them with a lot of damage to their bodies in the long run. It's much like how we're just finding out now that - surprise! - people who do a job that requires being hit repeatedly in the head (football player, boxer, hockey enforcer) leads to dementia! Wheeeeee!

Now imagine that football player being 40 pounds heavier and .3 seconds in a 40 yard dash faster than he would be normally. Imagine a boxer able to hit that much harder (see: Paquiao vs. Marquez IV). Imagine a hockey player going that much harder into the boards, and then fighting with that much more strength. That's the difference between "ow, I'm hurt" and being legitimately injured, possibly killed.