by Andy Glickman

Created on: September 03, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

We would like to think it does. But the truth is we live in an imperfect world. And we cheer for an imperfect sport. We all want the idealized version of baseball where the diminutive Freddy Pateks of the world compete with the massive Frank Thomases.

The fact is cheating comes in many forms. The most obvious of the current spate is steroids. On one hand we act concerned and compassionate about what the professional athlete is doing to his body by taking steroids. But do we really care? Should we care? The money they're getting paid, the attitudes they often display, who cares if their testicles shrink to the size of peas by the time they're 50.

Okay, when we finally realize that our distaste for steroids isn't because of our moral compass, we say, "But it's cheating. What about the guy who doesn't take steroids, but simply works hard taking extra batting practice and fielding ground balls until the sun goes down and his hands are bleeding?" The fact is we live in different times. The game of baseball has evolved. Players train differently, they use different methods. Recent Hall of Fame inductee Tony Gwynn, one of the most admired and revered baseball players of all time, who obviously never took steroids (unless he got a tainted bottle that was for increasing his gut size rather than his muscles) stood on the dais in Cooperstown and credited the modern day VCR for a great deal of his success. I'm not sure, but I have a pretty strong hunch that Babe Ruth didn't use video technology much when he was playing. Nor did any of the players from his era. So couldn't one infer that use of videotape illegally enhances performance, much the same way we decry the use of steroids? Oh, but watching video doesn't do harm to the body the way steroids do. I don't know about that. Look at Tony Gwynn. He looks like he's one cheese pizza away from a heart attack. He probably got that way from sitting around watching so much videotape.

But I don't want to harp on Tony Gwynn. He's actually one of my favorite players of all time. The simple reality is we need to accept baseball for what it is and what it has become. So while we may complain about existence or potential of "cheating," we actually accept it in much more subtle ways without labeling it in such an ugly way.

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