Sep 21

Bonds on Steroids…and Integrity

Recently, during a press conference, the San Francisco Giants baseball player, Barry Bonds said he thinks Congress is wasting its time investigating the use of steroids by professional baseball players since there are much bigger issues at hand. He cited the reconstruction needs after Hurricane Katrina.

To say that recovering after the major hurricane is more important than baseball is trite, not least because it is so obvious the point hardly needs making. But, Barry Bonds doesn’t understand what is really at stake, or if he does, he doesn’t want us to pay attention to it.

What is at Stake
The idea that “baseball is just a game” misses the larger point of the steroids-in-baseball issue. The issue is about integrity and what is humanly possible. Baseball players who use steroids are unfairly competing with those who don’t - and that is an integrity issue that shakes our understanding of what is possible. The issue strikes at the heart of one of the biggest questions we ask ourselves as humans - How much can I honestly achieve in my life?

The way I see it, the issue is big because we want our competitors to show us what is possible. When a long-standing record is broken, we want to believe that the old boundary of what can be achieved in a human life is also broken - and pushed out. We have even more potential…Wow, wonderful, beautiful. It’s an important idea. I think many parents, trainers, coaches, artists and educators would agree.

Steroids in baseball is like doping in cycling and the old suspicions of the Chinese and Russian Olympians using illegal drugs to enhance performance. It’s a question of what is possible in life and THAT is a very important question. Of course, the issue of doping also says we have an idea of what is fair and what isn’t. Clearly, we believe using drugs to enhance performance is unfair.

The Human Potential
The question of fair competition stems from the American desire to know what is naturally possible for the human to achieve. When we learn that professional athletes use drugs to enhance performance, we lose trust in them. We feel defrauded because we looked to them to show us evidence of what the natural human is capable of…and they tricked us. It makes us question what is possible in our own lives. Plus, also from a fairness standpoint, since we know they receive accolades and substantial rewards for the results of their trickery (usually before we discover it), we inherently know that they are no longer trustworthy and we resent the faith we once had in them. We then know we should no longer pay attention to what they achieved because they did not achieve their feats honestly. Then we question just what and who we can have faith in.

So, the question of steroid use in American baseball is really about our cultural values of fairness and integrity. Steroids are to baseball what accounting fraud is to business. When we discover a fraud, we want it corrected and the people to pay a price so that our cultural value of honesty and integrity is upheld.

For this reason, I like that sports and congress are taking it so seriously. Questions about what is acceptable in our culture are worthy of deep and unrelenting inquiry.

The Reluctant Hero
Maybe Barry Bonds doesn’t want to be anyone’s hero. I think he’s not playing the game for us; he’s playing the game for himself. There is nothing wrong with that. Plenty of people pursue careers because they enjoy the work. Surely it’s true of me. It so happens I “do” the work by helping other people. Bonds is in the process of mastering his physical gift for baseball. That baseball fans put him on a pedestal is not his fault. But, he seems to want everyone to stop asking him questions and poking into his affairs. But, that’s not possible, nor should we want it to be.

There is an implicit social contract between professional athletes and the public. The contract says that since so many people are going to watch what they do, and since they, more than most people, generate their incomes from amassing small contributions from lots of people, they must accept the role of leader, whether they want it or not. Unfortunately for them, perhaps, they are leaders because they have a lot of followers. I’m not saying this unstated social contract is right, I’m just saying it exists.

So, in a way, Barry Bonds doesn’t get to step away from this scandal. He doesn’t get to refuse his role in helping us learn what is going on. And besides, he’s not likely to successfully renegotiate the role by telling us to stop seeing him as a leader. It’s too late for that. I think that’s the point Congress and the journalists are making with their incessant questions.

What Bonds Should Do
If Barry Bonds were a different sort of person, he would encourage the investigations on the grounds that knowing the truth is important for the integrity of the sport, much less our culture. He knows he’s idolized by children. Teaching children about honesty and integrity is very important. He could play a role in educating children - except that apparently he can’t.

He should be talking about sports competition as an important way for people to see what is possible. He should be talking about how being honest in all we do is central to what it means to live a good life. Being honest in how professional athletes play sports is as important the businessman being honest about how the company is run.

Unfortunately, these are not the points Barry Bonds is likely to make. I just wish he would. A lot of people are listening…

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