Friday, April 23, 2004
Baseball and Steroids
Bud Selig thinks "This is about health, fairness, integrity and social responsibility". Channelnewsasia.com
He's dead wrong..this is about competition and winning. Off all the people on the planet, how many actually make it to the major leagues?? A few hundred at any given time? These are folks that through the blessing of genetics, talent, coaching and lots of hard work have made it to the top. At that level of play, there is a very thin level of individual athletic differentiation. So if you are an extraordinary player surrounded by extraordinary players, what do you do to gain a competitive advantage? Answer: anything you can!
Steroids are what make the simply extraordinary talent become extra-extraordinary. They deliver higher salaries, more excitement for the fans, greater returns on player investment, more homers, etc. So am I advocating steroid use??...I'm not real excited about folks pumping strange things into their systems ( I limit my performance enhancers to chocolate and Grey Goose)...but I do understand the temptation.
But what if we could package steroid type results into a consumable that would enhance business competitiveness....would you take it?. What if you are neck and neck with a competitor, would you take some wonder drug, perhaps with consequences down the road, that would help you bury your competition? I mean, that's all we are really looking for in a capitalist system isn't it....an unfair advantage? If you are a Linux provider and could take some easy series of injections to help you kneecap Bill Gates, would you take it...even if it distorted your physical appearance and/or altered your secondary sex characteristics?
Worse yet, imagine the latest IDC report came out showing 15% percent drop in your market share. Imagine your boss suggesting, perhaps in whispers, a regime of performance enhancing (completely natural of course) supplements that will help you regain your share and then some. What if you "stay clean", and that new cat down the hall with the vaguely Homo Erectus brow ridge and terrible mood swings starts bringing in share by the handfuls? Wouldn't you be the least bit tempted? Do you think if Kwame Jackson had them, HE might be building the new Trump Tower in Chicago?
If so, you are wrestlin' the Red Queen......and she is winning!
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Bud Selig thinks "This is about health, fairness, integrity and social responsibility". Channelnewsasia.com
He's dead wrong..this is about competition and winning. Off all the people on the planet, how many actually make it to the major leagues?? A few hundred at any given time? These are folks that through the blessing of genetics, talent, coaching and lots of hard work have made it to the top. At that level of play, there is a very thin level of individual athletic differentiation. So if you are an extraordinary player surrounded by extraordinary players, what do you do to gain a competitive advantage? Answer: anything you can!
Steroids are what make the simply extraordinary talent become extra-extraordinary. They deliver higher salaries, more excitement for the fans, greater returns on player investment, more homers, etc. So am I advocating steroid use??...I'm not real excited about folks pumping strange things into their systems ( I limit my performance enhancers to chocolate and Grey Goose)...but I do understand the temptation.
But what if we could package steroid type results into a consumable that would enhance business competitiveness....would you take it?. What if you are neck and neck with a competitor, would you take some wonder drug, perhaps with consequences down the road, that would help you bury your competition? I mean, that's all we are really looking for in a capitalist system isn't it....an unfair advantage? If you are a Linux provider and could take some easy series of injections to help you kneecap Bill Gates, would you take it...even if it distorted your physical appearance and/or altered your secondary sex characteristics?
Worse yet, imagine the latest IDC report came out showing 15% percent drop in your market share. Imagine your boss suggesting, perhaps in whispers, a regime of performance enhancing (completely natural of course) supplements that will help you regain your share and then some. What if you "stay clean", and that new cat down the hall with the vaguely Homo Erectus brow ridge and terrible mood swings starts bringing in share by the handfuls? Wouldn't you be the least bit tempted? Do you think if Kwame Jackson had them, HE might be building the new Trump Tower in Chicago?
If so, you are wrestlin' the Red Queen......and she is winning!
