In defense of steroids...

I'm really becoming to like Reason Magazine and their web site. Here's another look at Jose Canseco's book on steroids in baseball.

If players don’t get the desired performance out of diet, diagnostics, and exercise, there’s always surgery. Consider Tommy John surgery, a ligament transplant invented for baseball players and named for the first pitcher to undergo the procedure. It has advanced to the point that the Chicago Cubs’ Kerry Wood actually picked up velocity on his pitches after wrecking his arm and having the surgery. In the March 2005 Wired, Steven Johnson notes that, “To date, pitchers have opted for the surgery only after suffering ligament damage, but elective-enhancement surgery in baseball is inevitable—and it will show up in lots of other professional sports, too.” Johnson also notes that batters hoping to improve their pitch recognition skills can choose another elective procedure: laser eye surgery.

In short, sports technology isn’t just for golf club shafts and running shoes. It’s for muscles, ligaments, and organs, and it’s getting more sophisticated all the time. If such technologies are available to everyone and if the health risks are low—or lower, at least, then getting pulverized by a bulky baserunner sprinting toward home plate—then why single out steroids?