Why Cheat? Why Not…

A buddy pointed me to an interesting article by John Brattain over at Sympatico/MSN on the motives for cheating in baseball. With all the fuss over steroids, HGH, and other performance-enhancing drugs, John asks the logical question of why cheaters do what they do. The reasons, although hardly surprising, are a bit disturbing and force (or should force) us to ask some honest questions about ourselves as a society and, perhaps more realistically, as individuals within that society.

There are some real nuggets in here:

…people will do pretty heinous things for comparatively small amounts of cash; so we have to ask what people might do when there’s millions on the line?

And this:

There are men who decided not to use (and never made the big leagues) and they’re pumping your gas, delivering your new couch, painting your house, or picking up your garbage. You’re not going to ask for their autograph (or pay for one at a card show) and if he tells you that he used to be a minor league ballplayer who said no to drugs you’d likely think “Yeah? So what?” and later tell your buddies about this pathetic guy telling you his life story.

Seriously, if you’ve ever watched one of those “reality” TV shows, then you know what people will do to themselves in the name of fortune and fame. What is missing from their lives that they would gladly sacrifice (pardon me for sounding a bit Klingon here) ideals such as honor and integrity in favor of the almighty dollar?

I have no idea, and frankly, I can’t begin to imagine. There are many ways a person can be rich. Having lots of money is only one of them, and I’m not sure it’s the best.

I also don’t know how the powers-that-be are going to solve this problem on their current tack. Punishment after the fact is useful to a degree but it doesn’t solve the underlying issues. On the bright side, it gives cheaters incentive to get better at hiding their misdeeds. Hey, at least they’re improving at something…