As the A-Rod drama reminds us, the whole steroid hysteria surrounding Major League Baseball is a perplexing thing. It’s not that anyone should use steroids. Almost all available evidence tells us that they’re dangerous. But football players are about twice the size of their MLB counterparts, yet no one seems to care. Hockey and basketball players are also much larger, but there’s very little noise about it.

I would assume baseball received special attention (even Congressional hearings) because the Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds years saw the obliteration of the single-season and career home-run records, which were considered “sacred” for some reason. (Even when Roger Maris nosed out Babe Ruth’s record in 1961 with no suspicions of cheating, he was reviled. Hank Aaron, a great gentleman, received death threats when approaching Ruth’s career record, though those were motivated mostly by racism.)

Some sportswriters with a particularly moralistic bent have been unleashing fire and brimstone, reminding us about an earlier, cleaner era of baseball which never existed. Baseball has always been rife with drugs and cheating. Just because the drugs have gotten more effective doesn’t really change that. Some of the most famous players in history used amphetamines. Bob Costas may have arranged it in his head that amphetamines are “performance-enablers” and not “performance-enhancers,” but that isn’t so. It’s just a rationalization. (I think the best description of Newt Gingrich likewise suits Costas: He’s a dumb person’s idea of what a smart person sounds like.)

All this hand-wringing over a lost idyllic past is not dissimilar to politicians who sell nostalgia for an earlier, more-perfect America. You know, the one with much more racism and sexism and inferior medicine and science. It’s not that baseball shouldn’t try to keep the sport as drug-free as possible just because PEDs have always been used, but it shouldn’t be a dishonest, moralistic pursuit of a history that simply didn’t occur.

From Scott Lemieux at Deadspin: 

“Singling out Rodriguez is a perfect symbol of anti-PED hysteria. First, there’s the singling out of baseball players in general. Almost nobody cares about NFL players who use PEDs, although PED use in the NFL can actually result in players better able to inflict injuries on each other. This should make it clear that whatever our anti-PED hysteria is about, it’s not about a concern for the health of the athletes. People who (like me) watch the NFL—let alone people who make a good living covering it—really can’t get on their high horse about the health effects of PEDs. Injecting yourself with Human Growth Hormone is certainly a lot safer than playing a sport in which the normal course of action results in hits that might slowly turn your brain to mush. Nor is it obvious why taking PEDs is considered highly objectionable but taking cortisone to play through terrible knee or back injuries is considered part of the game.

The anti-PED hysteria isn’t about the cheating, either. High-level athletes will always seek an edge. “