Why is Mike Lowell right? Why is Merriman's positive test ignored?

[Karak567]

I think he's right, but why is this happening?

Sorry if this has already been discussed.

“You know, one thing I find funny is that Shawne Merriman tests positive (for steroids) - and I love Shawne Merriman - but it’s basically dismissed,” Lowell said. “But a baseball player does it and it’s like the end of the world. I find it kind of ironic that we let that pass and we’re talking about Barry Bonds taking amphetamines. “I’m not agreeing with anyone or disagreeing, but it shows how much baseball has been singled out.”

[Colt McCoy]

I think it's due to a couple fo things:

1 - For some reason baseball's records are considered much more sacred to its fans than football's are. Watch a football movie and a baseball movie sometime for examples of how we like to view the two sports. Football movies feature fast action with bodies flying, big hits and usually someone getting injured and ruining a career. Baseball movies tend to end with a homerun, it's always a perfect, beautiful, slow-motion swing. It's pure. It's just how fans like to envision the two games" brutal vs. pure & beautiful.

2 - I think people just assume that a 350-pound man that runs a 4.5 is juicing. Because of the brutality of the game, we want to see bigger, stronger guys playing it and we're willing to overlook how they got that way. But I think it's largely just that we've assumed for years that they already were so we've accepted it.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

not sure, but maybe b/c the public has long assumed that NFL players were on the juice/HGH, while baseball players were considered to be pure b/c that stuff couldn't help you hit a baseball.

[Russ M.]

Baseball is also considered much more family-friendly than football. Baseball is a nice day out at the park on a Saturday while Football is a nasty beat-everybody-up game in the snow and rain and sleet on Sunday. Just a different atmosphere.

[ThaSaltCracka]

America is a football crazy country. We don't care how the product ends up on the field, we just want it to be exciting. For whatever reason, baseball is held to a different standard. Oddly enough, the NBA seems to be held to a different standard as well.

[LionelHutz00]

because Merriman is innocent.

[Sluss]

With the relative newness of the MLB testing everytime anything comes up it's news. Plus we still have that feeling that a bunch of guys still in the game "got away with it."

The NFL testing has been around for so long that we are used to these "supplement" positive tests. We figure that there are going to be guys taking everything they can and some will run afoul of the testing.

When LT tested positive it was a big story. Now who cares. People test positive all of the time. We just figure it was something they took that they didn't know it was on the list.

We don't have that image of two guys in a bathroom stall sticking each other with needles anymore, like we still do with MLB.

[AngusThermopyle]

1. Dismissed? Merriman was suspended 4 games and lost 25% of his salary. I don't know what the follow-up restrictions are, but one more "accident" and Merriman is toast. Any MLB players get suspended 40 games for steroid use?

2. "and we’re talking about Barry Bonds taking amphetamines." The only reason the Bonds/amphetamines story is news is because of the Bonds/steroids story. Lowell seems to miss that point.

[Matt Williams]

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The only reason the Bonds/amphetamines story is news is because of the Bonds/steroids story. Lowell seems to miss that point.

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I disagree. If any star in baseball was caught w/ amps., it would be a story. Maybe even more so than it already is. With Bonds being caught, no one is surprised. If it were Jeter or Pujols, it would be a major story.

[zer0]

[ QUOTE ]
1. Dismissed? Merriman was suspended 4 games and lost 25% of his salary. I don't know what the follow-up restrictions are, but one more "accident" and Merriman is toast. Any MLB players get suspended 40 games for steroid use?


[/ QUOTE ]

i think he's referring to the fact that he was voted to the pro bowl, is getting halftime interview ballwashings, and was a serious contender for defensive player of the year. meanwhile, mark mcgwire is blacklisted cause someone thinks he might have cheated 5 years ago.