Lanced

No, I don't want to talk about Lance Armstrong, except in the context of steroids, PED's, doping, and other enhancements in sports.  Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France wins for doping.  The titles did not go to the second place finishers.  They were doping too.  When asked if he thought he was cheating, Armstrong didn't think so since he was just doing what his competitors were doing.

I used to watch cycling races and enjoyed it quite a bit.  I was never really on the Armstrong bandwagon, but I did take a ride on the Greg Lemond one.  During the Armstrong era, it was no longer about the sport, it was about him.  The sport was just a vehicle to promote Armstrong.  Then came the doping allegations, the constant scandal, the image that the sport was nothing but dirty, and then it disappeared for me.  Anybody left that's interested in cycling is hardcore, or only watching for the scandals and the tainted personalities. 

All I could think of is that could have been baseball.  The McGwire/Sosa home run duel was what brought the steroid scandal in the sport into focus.  Whether it was because some journalists were righteously miffed that the single season home run record was about to be broken by a pair of juiced players, or just a jealous desire to tear down heroes, the spotlight that the MLB had brought upon itself, had also brought its dirty little secret into the light. 

Imagine a world where this didn't happen.  Things look pretty good at first.  McGwire, Sosa, and later Bonds (and maybe others) become sports icons and baseball's popularity rises.  ("Chicks dig the long ball," after all.)  As the years go on, more and more players feel compelled to start bulking up themselves, until it's virtually expected for every player.  This filters down through the minors and foreign leagues.  At the college level, it's still prohibited, but best players already avoid playing in the metal stick league anyway.  Then it filters down to levels where testing is going to prove almost impossible, and then...

All good things must come to an end.  Something will bring out the scandal.  The heroes will be shattered.  The sheer pervasiveness of steroid use at every level of the game will shock the nation, especially the kids juicing.  They'll all say the same thing, "We had to.  Everybody was doing it."  As bad as the Black Sox scandal was to the integrity to the sport, this will eclipse it.  Oh, baseball will reform itself and promise a "clean" game and "clean" players, but the sport will be dirty for a long time.  It'll be made worse as all the juiced ex-players become a circus side show in the media.  Everytime a player gets caught using in the "clean" league, the fans will just shake their heads and tune out the game.

Hmm.  Seems like some of this actually did happen.  Thankfully, the players and the league apparently saw this scenario unfolding and did something about it, a little late, but definitely better than too late.