Bigger, Faster, Stronger

I've had this movie on my Netflix queue for about 3 months now, and finally got around to checking it out last night. It was a little eye-opening. You know, like when you hear that fat is bad for you every day but then realize that there is really no evidence to support it?

Well, that is similar to what I got from Bigger, Faster, Stronger. It is a documentary led by Chris Bell that covers the steroid controversy through his eyes and through the eyes of his two brothers, Mike and Mark. Basically, he takes us on a journey through baseball's BALCO affair, Arnold's run at the Olympia, Henry Waxman's reasoning behind the ban (probably one of the more embarassing parts of the movie for the U.S. and politics as a whole), the Don Hooten accusation that steroids killed his depressed son, and then interviews with a number of people who actually seem to know what they're talking about and have scientific evidence to back it up.

The best argument in the film was while reading off a list of side effects of an unknown drug. AFter listing 15-20 adverse affects we find that this "drug" is Vitamin C. The argument ends with statistics showing upwards of 50,000 deaths a year for alcohol, slightly less for tobacco, and 3 for anabolic steroids. Now we're left to ponder why the other two aren't banned substances as well.

Now let me get this straight, although I don't feel steroids are bad for you, there are no known studies that convincingly prove this (and there will be no steroid study, because it would be medically unethical now that it's banned), I don't think I'll be taking them in my lifetime. I just found this extremely interesting that people are so offended by steroid use when the medical uses of steroids have saved lives since the early 1930s. Seems to me this whole steroid ban is like "looking the gift horse in the mouth." It did just about save baseball before Congress came down on it, and now baseball's boring again....