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Bigger, Stronger, Faster
****
Steroids are intrinsically bad. They transform the men who take them into raging monsters who are certain to beat their wives and cheat at sports just before their reproductive organs shrivel up. Right?
Documentary filmmaker Chris Bell tosses out the media hype and the half-truths in “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” and challenges us to take a fresh look at the steroid issue.
Bell does not use steroids and was always leery of them. But when he observed that his two body-builder brothers used steroids for years without any major physical or psychological side effects, he began to think that the dangers and evils of doping may have been greatly exaggerated.
The film condemns society at large, but particularly the government.
Bell portrays the US Congress as a pack of irresponsible grandstanders and blowhards who are quick to ruin people’s lives without having any knowledge of the issues they champion.
Bell likens the Congressional hearings on doping in baseball to the HUAC witch hunts of the 1950s (“are you or have you ever been a member of the steroid party?”). He also points out the disgraceful fact that the House of Representatives spends more time scolding pro athletes than researching what can be done to improve the situation in Iraq.
I heartily applaud Bell for taking an unpopular stance on one of the hot-button issues of our time. I agree with the filmmaker that the scourge of steroids has been blown out of proportion and that sportsmen who doped in the past have been unnecessarily vilified.
It seems like humanity has a perverse tendency to lionize great people and then discredit them for not living up to our lofty expectations. I sincerely believe that Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds Đ the finest pitcher and position player of the past quarter century Đ are the victims of mankind’s insatiable appetite to destroy the heroes that we once exalted.
Barry Bonds’s dominance did not stem from his biceps but rather his eyes. He had the amazing ability to patiently take ball after ball when pitchers wouldn’t give him anything to hit. Somehow Bonds was always ready to pounce on any mistake over the plate.
But Bonds is a fraud, critics will say, because he cheated to get the home run title. For starters, Bonds did not ask to be the home run champion. He just did his job, which was to help his team win and to entertain the fans who paid his salary.
I also think that baseball fans of the future will be savvy enough to recognize that Bonds is not necessarily the best power hitter of all time. He is the best power hitter of the Steroid Era. Nothing more. But certainly nothing less.
Every era is different. Were MLB hitters in the 1940s frauds because they played in a segregated league and therefore did not have to face the best minority pitchers of their time?
Should 1960s Tigers hurler Denny McLain’s mark of 30 wins in a season have an asterisk next to it because he had the advantage of pitching off a higher mound, was part of a four man rotation, and had the luxury of facing pitchers rather than DHs?
Every milestone is relative. Baseball isn’t always fair, much like life. Is it really reasonable or productive or kind to hate a man who did nothing more than play the game he loved?
Bell certainly never argues that juicing up is a wise choice for young people. What he does argue Đ persuasively Đ is that steroids aren’t fundamentally different than a dozen other legal performance enhancers that people use to try to get an edge.
Bell’s sobering conclusion is that has no chance of wiping out the steroid epidemic unless it stops telling young athletes that finishing second is failure and stops teaching boys to be ashamed of their bodies unless they are rippling with muscles.
“Bigger, Stronger, Faster” is a bold, thought-provoking, and important documentary. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
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