Customer Reviews

When Winning Costs Too Much: Steroids, Supplements, and Scandal in Today's Sports World

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This book is about winning at all costs in the sports world. Rampant use of drugs and steroids to enhance performances from Olympics to individual games show the decline in the sports ofr sports sake mentality. Two of my sons played sports as youngsters and high school athletes. The other was the best lifeguard in Pulaski, and one used steroids. I, on the other hand, have had to use them twice for a stubborn ear infection which just won't ever go away.

Winning costs too much in all aspects of life. When we win, that means that someone else loses. Fighting for the sake of winning in marriage, work competition, other debates, and just living day-to-day takes its toll on our health. If we win, we get overly excited putting stress on the heart. If we lose, it also puts too much stress on the heart and I'm not talking about our heart-strings (romance). We all want to win at whatever we try. Here lately, I don't seem to be winning at any of my endeavors and, believe me, that hurts more than having a heart attack, At least, that's a fast way to go and the pain goes away.

We have brought up this generation to win or don't ever try again. In earlier eras, it was war which took its toll on our young men who were trained to win at all costs. War kills indiscriminately. But so does retaliation, resentment, hate, and being torn apart by strangers who need not inerfere in our lives in the first place. Today, everyone is a critic and set out to hurt feelings and make ourselves felt. Who cares whether you actually know the person you are flailing out at and hurting their feelings? That makes it impersonal. It makes the critic feel important and gets his venom out of his system onto an unsuspecting victim randomly chosen.

It is rewarding to win ball games, band competitions, debates, disagreements over things which are very important to you; it is hard to always be the loser. I try so hard, and yet fail to achieve the things I want to do to leave a legacy behind to be a contributing citizen and someone what made a difference in her hometown. Not having money makes it a hundredfold harder to win at issues, political and otherwise, but important all the same. We are overlooked because we don't have influence and money for lawyers to fight our battles for us. We're on our own and have to take responsibility for our stands in all walks of life.

Sure, it is fun and rewarding to be a winner. But we can't always do it and should never depend on drugs or others to take the blame for our failures. I failed as a mother, though God knows I tried to protect and teach my sons the way they should act according to Abou Ben Adhem whose legacy was theat God blessed him because he loved his fellowman. I may not love men per se, and I certainly don't even like women very much, but I strive to be fair and just in all of my dealings with those in power and the poor homeless I see everyday on the public buses and at the public library. Life is not fair. But it is what we make it. Strive for winning without scandal, or unjust criticism. It can be done, and God willing, I will survive to fight other battles and win a few along the way.

Although it would take a naïve person to believe that steroid abuse is not prevalent in sports, this preeminent novel highlights scandals and stories that have plagued the purity of sports. When Winning Cost too Much goes into detail about the negative affects of steroid abuse and how it is changing the nature of sports. Sports figures are idolized by society, but how can we idolize athletes that "cheat the system." Do we encourage our children to cheat on their math tests? This is a great book, that will have you questioning modern day sports.

When Winning Costs Too Much is a great book that not only covers anabolic steroids and supplements but concussions, fair play, sportsmanship, officiating, media, and authority surrounding sports. I really like the presentation and logic of the arguments presented by the authors, and clearly, they have literally hit the spot. It makes total sense to me, and I agree with everything. I just got a better idea. Why not just give out a lifetime ban from any sport to anybody for the first drug offense? I guarantee you that the players are going to immediately clean up their behaviors, and guess what...the number of fans will actually increase. On the other hand, I can't believe that the authors decided to include George W. Bush, Carl Lewis, and Myles Brand as proponents against the issues of anabolic steroids and unethical behaviors. Before Bush was the President of United States, he was the owner of the Texas Rangers that included Jose Canseco, Ivan Rodriguez Rafael Palmeiro, and Alex Rodriguez who were taking anabolic steroids during that period. There is no way that he couldn't have known what was going on. And also, his father hired Arnold Schwarzenegger, a major user of steroids during his bodybuilding days, to be the chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Carl Lewis, the supposed victim of the scandal that Ben Johnson caused in 1988 Olympics, actually failed drug tests which were all covered up by Olympics officials because he was from USA whereas Ben Johnson was from Canada. Myles Brand was the president of Indiana University and became the president of NCAA. From 2002 to 2009, Brand saw NCAA football and basketball to be billion dollar companies where lack of discipline and punishment have run rampant. So, if Myles Brand was the president and he preached on ethics, so why didn't he do anything to curb the problem? You know how much he was paid for a year? At least $895,000...I'll bet a lot of that money was in form of bribery to keep his mouth shut and look at the other way. Oh...get out of my face, and stop playing the hypocrite. After the solutions are presented in the book, they do deserve merit. But, let's get real...nothing is ever going to happen because the almighty dollar will always rule. I loved the interview between the author and a referee, and it was a side that I never knew before. There is an outstanding story on Mike Hall, a powerlifter from Delaware. Meanwhile, I wished that the authors would denounce ESPN for being one of the biggest culprits to the problems facing sports today. All in all, When Winning Costs Too Much is a great insight of what's really happening in sports, academics, and society, and after five years, nothing has changed.