Lupica and Costas, a two-fer.

"And while we’re on the subject of false narratives, how about the one that you hear at this time of year around baseball, equating amphetamine use out of baseball’s past with steroids, as if both of them are exactly the same.

Well, yeah, just not on this planet.

Here’s what Bob Costas said on this subject the other day:"

They're not exactly the same, but they're similar in the following way: Both are illegal performance-enhancing substances.


" 'Steroids are performance enhancers. Amphetamines are performance enablers…(Amphetamines) do not, and did not, transform them, as steroids did.' "

Correct.

Amphetamines are not as effective as steroids.

If you look up "enhance" in the thesaurus, you will see "enable." You're just letting guys off the hook because they played in the '70s and you like them.


" 'That doesn’t mean they should not have been banned. One effect has been that older players on the back end of lucrative long term deals, can’t play 150 games anymore, or be as generally effective as the season and seasons roll on. So, along with the ban on PEDS, and emphasis on analytics, it has changed contract calculations. All reasonable. But not at all reasonable to remotely equate amphetamines to steroids.' "

It’s not.

Costas is right."

If a baseball player took amphetamines without a prescription, then that baseball player was cheating.

Amphetamines "enable" superior baseball performance, just like steroids, only less effectively than steroids.


"You want to defend the right of steroid users to get into the Hall of Fame, have at it."

"The right" to get into the Hall of Fame, as if this was a matter for the Supreme Court.

Besides, we all know steroid users have already been voted into the Hall of Fame.

Unless you're intentionally burying your head in the sand. Why would a baseball fan, baseball journalist, or voting member of the BBWAA want to intentionally bury their heads in the sand?


"But if you want Bonds and Clemens in Cooperstown, you’ve got to bring a lot more to your side of the debate than greenies."

Easy.

Bonds and Clemens were among the greatest players in baseball history before they took steroids.