We’re sick of writing about steroids, and we just started this blog.  So this is not a post about how sports other than baseball have a rampant steroid problem, and nobody’s doing anything about it.  It’s not a post about who goes in what hall of fame with what non-alphanumeric character as a superscript to their name.  We ’spose we’ll have to weigh in on those things at some point, but right now this just ain’t it.

Right now, what UPH is thinking about is other drugs in sports, and the effect that the steroid-permissive culture might have on them.  Now that we’ve told you what the post is going to be about, we guess you don’t have to click the jump, but if you want to, feel free to Josh Hamilton, whose struggles with alcohol and cocaine, among other drugs, almost derailed his promising career, admitted a few days ago that he fell off the wagon: not just one drink, in fact, but a whole bender.  And yes, we know that for former addicts one drink can be just as bad–we’re not claiming to be experts on alcoholism, so please don’t jump on us for that part.  You’ll miss our point, and if you’ve read this far, that would be sad.

Hamilton made a drunk idiot out of himself with some girls, and then he called his support system–wife, manager, GM, teammates–and explained himself and asked for help, as he has so many times before.  The former number one draft pick went to rehab many times before it stuck, but stuck it has, and he is brave and responsible for owning up to his error and describing it in unflinching language.  This is a man who isn’t letting himself off the hook.

How hard is it to be Josh Hamilton? We don’t pretend we could possibly know, but it must be fairly hard.  Pro sports, looking only at bare facts, puts a lot of young guys together, often, in cities they don’t know, with tons of money, tons of new friends, and some serious time on their hands.  Also, half the time (if you play for a .500 team, that is), you’ve got something to celebrate, too.  Falling into drug or alcohol addiction in those circumstances makes as much sense as it can make in any.

Without getting too personal, let us say that UPH’s life has been touched by addiction: we can’t imagine the worry, the pain, and most staggeringly–to us at least–the trust it takes for a friend or family member of a player prone to addictive behaviors to let that player go out on the road.

But the worst part of this?  Certainly, there are players out there who will support others in sobriety, and who will act as sponsers, and do whatever else they can.  But in some ways, they may be fighting a losing battle, because whether or not we as fans want to face it, athletes take drugs.  They use substances–legal or not–to enhance performance.  While nobody’s equating a snort of coke with a shady supplement, the lines are blurry.  Some athletes use amphetimines.  So do some addicts.  How can anyone be sure the culture of the locker room and clubhouse isn’t colliding with the circumstances of an athlete’s free time to make addiction all the more likely?

We can’t.

And that’s the saddest part of the steroids thing.