Sports assume important social-cultural and economic roles in the society. Through sports, people earn local and national recognition based on their prowess. High performing sports men and women have built strong profile and earned international recognition because of their ability to shine in different sports. The high desire of emerging victorious in the sports has made some individuals use weakened means of enhancing their performance. Joe Posnanski suggests that sports; especially baseball is characterized with high levels of cheating (Posnanski, 556). This paper focuses on the article Cheating and Cheating to highlight why sports matter.
Sports matter because the society highly ranks the individuals who participate in sports. Furthermore, the society accord high respect to individuals who show exemplary performance in sports. Constantly, athletes and sportsmen are under pressure from the society to perform greatly in sports. This situation affirms that the society highly values sports, which means sports matter. The pressure on athletes and sportsmen make them engage in cheating. They try to use performance-enhancing drugs such as Amphetamines to build up endurance during games and perform according to the expectations of their fans (Posnanski, 558). The pressure not to disappoint their fans and to win forces these sportsmen to cheat by enhancing performance.
According to Posnanski, performance enhancement by use of drugs has not come up recently. He quotes Mays who says that during his time in sports he would ask the doctor for something to keep him going. The doctor would hand him some liquid to enhance his performance. Mays did not ask any questions to his doctor (Posnanski, 557). He would use the liquid and perform well in sports. This shows that sportsmen have been under pressure for a long time.
Sports are important because they present high levels of ability. Joe argues that the society regards successful sports men and women as individuals of unique ability. This shows that sports show the level of hard work and effort that an individual puts into achieving. He also claims that different sportsmen in the past would base their use of steroids on other sportsmen (Posnanski, 559). Sportsmen would claim that they cheated because other sportsmen cheated too. They would use this excuse to show that the cheating did not help them because they all cheated. When an individual excels in sports people, think of him as having put much energy into sports.
Sports are important because they produce a winner. These winners become titleholders in sports like baseball and basketball. Becoming a titleholder is a prestigious. Therefore, sports enable people to earn respect from other individuals. Though the article majorly covers baseball and baseball players, holding a title in any sport brings the feeling of pride (Posnanski, 556). Titleholders leave behind a legacy for people to try to break their records. This means that through sports people remember and celebrate them for years.
Sports matter because they foster socialization, unite people and are of high economic gains. People come together to watch their favorite sports and cheer for their favorite sportsmen and women. Sports provide a chance for people to interact as they watch different games. The adrenaline during different games makes sports to matter. The urge to shine pressures sports women and men to engage in cheating. The media has made cheating in sports known to the public. However, cheating in sports has been the trend since the 80s.
Works Cited
Posnanski, Joe, “Cheating and CHEATING” They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing: With Readings. Graff, Gerald, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel K. Durst. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2009.
