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When Winning Costs Too Much: Steroids, Supplements, and Scandal in Today's Sports World
The authors combine to produce a work that addresses some of the most pressing issues in athletics today. While the book focuses primarily on steroid and supplement abuse, it also covers unethical practices on the part of some coaches and athletes to gain a competitive edge. Finally, it offers healthy alternatives to supplements for athletes wishing to gain size and strength without putting their future health at risk.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published March 10, 2005
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April 6, 2017
DNF at 136 pages.
Even if I didn't disagree with large portions of this book, I still couldn't imagine most people finding it useful. Big chunks of the text (I'd estimate almost half) consist of bulleted lists of examples that support the author's point - the lists tend to be redundant and go on far longer than they need to. The result is that the authors spend a lot of time establishing that a particular phenomenon exists, but almost no time in describing the causes or the implications of this phenomenon. Because of this, the book feels almost childishly basic, spending little time on the complexities and gray areas of these problems and their solutions. Everything is just a little too clear-cut here, giving me the impression that the authors just weren't very connected to the realities of sports.
Additionally, the book is very unfocused. The title and summary suggest that it's going to focus on two things: steroids, and the win-at-all costs mentality. So it's pretty surprising when, after the first half of the book, there's basically no further discussion of steroid use, instead focusing on other problems with sports (such as deaths by heat strokes and referees being assaulted by coaches and fans).* It also alternates between focusing on professional-level and high school-level sports, making it difficult to identify exactly where the authors are trying to enact change. Finally, the authors put surprisingly little time and effort into deconstructing and dismantling the win-at-all-costs mentality. They even seem to accept it as a simple fact of life, suggesting that cheating will always happen and the only thing we can do is make it more difficult, an idea I completely disagree with. Instead, the authors take the far less convincing route of blaming steroid use (and other issues in sports) primarily on America's 'moral decline' and the decay of 'family values'. I guess if you buy into that rhetoric, you might get some satisfaction from reading this book, but frankly, I think it does these issues a disservice to blame them on something so subjective and abstract. I got the distinct impression that the authors believed most problems in the world could be traced to the decay of family values, and they seem to believe that they don't have to explain why things like divorce lead to steroid use - they simply see it as self-explanatory. To give you an idea of how far this goes, this book is explicitly pro-life, despite the fact that it has nothing to do with abortion. The authors draw a connection between the belief that abortion is okay and the prevalence of steroid use and other cheating, without explaining that connection at all.
There is accurate information in this book, and if you're doing research on outlandish stories of violence and mayhem in sporting events, this book contains quite a few lists you'll find useful. But if you're looking for a comprehensive look at the causes and solutions to steroid use, I would find something else.
*In case you're wondering how I got to the second half of the book when I abandoned it so early - I read this book for research purposes, so I skipped around reading the chapters that had information I needed, so I've effectively sampled every part of the book.
Even if I didn't disagree with large portions of this book, I still couldn't imagine most people finding it useful. Big chunks of the text (I'd estimate almost half) consist of bulleted lists of examples that support the author's point - the lists tend to be redundant and go on far longer than they need to. The result is that the authors spend a lot of time establishing that a particular phenomenon exists, but almost no time in describing the causes or the implications of this phenomenon. Because of this, the book feels almost childishly basic, spending little time on the complexities and gray areas of these problems and their solutions. Everything is just a little too clear-cut here, giving me the impression that the authors just weren't very connected to the realities of sports.
Additionally, the book is very unfocused. The title and summary suggest that it's going to focus on two things: steroids, and the win-at-all costs mentality. So it's pretty surprising when, after the first half of the book, there's basically no further discussion of steroid use, instead focusing on other problems with sports (such as deaths by heat strokes and referees being assaulted by coaches and fans).* It also alternates between focusing on professional-level and high school-level sports, making it difficult to identify exactly where the authors are trying to enact change. Finally, the authors put surprisingly little time and effort into deconstructing and dismantling the win-at-all-costs mentality. They even seem to accept it as a simple fact of life, suggesting that cheating will always happen and the only thing we can do is make it more difficult, an idea I completely disagree with. Instead, the authors take the far less convincing route of blaming steroid use (and other issues in sports) primarily on America's 'moral decline' and the decay of 'family values'. I guess if you buy into that rhetoric, you might get some satisfaction from reading this book, but frankly, I think it does these issues a disservice to blame them on something so subjective and abstract. I got the distinct impression that the authors believed most problems in the world could be traced to the decay of family values, and they seem to believe that they don't have to explain why things like divorce lead to steroid use - they simply see it as self-explanatory. To give you an idea of how far this goes, this book is explicitly pro-life, despite the fact that it has nothing to do with abortion. The authors draw a connection between the belief that abortion is okay and the prevalence of steroid use and other cheating, without explaining that connection at all.
There is accurate information in this book, and if you're doing research on outlandish stories of violence and mayhem in sporting events, this book contains quite a few lists you'll find useful. But if you're looking for a comprehensive look at the causes and solutions to steroid use, I would find something else.
*In case you're wondering how I got to the second half of the book when I abandoned it so early - I read this book for research purposes, so I skipped around reading the chapters that had information I needed, so I've effectively sampled every part of the book.
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