Line between ‘reality and unreality’ in sports blurred

Given the American League award for most valuable player in 2000, he signed with the New York Yankees for a reported seven-year, $120 million contract the following baseball season. Hitting 155 home runs and batting more than .300 each season from 1999-2002, he earned the reputation of being a super slugger and was a hero to kids of all ages.

Unfortunately, his heroics on the ball diamond always will be clouded by the means he chose to achieve them.

Jason Giambi is the latest athlete to come clean with regard to use of variety of performance-enhancing substances — including self-injecting human growth hormone (hGH) — in pursuit of athletic fame and fortune. Faced with testifying before a grand jury, he reversed earlier denials that he cheated chemically for at least three seasons.

Giambi is certainly not the only athlete to use hGH. The hormone has been around for decades and is considered to be one of the most widely used banned substances in the sports world.

It is purported to increase muscle mass, allow faster recovery times after workouts, and — until recently — has been virtually undetectable in standard drug-screening tests given to athletes. The 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens marked the first use of a blood test for hGH in competitors.

What is less widely known is abuse of hGH can cause high blood pressure, numbness in the fingers, fluid retention and an increase in blood sugar. A person’s liver, thyroid and heart may be damaged, and acromegaly (a disease that causes bones in the hands, jaw, brow and feet to enlarge) may develop.

Teens whose bodies are still producing natural human growth hormone are at an even greater risk of harmful consequences from taking the substance. Instead of pumping up and growing stronger, taking hGH actually may cause a youth to shrink, as the excessive dose may cause joints to close.

However, the core of the problem is not hGH, the specific athletes who misuse it, or the legal ramifications involved — indeed, it is highly unlikely any legal action will deter athletes from taking hGH. If the pressure to perform is great enough, the risk of getting caught will be ignored.

No, the core of the problem — the driving force behind the continued use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs — is the sports audience, it is you and me.

We — who have a seemingly insatiable desire to be entertained by these modern-day gladiators — are the real issue. We want thrills — slam dunks, crushing tackles, perfect dives, Jason Giambi home runs — in exchange for our hefty admission fees.

The reality is that in our society, enhanced entertainment is the norm, and it’s in more than just the sports arena.

In a world where digital technology allows even the most mediocre musical performance to become outstanding or where “ordinary” people compete for million dollar prizes by becoming island castaways, few are satisfied with watching athletes who are anything less than spectacular. This type of enhanced entertainment however, can easily become confused with reality.

In the case of sports, the line between reality (genuine athletic prowess) and unreality (the enhanced performance of someone on hGH, for example) easily becomes blurred. Under such conditions, it becomes difficult to foster the power of determination and hard work that lies deep within each of us. And, as the saying goes, we either “Use it or lose it.”

Most importantly, our children learn from our reaction to artificially enhanced entertainment. They quickly “get” the contradictory message — drugs are bad, but superhuman performance is good — and they are understandably confused when confronted with making personal decisions regarding use of performance enhancers.

We as adults must wean ourselves from supporting enhanced “reality” and show our kids that in real life everyone is not a stellar athlete, it really is more about how you play the game than whether you win.

Personally, I would love to see our new societal role models become those nonenhanced professional baseball players who struggle to hit 35 homers a year, or amateur runners who rejoice in completing a nonchemically assisted four-minute mile.

That’s really what sports — and life — are all about.

Judy Shepps Battle

Kendall Park section

of South Brunswick