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Athletes on Steroids
Aired December 04, 2003 - 14:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So what do baseball fans think about steroid use? I assume they're none too happy about it. Frank Newport is the editor in chief of the Gallup poll. He has the results for us.
Hello, Frank.
FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR IN CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Hello, Miles.
We have been tracking this. You know, baseball fans are actually more concerned about other things. And when we gave them the list, things like disparity and the amount of money teams have. Steroids is down on the list. However, we do know that baseball fans tend to think that -- or at least some baseball fans think that a lot of players were on steroids. I think some players, estimated 80 percent or more, of their fellow players were on steroids a few years ago. We asked fans, that's what you're looking at, to tell us whether they think more or half or less than half are on steroids. And a third said more than half of major league baseball players are on steroids. Almost no baseball fans, just 2 percent, think that none are on steroids. So every baseball fan essentially assumes that some baseball players are actually using those kind of performance- enhancing drugs.
And the idea of testing, Miles, overwhelmingly, this has gone up over the last six months. Nine out of 10 say yes, they love the idea that baseball players be routinely tested for that use those kinds of drugs.
O'BRIEN: All right, is it possible, though, that some fans might actually think the game would get a little more boring if these players weren't bulked up on steroids and hitting these dingers?
NEWPORT: That's an interesting point, as we just saw. Barry Bonds has bulked up, but he has provided a lot of excitement to baseball fans, no matter what was going on chemically inside his body, and that's what we kind of found when we asked baseball fans that. We said if there was no steroid use, would it make the game better? Only 43 percent said yes; 42 percent said it would have no impact, and there's 13 percent at least that tell us in our poll they're on the right-hand side, Miles, that if steroids were banned, the game would be worse, it wouldn't be as exciting. So it's kind of a complex picture as far as your average fan is concerned.
O'BRIEN: I guess everything about baseball is complex. Frank Newport, thank you very much. Frank is with the Gallup Poll, of course.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 4, 2003 - 14:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So what do baseball fans think about steroid use? I assume they're none too happy about it. Frank Newport is the editor in chief of the Gallup poll. He has the results for us.
Hello, Frank.
FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR IN CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Hello, Miles.
We have been tracking this. You know, baseball fans are actually more concerned about other things. And when we gave them the list, things like disparity and the amount of money teams have. Steroids is down on the list. However, we do know that baseball fans tend to think that -- or at least some baseball fans think that a lot of players were on steroids. I think some players, estimated 80 percent or more, of their fellow players were on steroids a few years ago. We asked fans, that's what you're looking at, to tell us whether they think more or half or less than half are on steroids. And a third said more than half of major league baseball players are on steroids. Almost no baseball fans, just 2 percent, think that none are on steroids. So every baseball fan essentially assumes that some baseball players are actually using those kind of performance- enhancing drugs.
And the idea of testing, Miles, overwhelmingly, this has gone up over the last six months. Nine out of 10 say yes, they love the idea that baseball players be routinely tested for that use those kinds of drugs.
O'BRIEN: All right, is it possible, though, that some fans might actually think the game would get a little more boring if these players weren't bulked up on steroids and hitting these dingers?
NEWPORT: That's an interesting point, as we just saw. Barry Bonds has bulked up, but he has provided a lot of excitement to baseball fans, no matter what was going on chemically inside his body, and that's what we kind of found when we asked baseball fans that. We said if there was no steroid use, would it make the game better? Only 43 percent said yes; 42 percent said it would have no impact, and there's 13 percent at least that tell us in our poll they're on the right-hand side, Miles, that if steroids were banned, the game would be worse, it wouldn't be as exciting. So it's kind of a complex picture as far as your average fan is concerned.
O'BRIEN: I guess everything about baseball is complex. Frank Newport, thank you very much. Frank is with the Gallup Poll, of course.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
