Have steroids turned baseball upside down?
Even with all the talk of Barry Bonds and steroids, baseball is seeing a power surge going this season, which has fans scratching their heads in terms of what’s going on. If the buffed up sluggers have stopped 
taking their roids, what’s going on with the game when an unknown youngster like Chris Shelton is leading the major leagues in home runs? Answers aren’t always as visible and easy as what meets the eye.
Barry Bonds hasn’t hit a home run yet this season and his team the San Francisco Giants, can’t seem to take the ball out of the park much so far this season. Of course they haven’t been to Colorado yet, and we all know that park has historically cured the weakest hitting teams of their lack of power surge. Chris Shelton on the other hand, seems to get at least one home run each game, even while Detroit seems to be remembering they are Detroit after such a fast 5-0 start to the season. No reason to believe steroids, but we’ve come to the point of always wondering when someone hits too many home runs. Albert Pujols is jacking home runs on balls that seem to be in his eyes.Not Albert Pujols right? I don’t know, but we wondered about Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and now Barry Bonds. Pujols is a great hitter, but you never know with the insane home runs he keeps on hitting now. I question why anyone even throws him a strike though. Most teams have no choice but to pitch to him with that ridiculous line-up in St. Louis.
Most people assume it’s just the hitters that have juiced up to hit all those home runs, but why would you assume it’s only the hitters. I used to wonder what kind of an advantage could a pitcher get from steroids? How can bigger, stronger muscles unable you to pitch a ball faster? I still don’t know, but quite a few relief pitchers have been caught juicing and just recently, a minor league pitcher was the first player in professional ball to get the mandatory 50 game suspension. Will the major leagues ever suspend someone that’s a star for that same 50 games to set an example? Pitchers are now losing up to 5 miles per hour on their fastballs on a regular basis. Is this just a coincidence or have many of them gone off of the juice?
A bigger thought is whether fans have really lost faith in the game because of all this steroid use. What are the fans’ thoughts on the use of performance enhancing drugs to increase strength or even just to keep them physically and mentally aware enough to make it through a 162 game season. Some of the older retired players are now admitting that players used amphetamines and other drugs to keep them wired up enough to get them on the field every day. With these admissions, do fans have to wonder have all the players throughout history been clean during their time. What we call cheating today may not have been an issue 50 years ago, but what was considered cheating in those days. Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry had the nerve to say he doesn’t believe in using steroids because it’s cheating. I could accept his comment, but Perry was famous or infamous for throwing a “spitball.” Am I missing something, but since when is there a different or acceptable level of cheating? Cheating is cheating, so how do we actually view our heroes?
Have fans been lulled into wearing blinders and assuming their heroes of past were choir boys and never did any wrong. It seems ridiculous to say it but did drinking help Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle plug their ways through a long season? Mike Schmidt talks about amphetamines to keep going and saying it was more common then you could imagine. Torii Hunter of the Twins talked about guys using whatever was available to get an advantage. Hunter brought up cups on top of cups of coffee to get wired up. If you purposely take huge amounts of coffee because it’s legal, would that make it right? Could players fake or embellish on their real injuries to try and get legally prescribed medication to feel better?
All I’m doing is throwing out what ifs because I honestly find it hard to know what to believe. When guys come back to a season smaller after drug testing becomes more intense and their statistics immediately go down, what is a person to believe. I’ve always been a Barry Bonds fan, but I have to admit that I do have serious suspicions as to whether he did something. Human growth hormones aren’t even tested for in baseball, so who’s to say who will cheat until a test is developed to detect every illegal substance possible out there. No one has ever accused a Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols or David Ortiz, although looking at Ortiz’s body, I don’t think anyone would waste time accusing him of steroid use. But, do you really know any more what to think and do you really care. Chicks aren’t the only ones that did the long ball. I think most fans want to see their star pitchers throw a great game, but do you really want to see a shutout every game?
Steroids has turned the game of baseball upside because we have this image of days gone by where a 200 pound player was decently big and now everyone is a mini-me model of Arnold Schwarzenegger with the introduction of weightlifting and nutrients. Has baseball lost its appeal as a game we played as kids and just hoped we could be good enough to play for a living and not necessarily a great living. Everyone today is trying to get an advantage and anything that can increase performance by the slightest degree can be worth a million dollars by virtue of keeping or earning a job in the major leagues as compared to minor league pay. Has money become such a be all that people will actually do anything to earn it? I guess only each individual can decide whether they want to be mentally unstable, have shriveled up testicles or having your heart explode if it means being a star
I have my suspicions that players have and may still be using illegal substances, but now I want your opinions. Do you believe players are using illegal substances and what affect does it have on how you view the game today? Do you want the records of old to be broken if they’re done by cheating or do you just like the game and don’t care how the action occurs? Is baseball just another form of entertainment and dammit, you paid your money, so I want some action? Shout it out and let the people know where you stand on this subject.
I have a 2005 Upper Deck mini-jersey of Albert Pujols for the person that gives the best answer to this serious question on the status of baseball and all the perceived cheating going on. I’ll award it to the person with the best answer on Friday 28 April.Good luck and let me hear some good answers.
[tags]Albert Pujols, steroids, free jersey, barry bonds, giambi[/tags]
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Are you serious you are giving away a FREE Albert Pujols mini-jersey!
That is sweet!
Comment by CrimsonLight - Blogs — April 19, 2006 @ 8:10 pm
It’s the mini-jersey out of the 2005 UD mini-jersey box and it’s one I’d like to keep in the store, but I’ll get it going on the site to promote a little interest. The winner can decide if they want to open it or leave it in the wrapper. By the way, I was lucky enough to get the autographed Ken Griffey.
mini-jersey. The auto’d mini’s only came 1 per case. Lucky me for once.
Comment by James A. — April 19, 2006 @ 8:17 pm
That is awesome James. Hope your shop is going great!
Comment by CrimsonLight - Blogs — April 19, 2006 @ 8:24 pm
Not bad. The site is much better. A lot of walk-in traffic that I never got before. The town artist is working on drawing to put on the window that should get huge notice from the street. We’ll see if he ever gets it done.
Comment by James A. — April 19, 2006 @ 8:37 pm
I don’t worry about steroid use by baseball players. While there’s a certain percentage of athletes in any sport that will do anything legal and many things illegal to gain an advantage, the majority will just play the game doing nothing wrong and with a clear conscious.
Another reason that I don’t worry about steroid use in baseball is that it doesn’t convery the extreme advantage as it would in a “strength sport” like weightlifting or even football. Speed and agility, especially bat speed, count for more than pure strength. Hell, even a spindly pitcher will occasionally lift one out of the park albeit only once in a while–it’s timing more than strength that makes for a high batting average.
I do agree that in limited amounts gaining strength will be an advantage to a player, but the large gains that steroids provide won’t turn an average joe into a pro athlete nor an everyday player into a superstar.
Comment by Utenzi — April 19, 2006 @ 8:53 pm
Utenzi, the numbers say you’re wrong on the advantage. Take a look at Bonds’s numbers pre and post 1998,
including batting average. You can say it’s coincidence it jumped 50 points or so, but more strength = more bat speed.
As for steroids themselves, I’m of two minds on the matter. I don’t really care that they used, as I’d have done the same
thing in their position. As a business decision, it’d be stupid not to. (I’d likely leave out the HGH for reasons of not
wanting an overgrown head.) I’m also not a huge baseball fan, so that must be taken into account.
The other side of it is the arrogance with which they’ve done it, though. My favorite is the “it wasn’t against the rules of baeball”
rationale. It’s against US LAW. I’m pretty sure baseball never explicitly stated you can’t murder people either - does that mean it’s
okay to do so?
Comment by Brian — April 20, 2006 @ 4:22 am
You know, something I think a lot of people have overlooked, and something I’ve truly wondered a great deal about…all of the PITCHERS that have probably used steroids in the past too. All the attention goes to these big brawny guys like Bonds, Sosa, McGwire etc. that have very clearly bulked way, way up. I bet there’s a great deal of pitchers pre-drug rule that have taken performance enhancing drugs.
Makes you wonder how many records really are honestly beat, and how many are the product of the juice. I’d love to have some insight into just how many pitchers in the past have used, but with all the attention going to the hitters, that might be hard to find out. Regardless, steroids DO lead to an advantage, there’s no way around that one.
Comment by Tyler Knott Gregson — April 20, 2006 @ 9:40 am
One more thing, and this is something I firmly believe. Yes, baseball is entertainment, yes it is a form of “fun” to appease the masses, but more than any other sport, baseball is, in a way, above all that. To me, I have always seen baseball as “the” sport of America, hell, it’s even called our National Pastime. There is a reason for that, it’s the American spirit embodied in a game, you start out small, in rookie ball, you bust your butt and hopefully move to A, then AA, then AAA, and finally, if you really work, the Big Leagues. The game has been around for so long, and has had an air of purity in it before the steroids tainted all of that.
I believe, if you were to poll America, you’d find that they’d rather go to a 9-inning baseball game with no homeruns, that ended in a 1-0 score that they knew was legit (not assisted by steroids or other performance enhancing drugs) than go to a game that was 15-14 with 12 homeruns per team. If you want huge guys in uniforms scoring 15-20 points a game, go watch football, and turn your attention to the NFL. Keep baseball pure.
Comment by Tyler Knott Gregson — April 20, 2006 @ 9:44 am
Not me, Tyler. I like to see homeruns. They’re quite thrilling. When I was in Atlanta, at the old Fulton County stadium, the chop making the stands look alive, the chant going on filling the air with noise and excitement, when a homerun was hit the crowd would jump to its collective feet and cheer or groan. Nothing else like that, Tyler.
Comment by utenzi — April 20, 2006 @ 12:22 pm
Brian, Bonds home run numbers have gone down relative to his number of at-bats these past 4 years. That probably has more to do with age than with steroid use, but it does indicate that using steroids can only do so much for an athlete. They’re not magic.
Comment by utenzi — April 20, 2006 @ 12:24 pm
Steroids aren’t going to turn someone who can’t play into a good player, but they’ll turn a very good one into a great one,
and turn a great one into Bonds. You just don’t make the kind of improvement in performance at the age he did it at.
It’s not that he got better, it’s that he made the jump he did at age 35. It’s simply not possible unassisted.
Comment by Brian — April 20, 2006 @ 12:41 pm
Utenzi, you don’t have to tell me that there’s nothing like watching a homerun leave the park…I grew up in baseball, my dad has been in professional baseball for over 30 years, and still is, with the Boston Red Sox. Bottom line is, home runs are but a small, small, small part of the game, exciting yes, but not at all the most important. Double plays, triple plays, perfect games, outfielders robbing homeruns, there are so many exciting aspects.
Again, you don’t have to describe the baseball stadium atmosphere, I’ve literally GROWN UP in ball parks, from Rookie Ball, to A, AA, AAA and all the way up to the big show. I’ve been in them all. Bottom line, steroids jeopardize the purity of the game, the records being set, and the soul of it all.
Comment by Tyler Knott Gregson — April 20, 2006 @ 12:42 pm
That works from the point of view of someone who has lived and breathed the game for 30 years. I’d consider myself a
casual fan at best - if my team is in it, I’m into it, if not - ehhh. I’d rather watch home runs.
The purity of the game and most other things was lost long ago. The idealized version of baseball is just that - idealized. It’s not reality. It’s like Captain America - he stands for what America should be, not necessarily what it is.
I guess I see it as this, and I’m admittedly a pretty cynical guy - people cheat in every business and every industry, so
people doing it in baseball isn’t a big deal to me.
Comment by Brian — April 20, 2006 @ 12:54 pm
I like the arguments all the way around because there are no easy answers. I just started thinking about baseball 50 years ago because they were only playing a few games less then they are now. They had shorter travel but it was by buses and trains. How did they keep themselves up to play all those games? Were they getting drunk, which would be their drug of the day or what else?
You guys have me thinking about these answers and how they are making me wonder about each instance. I love the home run balls, but not if they are artificial in how they hit them. Pitchers throwing heat isn’t any better if it’s not all natural either. I just don’t know is it ok if everyone does it or should no one do it and what would the level of play be then.
Comment by James A. — April 21, 2006 @ 9:53 pm
And we have a winner for the Albert Pujols mini-jersey!
Comment by CrimsonLight - Blogs — April 29, 2006 @ 7:18 pm
Hey all you cardinals fans. I have two things to say Cardinals SUCK and Pujols is on Roids
Comment by Cardinals suck — May 18, 2006 @ 9:36 am
Well Cardinals have proven over the years that they are far from being a bad team. So your point is invalid.
On Pujols using steroids. Show us some facts and then we will believe you until then SHADDUP!
Thanks.
Comment by CrimsonLight - Blogs — May 18, 2006 @ 8:48 pm
Great job guys… Thank for you work…
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