Steroids in Baseball

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 17 Mar 2005 18:32

What do you think about this whole issue? For me, I was never much interested in baseball, but the homerun race of 98 sparked my interest. But to hear now that it was all just due to steroids... I feel ripped off. And now that the Red Sox losing streak is over, I have even less reason to ever follow MLB.

But back on subject: at the congressional hearings people asked MacGuire if he thought players using steroids was cheating, and while other players said yes, he didn`t answer. Come fucking on man, maybe you don`t want to admit you used steroids, but you have to be able to concede that using steroids is cheating. Another question that was asked at the hearings was: "do you think that the records of a player, who was found to have used steroids, should be anulled?" and again MacGuire didn`t answer the question.

I just get a real cowardly vibe from MacGuire.

The whole thing makes me wonder what other sports have rampant steroid abuse. I really hope the NBA doesn`t... so far, my impression is that the only drug that is widely used in the NBA is marijuana, but that`s not exactly a performance enhancer.

shredj · Post by **shredj** » 17 Mar 2005 18:59

any performance enhancing drug used to enhance performance in any sport is completely bogus. i think it is an unfair advantage to everyone and just aint right. my thoughts. peace

peanutbuterboy · Post by **peanutbuterboy** » 17 Mar 2005 19:16

shredj wrote:any performance enhancing drug used to enhance performance in any sport is completely bogus. i think it is an unfair advantage to everyone and just aint right. my thoughts. peace

I agree 100%. It is not fair for someone to take drugs to be better. Its not good for them anyways.

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 17 Mar 2005 22:46

Personally, I completely disagree with all of you. Just because someone uses steriods, he/she does not instantly attain greater ability to hit homeruns. just like in footbag, it is not the shoes that make the player, it is the player's skill, the ability to dex the bag, the sheer speed, the athleticism-not the laver. If one likens the Laver to steriods, the one can say that because the laver enhances performance it should be illegal. now I know that using Lavers is not "illegal," but i think you can see my point. McGuire could have broken that record any year he wanted to- I truly believe that. It just so happens that int he 80s and 90s, he was playing more of a team game and he wasnt concerned with breaking the record- he wasnt trying to hit homeruns every at bat. I think he WAs trying to do this the year he broke the record. Ever though he might have been a bit stronger b/c of the roids, he still had to swing the bat, he stioll had to generate the bat speed, he still had to have flawless form, make contact correctly, rotate through the ball, etc. The roids didnt help him do that- he did that.

carl winslow · Post by **carl winslow** » 17 Mar 2005 23:08

i think that congress has much better things to worry about.

HG · Post by HG » 18 Mar 2005 03:58

word^

and of course, hitting a 99 mph pitch is the hardest thing to do in sports, steroids doesnt help you hit it, it makes it go farther if you hit it corrrrrectly.

Now lets go

sniikeri · Post by **sniikeri** » 18 Mar 2005 10:53

It kinda bugs me that the anti-doping work is so poor in American sports. The testing is weak (if there is any).
Other sports and countries are light years further in testing the athletes, thanks to organizations such as WADA.

These are just my opinions and I'm not a specialist, but if someone tries to tell me there's nothing wrong in testing in baseball, football (American one) and ice hockey, I refuse to take him/her seriously.
Please, if anyone has more knowledge than I have in this issue, correct me. Please.

blackcrown · Post by **blackcrown** » 18 Mar 2005 11:31

Let's not forget that there was no steroid policy in MLB when BigMac was playing. If there was no rule to break, then was it cheating? The questions were sorta vague and hypothetical. If you found out that Mac was using steroids in '99 do you erase his rookie records?

All this steroid talk just makes me admire Roger Marris even more. He was able to hit 61 homeruns in a time when there weren't any performance inhancing drugs. And unlike Babe Ruth he did it against the best players in the game (i.e. post Jackie Robinson).

Eric

Jdigges · Post by **Jdigges** » 18 Mar 2005 13:48

Yea, some of my friends are into baseball and they were talking about that today. Mcguire just decided to pleed the 5th, because his lawyer said that answering either way would jeopardize him. its stupid. that whole thing pisses me off. they shouldnt be allowed to play the sport.

blackcrown · Post by **blackcrown** » 18 Mar 2005 14:01

McGwire has a right to plead the 5th, we all do (in the U.S. that is). Why shouldn't he be allowed to play? By the way he retired years ago. If you were in his shoes would you feel like ratting out your friends?

Eric

slapdash21 · Post by **slapdash21** » 18 Mar 2005 14:20

yeah...thats all i can say for mcgwire. at least he isnt ratting anybody out. other than that. i honestly do think that steroids make the difference between a base hitter and a consistant home run hitter. it shows in the numbers...one season to the next, the improvement was TOO dramatic to be believable, and now we know why. and even if it isnt that much of a difference, it makes it technically uneven, and therefore can negate anything that has been accomplished.

i think its funny how for some reason the guys who are basically known for steroids (canseco, mcgwire, giambi) all LOOK like they did steriods. i dunno man.

kaos · Post by **kaos** » 19 Mar 2005 01:57

http://politicalhumor.about.com/gi/dyna ... p/main.asp

tstep84 · Post by **tstep84** » 20 Mar 2005 20:43

I wasn't too into this until I listened to howard sterns interview with Canseco the other day. Canseco who probably knows more about steroids and baseball than anyone else had some good points. Steroids give you the ability to be more consistant. He said it doesn't make you so much as stronger but when most guys are drained at the end of the season, the ones on roids are still juiced enough to hit homers. When most players start to burn out after a 100 games weren't fatigued. He also explained that the MLB was losing lots of fans. I guess interleague play wasn't enough to boost baseball morale. So when the home run records started to break the players association and MLB let the guys on roids off cause it brought in lots of revenue.
I think that the records should be taken away if they can prove the record holders were on steroids. And if they aren't I hope the guys on juice with these records feel like shit, cause they cheated, and that isn't cool.

In reference to canseco... To those who think its not okay to rat out your freinds? Well Canseco got a multimillion dollar book deal from a publisher. Would you rat out your freinds, and clean up major league baseball for millions???

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 20 Mar 2005 22:38

I use steroids *heavily* in order to progress at footbag.

sniikeri · Post by **sniikeri** » 21 Mar 2005 06:36

OT:

Tom, how did you're "pot break" end?

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 21 Mar 2005 07:45

sniikeri wrote:OT:

Tom, how did you're "pot break" end?

Bwaaahhahhahahaha

I am pathetic!

blackcrown · Post by **blackcrown** » 21 Mar 2005 08:02

tstep84 wrote:To those who think its not okay to rat out your freinds? Well Canseco got a multimillion dollar book deal from a publisher. Would you rat out your freinds, and clean up major league baseball for millions???

Don't think that Canseco is doing this to "Clean up baseball" or save some kid from future problems. He's doing it to money in his pocket. The guy is a wife beating, drug abusing, drunk driving, parole violating, cheating, lier. I will take Mark Mcguire's word over Jose's any day.

I'd say that multimillion dollar book deal is also good incentive to at least embellish the truth, if not out right lie.

And are you saying that you think it's okay to rat out your friends for lot's of money?

Eric

tstep84 · Post by **tstep84** » 21 Mar 2005 13:05

Absolutly not. I wouldn't rat out my freinds for anythng. But I think you have to understand the situation. Canseco was basically shut out of baseball. Yea, he was old but he loved baseball and still could be playing. Picture yourself in this situation. Vasek, Ales, Jordan Moir, and the rest of BAP is on roids. They start hitting 5 dex moves, and are scoring in the 300s in shred 30. You also are using roids but realize where footbag is headed and decide its time to say something. Before you can get the word out that everyone is juiced The IFPA bans you from footbag (which would never happen). So now your left with nothing. You can't partake in your sport anymore. You decide that you can possibly clean up footbag by putting out a book, and make millions of dollars. Sure Canseco is doing this for the money, Im posiitive about that, But I still think that somewhere back in his conscience he feels he is helping out the guys who are trying to set records in an honest way, and take away the stigma baseball now has attatched to it. Regardless of the money, I think it is quite honorable what he is doing. It takes balls to go up against MLB no matter how much money.

FlexThis · Post by **FlexThis** » 22 Mar 2005 15:22

slapdash21 · Post by **slapdash21** » 22 Mar 2005 15:30

i agree with lowering the pay, but not only for that reason. though im sure lots of people including flex realize all of the benefits of doing this (i can tell by the way he talks about sports figures and salary. but yes, salary for all sports absolutely should be lowered...and america (especially, though not limited to) needs to get some priorities straight.
poor in the streets, overpaid athletes on the field