Steroids II

I thought I might chime in on the subject as well as it got my little Vince Young-sized brain churning with excitement. Are steroids cheating? Yes. Do I care? NO. What makes popping a needle in your ass any more morally wrong than say, stealing a team's signs from second base or taking a little K-Y "Intimate Sensations" jelly and making a spot on your glove so you can throw a shineball? It's because, at least in my mind, no difference exists. Cheating is cheating is cheating. And baseball is, and always has been a game of prevalent cheating. We laud some players even though they are possibly the greatest cheaters ever. 100% of Major League Baseball players have cheated, and that's not some typo. One of the special things about baseball, is that the rulebook is left with a lot of interpretation, and therefore a lot of leeway when it comes to people who like to cheat. For example, the takeout slide we so often see into the second baseman or shortstop, VERY illegal, but the umpires never call it. Also illegal is the phantom tag that second baseman pull all the time. Often on double play balls, the second baseman only sometimes will touch the bag. In some cases he's a solid a foot or more away from the bag and gets the out from the field umpire. I just finished reading Derek Zumsteg's book: The Cheater's Guide to Baseball. He also has a fine blog that updates recent cheaters like Frankie Rodriguez this year when he had a "mysterious" substance on his hat. In his book Zumsteg argues that cheating and baseball are two things that are inseperable, and also a somewhat healthy thing. Cheating adds to the competitive spirit. Now I'm not gonna sit here and argue that steroids are a good thing for baseball, they were about as good for baseball as Pete Rose betting on games. Steroid abuse is a serious issue for obvious reasons, if it becomes an acceptable practice, than the average lifespan of the major leaguer will start to rival NFL players, and a generation of children will think that nothing is wrong with sticking a needle up your ass to get stronger. Ken Caminiti only saw age 41, and I will place bets that Canseco doesn't make 50. Using steroids has serious consequences on the abuser. And as biochemicals advance with time, the results could become more disastrous. The whole shitty thing about 'roids, is that it came in a time with a worthless MLB front office. I guarantee you if Kenesaw Mountain Landis was commissioner now, steroids wouldn't have ever become an issue. But because Bud Selig and the higher ups sat and watched the players get bigger while the money poured in following the '94 strike, steroids became an issue. How big of an issue? We'll probably never know. We could go by the hilarious and unrealistic statement of Canseco and 85% of MLB players using, or the slightly less ridiculous Caminiti's 40% (still unrealistic). What is realistic is probably between 5%-10% (10% being worst possible scenario). Now 40-70 out of the 800 MLB players is hardly epidemic rate, which means that...the steroid scandal is blown entirely out of proportion. The game was never filled with roided up monsters. Furthermore like S Dub pointed out, steroids don't make you hit a ball 550 feet. But I do think they can help a little, maybe a 320 ft flyball on the track into a 330 ft flyball over the wall. Bat speed is not something that can be exponentially changed. David Eckstein, as terrible hitter as he is, has incredible bat speed. Major League Hitters have incredible reflexes and hand eye coordination that they need in order to hit a 98MPH fastball or a diving splitter. Theres more to the story than just brute strength. Barry Bonds should be lauded as one of the top hitters in history, because if you argue otherwise you are an absolute idiot. His 2001-2004 seasons are the greatest offensive years EVER by any player that has ever roamed Darren Daulton's world (it is indeed his world, we are just lucky to live in it). However, when looking at Bonds, as you should with players of all eras, you should look at him with context. Bonds undoubtedly has taken the Cream and the Clear and more than likely some other PED's like HGH and testosterone. So take that into account, but also take into account he is/was an unbelievable hitter regardless if he took rhinocerous tranquilizers, popeye's spinach, or Towelie's weed (wanna get high?) So if there's a lesson to be learned, it's that each era, especially ours, has its own context that you have to look at. For example Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Rogers Hornsby never faced a pitcher who wasn't white, A foul ball wasn't a strike until the AL adopted it in 1903, hitters after 1968 gained by the mound lowering 5 inches and a smaller strike zone. So when we look at Barry today, we should take into account that it was a remarkable hitters era, and that Babe Ruth's 60 HR and 714 career is dramatically more impressive considering the home run record that Ruth broke...the single season was 25 and he smashed it with 29 in 1919 and nearly doubled that with 54 the next year, his first in New York. Babe broke Roger Connor's career Homerun record with his 139th HR in 1921. Let's talk about context there, he smashed the career record by almost 600 Home Runs!!! So baseball fans should not bash Barry when he passes the record in the next month or two, just recognize the accomplishment with a grain of salt.