[PurpleReaper]

Sure he took performance enhancing substances (likely, after all, maybe it was all a misunderstanding and he naturally got that way... :no: )

But he wasn't the only one. Why hasn't anyone mentioned that the guys throwing the balls also have used such substances... far as I'm concerned it's a level playing field. But everyone involved is playing with fire.

[Mike]

Thats true PR..and I think the same way, that is untill i saw something on the news about what effect that has.

See...if everyone in professional baseball is using the crap..then the kids in the little leagues not only see it as ok, but see that they MUST USE IT to be able to compete at that level, and have any chance of going pro.

This complicates things as kids will have a much worse time on the crap then adults, and many will die from complications. A good example of that is that young picture who died last year i think from heat stroke in training camp while on some crap. He was a rookie, and never had a chance. But he wasing doing what he felt was the only way he could get ahead on this so called "lever playing field"

Personally, if some multi-million dollar idiot wants to damage his heart etc.. with garbage i dont care. But when kids are almost forced into it, i DO have a problem with that.

It's just not fair to them.

Mike

[Rebel]

Another MVP for Bonds. His apparent motto: "Better playing through biochemistry."

What a ringing endorsement of steroids to enhance performance! When will the Olympics learn? What about horse racing? Baseball leads the way. :rolleyes:

Bonds was a 30-35 homer, 115 RBI, .300 batting average, 100 walks, 20-30 steals a year guy before he took steroids. He was a lock for the Hall of Fame.

But he didn't like playing second fiddle to the McGwire-Sosa artificially-enhanced combo (not to mention that Ken Griffey was widely considered the better overall player). So he decided to live by the "if you can't beat them, join them" mantra. And that has turned him into a .370 hitter, 50-70 HR, 150-250 walks (but only 100 RBI monster). Bonds will likely break the all-time HR record and is now being compared to Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, and Ted Williams as the best ever.

Sounds to me like he benefitted from the Juice. It certainly helped him satisfy his own ego.

That said, consider home run totals from the 10-year period of about 1993-2002 and see what common sense suggests.

Before Cecil Fielder broke the 50 HR barrier in the early '90s, the last person to do it was George Foster in 1977. Before Foster, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, and Mays in the early '60s. Baseball has been watered down with expansion, and players work out more than they used to, but not enough to justify today's numbers. I heard on the news recently that the bat Babe Ruth used to hit the first HR in Yankee Stadium weighed 46 ounces! I doubt The Babe was lifting much more than whiskey and beer bottles back then. Yet he could handle a bat that size!

Steroids have infected baseball to the point where the game I loved as a child barely has any interest to me any longer. To say steroids haven't increased HR numbers and are not responsible for Bonds' transformation from an occasional 40 HR man to 73 HR man is to live in Fantasyland.

Steroids are not an officially banned substance by the league, just as andro was not banned when Mark McGwire used it. Bonds hurt baseball by violating the "spirit" of the game, but I suspect the baseball union, the team owners, and the Commissioner knew all along about their rampant use. They turned the other way because they also knew more HRs increase stadium attendance and put money in their pockets.