With the recent BALCO indictments, it appears that Barry Bonds may finally be forced to admit he used steroids. Do any of yall feel that his records should be removed from the record books or asterisk'ed? In all other sports of which I am aware of these records are thrown out if the person is caught cheating or even admits to cheating years after the fact. I think baseball's additional problem is that the drug abuse has given fans something to talk about - huge homerun totals and reasons to go to games so they have a monetary incentive to look the other way.
interesting point, woofer. vernon maxwell was caught with illegal drugs, not even ones that necessarily would be classifed as performance enhancers, and he was stripped of every record he owned for florida gators basketball and sec basketball. given, that's college sports...but still...i really hope this isn't true..i really hope barry didn't do steroids.
the keep focusing on Bonds, but its not just him this guy is connected to, Romanowski, Giambi and some others.
oh, i misunderstood you...gotcha...you're right, bonds is not the only guy who goes down with that ship...maybe the most famous.
I don't think you can remove his records because you can't be sure of who was using steroids when they broke records. If you removed Bonds record, then wouldn't you have to remove McGwire's also? Plus, how do you know if others who broke records were on steroids or not? The fact is they never tested for steroids in the past, so you have no idea if they used them to break the record or not. Plus, some of the supplements or steroids may have been legal back when they used them.
I think baseball fans who know what from what already realize that the numerous offensive records that have been produced & will be produced in the era are a direct product of various conditions favorable to the offense: lowered pitching mound, juiced ball, better training, and juiced players. Dilution of talent isn't an arguement I subscribe to, any decrease in home grown talent has been more than made up for by the influx of foreigners. Let Willie Mays, Hank Aaron or Babe Ruth (and others) grow up in this age, with the impetus on nutrition & off-season training, and they'd hit 1000 homers. Not taking anything away from the players of today, but the game, and most importantly the athletes, has changed.
Right, it's a sticky situation partly because the players' union fought against testing tooth and nail and only permitted comprehensive steroid testing starting this season so there's no way to know. But athletes have admitted to using performance enhancing drugs long after the fact and been stripped of world championships and records. In a purely speculative vein, Bonds put on an unnaturally large amount of muscle mass after he hit 35. http://www.iht.com/articles/129557.html
it sure sounds like there is a good chance that all baseball players who tested positive for steriods will have their records released. I understand there are privacy issues once and for all but lets put an end to this for once. Let's see who's been using them so we can move on. Every year this one issue hangs over the heads of the players.
Edit: it sure sounds like there is a good chance that all baseball players who tested positive for steriods will have their records released. I understand there are privacy issues but once and for all lets put an end to it. Let's see who's been using them so we can move on. Every year this one issue hangs over the heads of the players.
I don't think you can remove his records because you can't be sure of who was using steroids when they broke records. If you removed Bonds record, then wouldn't you have to remove McGwire's also? Plus, how do you know if others who broke records were on steroids or not? Two things... 1 - Does it really matter if a player was using steroids after or during the HR chase? If a player is found violating the steroid rule once, they should be presumed guilty for their career. All their records should be stripped, in my opinion. If they wanted to avoid that problem, they shouldn't have done steroids. 2 - If Bonds started using steroids *after* setting the HR record, he would truly be a dumbass. Why the need to enhance your performance when its already ridiculously better than anyone else in the game?
No, because he's not the only one using steroids and steroid use didn't start in the last 5 years. Steroids are used a ton more than the general public is aware of.
No doubt in my mind roids directly affected many of the recently shattered records in baseball, when you look at the body types of Ken Caminiti or Barry Bonds and the way it changed in a two to three year period there is definitely something going on. Bonds went from an athletic thirty-thirty who was actually a little on the wriey side to being the mammoth hulk of a man he is now. To me steriods should be a lifetime bannable offense, right up there with betting on baseball.
It's quite obvious that Bonds has used illegal substances in the past, because he actually bulked up more as he got older, and I'm not talking about early 20s to late 20s type of bulking up... but he is bigger and stronger in his late 30s then he ever was in his prime. You can't take his records away from him because you can't prove without a doubt that he cheated, but you do know... and that is tarnish enough I believe.
I've got to agree with SSG, use steroids and you should be banned from the game for illegally trying to enhance your performance and ruining the fairness of the game. To me, this is up there with Pete Rose betting on baseball in that it destroys the integrity of the sport. All of Bond's, Sosa's and McGwire's records are tainted with the foul tinge of steroids. Remove them from the books lest baseball become a drug-addled joke.
Barry Bonds did steriods for sure, but I don't think it should tarnish his home runs, because everyone of those homers whould have left the yard by atleast a foot or two even without using steriods. Getting contact with the ball is what counts not how far you can hit it.
well if you're stronger, doesn't that help you swing faster, and doesn't that help you wait longer, and doesn't that help you read the pitch better, and doesn't that help you make contact better? bama, are you saying remove their records now without even testing them or any actual proof other than looking at them and assuming? that'd be a little ridiculous. oh, and mays/aaron/ruth wouldn't hit 1000 home runs in today's game. at least not in comparison to mcgwire, bonds, and sosa, guys who came up before the real bashing started. projecting their HR totals by comparing them to a-rod, someone who have played his whole career in an offensive era, would be more applicable, though ruth played a lot in the offensive 20's. if a-rod gets 8 or 9 hundred, that's where they would be, too. mark, sammy, barry haven't just hit a lot of homers, they've hit more than everyone else even in a crazy HR era. it's the same way a mays or aaron or ruth hit more than their contemporaries. plus mays and aaron played a crapload of years, 24 years each was it?
it'll never be proven I don't think but when some kid is trying to break these records in forty years and our kids or grandkids ask us about Barryor Mark we will remember them as juicers as will I think all sportscenter type shows, it'll be like an unwritten thing like the deadball era or whatever. This era of baseball will be forever tarnished when history remembers it.
By the way, let me say that I think steriods should be banned from baseball and all professional sports.
