FanPost

Steroids, HGH, and laser eye surgery?

Well steroids is back on the subject again, thanks to McGwire finally admitting what we already knew. Now what is the problem with players taking steroids or HGH? Is it because its illegal? or Is it because they are deemed performance enhancing?

Well they are not performance enhancing for everyone. Just because you take them doesnt mean you will be one of the top 10% of players in baseball, for example Manny Alexander was one of the first players caught using them. If you dont know who Manny Alexander is then that pretty much proves my point.

Lets start with McGwire. Did you know that he hit 49 homers as a rookie and that is still the record today? I would imagine that we could all agree he probably wasnt on steroids at that time. So its safe to say that he had the potential at a young age to gain strength to possibly get the home run record anyways. He did go to the National League which has weaker pitching. To a park with a short LF porch and there were (4?) more teams added to the majors from his rookie year to 98. Did he just need to be healthy for a full season and the stars aligned. How many of the homers wouldnt have made it over the fence without steroids? Does it add 5, 15, 20, 50 feet to flyballs?

Now to Barry Bonds....yeah he is a jerk but lets just look at him as a player. He is watching 98 with his 3 MVP's and being (with Griffey JR) hands down, the best player in all of baseball. He has 2 of the best years in the history of baseball. In 04 Bonds walked 232 times, he was intentionally walked 120 times. Just to put that in perspective, Babe Ruth most BB in a season was 170 and he was hitting more HR's than TEAMS. Barry Bonds was intentionally walked more than any TEAM in baseball!!!!! Does steroids/HGH make him more patient? Does it make his hand/eye coordination that good? The man had 373 official AB (excludes walks) and how many times do you think he saw a fastball down the middle when he was feared that much? That season he struck out a total of 41 times!!!!! 41 THATS IT!!! How many of his home runs just barely made it? Does steroids add 5, 15, 20, or 50 feet?

Im not saying what they did was right or wrong. If I was in their shoes I would have done it myself. Someone comes up to me right now and says "if you rub this cream on your arm your salary would go up 10 fold" I wouldnt hesitate and I make 50k. These guys are making a jump from 6-20 million contracts to 100 million dollar contracts. You have to be able to understand the attraction to it. Then add in the fact that while the fans, writers, sportcasters, and owners all pretty much knew and nobody seemed to care then!!!! Noboby even brings up Bret Boone and 2b with a good glove goes to Seattle and becomes one of the biggest power hitters in the AL!!!! His former Reds teammates didnt even recognize him the following spring training. Where was the investigation? Damn his name doesnt even get mentioned!!!! And one of his teams has the record for most wins in the regular season.

Now lets talk about laser eye surgery. It wont make you stronger but if you can see better that is a performance enhancing in baseball. Even more so in baseball than any other sport. Now if your problem with the 2 players above is about steroids being illegal then fine. But if it is about those drugs being performance enhancing then you should have a problem with laser eye surgery.

1. Did the players, even of the 80's, have a chance for laser eye surgery? Nope so the records should have astericks right?

I ask you if Greg Maddux didnt have laser eye surgery, would he have gotten to 300 wins? I dont think he would have at all. If you cant see you cant hit or pitch as well, THAT IS A FACT!!!!!! Seeing is paramount even over bat speed in baseball. Now I dont have the list of players that have had eye surgery but it is plentiful that is for sure!!!

Im just tired of fans that were cheering McGwire, Bonds, and anyone else that was using during the era, now crapping on them. You had no problem with it at all while they were playing like GODS and now you want to hold it against them. The had an edge to what level nobody really knows for sure, were allowed to do it, profitted from it, and cheered for it. Then after the fact of rule changes they are getting crusified for what they did!!! It is hypocritical!!!! And now our government, most of whom are the biggest crooks around, spend millions of our tax dollars to send these players to jail? This is a joke.

Have a section in the Hall about the steroid era. The writers can vote any way they want for a player, whatever. But it is wrong to put astericks on a record. It was wrong to do it to Maris and it is wrong to do it to these players after the fact. If they want to put astericks on records for steriod use then I say they should put astericks on any records/player stats that used laser eye surgery. Its performance enhancing and the players of the past didnt have access to it (sarcasm)