Baseball

[shadows]

Originally Posted by smc

Annoying, yes! But did you know that The Sporting News named the San Diego Chicken as one of the 100 most powerful "people" in sports for the 20th century?!

Jen, put "San Diego Chicken" in a YouTube search and your wish will be fulfilled, many times over.

Be careful what you wish for, Jen.

[smc]

The big news in the baseball world is Mark McGwire's admission that he used steroids, including in 1998 when he broke the MLB single-season home run record.

Anyone with a functioning brain and functioning eyes and even the most cursory knowledge of what steroids can do to a man's physiology already knew that McGwire was a user.

McGwire is doing an interview tonight with Bob Costas to discuss his admission. It will be broadcast on MLB Network at 7 p.m. ET and simulcast at MLB.com.

I hear Barry Bonds is planning to have his head shrunk and then do a similar interview in which he will obfuscate about every steroids-related question. (Okay, I made that last part up.)

[shadows]

It is good that he finally admitted what we all knew. Anyone that thought he was clean should take their head out of the sand and look around. It was not called the "Steroid Era" for nothing. We would be knocked off our feet if we ever found out the real amount of users during that "era".

Barry Bonds? He is a jackass, as is Clemens. They are not fooling anyone! The reason I dislike the two of them, and don't mind McGuire is the fact that Big Mac at least treated the fans like people and not minor annoyances(when they played).

I agree with the big-head syndrome of Bonds. Looking at video/pictures of him from his Pittsburgh days to the same from his San Francisco days is like looking at night and day! Totally different! His head got a least 3x bigger! He used to be a contact hitter who would steal a lot of bases and hit a few home runs. Then he magically became a power hitter that could hit 77 home runs? Sorry, but that record is one that actually deserves an asterisk beside it.

[smc]

Originally Posted by shadows

It is good that he finally admitted what we all knew. Anyone that thought he was clean should take their head out of the sand and look around. It was not called the "Steroid Era" for nothing. We would be knocked off our feet if we ever found out the real amount of users during that "era".

Barry Bonds? He is a jackass, as is Clemens. They are not fooling anyone! The reason I dislike the two of them, and don't mind McGuire is the fact that Big Mac at least treated the fans like people and not minor annoyances(when they played).

I agree with the big-head syndrome of Bonds. Looking at video/pictures of him from his Pittsburgh days to the same from his San Francisco days is like looking at night and day! Totally different! His head got a least 3x bigger! He used to be a contact hitter who would steal a lot of bases and hit a few home runs. Then he magically became a power hitter that could hit 77 home runs? Sorry, but that record is one that actually deserves an asterisk beside it.

I'm watching the Mark McGwire interview right now on MLB Network and I must admit that as much as I despise steroid use and how it has affected baseball, I feel a bit of sympathy for him. Never for Bonds or Clemens!

[shadows]

Originally Posted by smc

I'm watching the Mark McGwire interview right now on MLB Network and I must admit that as much as I despise steroid use and how it has affected baseball, I feel a bit of sympathy for him. Never for Bonds or Clemens!

I'm glad to see that I am not the only one who feels that way. Thanks!

[dauls]

I left this 'off-topic' post on the hockey thread about a month ago...

Originally Posted by dauls

I'm surprised Mark McGwire gets less flak than Barry Bonds. McGwire refused to discuss the issue at the Congressional hearing, repeating "I'm not here to discuss the past," and "I will be considered guilty no matter what I say."

At least this speculation does seem to be having an affect on McGwire's election to the Hall of Fame, his percentage at the ballot fell below 25% in 2009.

After he broke the home run record in 1998, I remember reading a story which mentioned his taking steroids (in a UK paper, I remember it because baseball stories are so rare in our papers, the comments may have evolved from the US media).
I couldn't believe it was out there and he could still play. Then I found out that baseball didn't have a drug testing policy, amazing when you think they've been testing NFL players, track & field athletes and cyclists for over 20 years.

Unfortunately I never kept that newspaper clipping.
The baseball show on British TV only picked on Bonds and a few others, but not McGwire.
And I never read anything else about McGwire and steroids, even though he looked like 'Arnie's big brother' at the end of his career.

So I begun to think that maybe that newspaper article was a figment of my imagination. Thanks for posting this, at least I now know I'm not totally mad.

OK McGwire may have presented himself as a nicer person than Bonds, but the bottom line is he was a drugs cheat. He was a role model to thousands of kids, but he was another one of the potential catalysts for them to be 'juiced' by unscrupulous coaches. Coaches who saw great potential in a youngster, but knew steroids could be used to make the difference and help the youngster stand out from the others.

Drugs need to be kept out of sport for the sake of the under 18s. Once you are an adult you can do what you want to yourself, and if you get caught, accept your punishment and shut the fck up.

As you've probably guessed by now, I have no sympathy for McGwire. I put him in the same group as Bonds, Sosa, A-Rod, Clemens, Jos? Canseco, etc. You're either clean or a cheat.

It'd be nice if we could go back to the good old days, with Roger Maris' 61 and Hank Aaron's 755 as the home run records. Shame we can't.

It's also a shame that Ken Griffey Jr. has missed so much of is career through injury, and he won't be able to stop cheating A-Rod from setting the career home run record. Hopefully Albert Pujols can carry on for long enough to catch A-Rod and pass him.

[shadows]

It is nice to read an opposing point of view(regarding McGuire, as I agree that drugs in sports are crap). I don't know how I missed your original post, so I'm glad that you posted it again.

Speaking of Sosa, besides the stigma of being a steroid user, he is now being labelled as a "Michael Jackson Wannabe" as he had a picture taken of him recently where he looked very pale(I think I saw it at espn.com). Some people were accusing him of tying to get rid of his Latino traits and trying to become caucasian. I am not sure how true this story is since all I saw was that one article about it. Did you hear about this at all, dauls?

[smc]

Originally Posted by dauls

OK McGwire may have presented himself as a nicer person than Bonds, but the bottom line is he was a drugs cheat. He was a role model to thousands of kids, but he was another one of the potential catalysts for them to be 'juiced' by unscrupulous coaches. Coaches who saw great potential in a youngster, but knew steroids could be used to make the difference and help the youngster stand out from the others.

Drugs need to be kept out of sport for the sake of the under 18s. Once you are an adult you can do what you want to yourself, and if you get caught, accept your punishment and shut the fck up.

As you've probably guessed by now, I have no sympathy for McGwire. I put him in the same group as Bonds, Sosa, A-Rod, Clemens, Jos? Canseco, etc. You're either clean or a cheat.

... Hopefully Albert Pujols can carry on for long enough to catch A-Rod and pass him.

After reading dauls' post, I feel I must clarify my earlier post about watching the McGwire interview. I wrote my initial impressions.

I want to make a few points.

1. Performance-enhancing drugs have no place whatsoever in sport. Their use is cheating, and -- as dauls points out -- dangerous for kids.

2. Right or wrong, none of these drugs were specifically banned in baseball at the time the so-called "steroid era" began.

3. I believe Mark McGwire and people like Andy Pettite when they say that they took these drugs to help recover from injuries. This was not the case for people like Bonds or Clemens or A-Rod. This does not eliminate point #1, above.

4. I think all the records set during the steroid era should at least have an asterisk (*) that indicates they are suspect.

5. Mark McGwire failed in his interview to state unequivocally that his steroids, taken for injuries, essentially increased his batting power (if not his "god-given skill" of hand-to-eye coordination or his bat speed, which is a function of swinging skill more than strength). He hinted that he would have hit just as many home runs without steroids. Whether that is or not, his failure to own up to even the possibility greatly diminishes his "confession."

There is a lot more I could write, but I will leave it at that, except to reiterate that steroids and HGH are wrong for baseball: they are dangerous, and they represent cheating. On that there can be no equivocation.