So you’re all right with athletes harming their bodies as long as it doesn’t do anything to help them play the game better? In other words, you don’t care about the athletes as human beings; they are just semi-sentient beings who are put on the planet to entertain you.

“Steroids will allow the body to work out longer, harder, and develop quicker than someone who doesn’t utilize the drug.”

This can be said about many nutritional supplements. The only difference is that they are not on the list of banned substances. It’s fine if they ban steroids, but they have to be consistent and ban protein shakes and the rest of the still-legal stuff from GNC.

“In fact, it makes things alot more difficult for him.”

Doesn’t change the fact that it’s illegal. I’d much rather prefer my kids emulate A-Rod than Hamilton.

“Take away his minor league numbers, who cares? Those don’t matter.”

Flawless logic here. ‘Use steroids? Are you a Major Leaguer? No? Who cares!’

“have his numbers restricted, or he should be banned from baseball for every year he used. ”

A) There was no punishment for using steroids during the time period in which he has admitted to using. We can’t go back and add a punishment ex post facto. What if we illegalized eating French fries tomorrow? I’m sure you’d be cool if a cop showed up at your door and arrested you.

B) If MLB did this, it would be cutting off its nose to spite its face.

“Those who are already retired should have asteriks next to their names as well and be stricken from the record books.”

I’ll tell you what I tell everyone who suggests this: You want the record books changed? That’s your job, then. You just signed up for this. Volunteer your time to actually removing any trace of the athletes’ existence.

Here’s one example of what you’d have to do. Let’s use A-Rod’s home run tonight as an example. A-Rod hit a first-inning home run off of Jeremy Guthrie. So, what you will have to is remove the plate appearance, at-bat, hit, run, three RBI, four total bases, decrease his batting average, OBP, SLG, etc. Don’t forget to remove the plate appearance and run for the two base runners that scored. And you remove one batter faced, one hit, one home run, and three runs for Guthrie.

Now imagine doing that for every single event in A-Rod’s career. And then do it for all the other “cheaters” as well. You’re literally revising history. Why don’t we go back and prevent the U.S. from being colonized by British people fed up with taxes and religious persecution? Hiroshima? What’s that?

It’s easy for you to suggest that MLB take the time to do this because you know you don’t have to do it. Your tune would change if you actually considered the time and effort (and money) it would take to get this done.

“There needs to be examples made for others to fear the consequences.”

For what reason? No one ever has any solid justification for this. Why should there be consequences for using anabolic steroids, but not for getting Cortizone shots. Both are steroids, both enhance performance, both allow you to recover from the strain of athletic activity quicker. The lines between steroids and everything else are completely arbitrary and completely hypocritical.

We are punishing players just to punish them. We are following the pack on this one.

It’s because we love a good witch hunt.

I didn’t formally interview them, I called them and just asked them if they could answer a couple questions off-the-record.

“You know damn well they enhance.”

I have not seen any conclusive evidence that would prove this theory true. Remember, the burden of proof is on the people making the claim you are making; it is not on me.

“They help athletes get stronger”

So does weight-lifting and consuming protein-shakes.

“run faster”

So do the new Nike shoes.

“pitch stronger”

So does weight-lifting and consuming protein-shakes.

“Also, your eyes become more focused and you can see the ball a lot better.”

According to this logic, prescription contact lenses, or those MaxSight contact lenses that players like Brian Roberts use, are also performance-enhancing.

“As a result of steroid use, the sports pace has changed greatly. More homeruns have been hit and more records have been broken.”

I’ll have a post up in a bit that disproves this claim.

“Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa are three of the players involved in one of the most celebrated record chases: the single season home run champ. There’s no coincidence that all three players are under review for steroid use.”

What about the coincidence that none of them have ever failed a drug test for steroids? Bonds tested positive for amphetamines, and if you’d like to lampoon him for that, then you have to do so for the oh-so-clean idols of yesteryear like Willie Mays and Mike Schmidt.

Sammy Sosa corked his bat.

McGwire was caught using androstenedione when it was legal under MLB rules and U.S. law to do so.

“Another reason why players tend to use steroids is because they will produce better statistics”

Evidence?

I mean, if it’s so blatantly obvious that steroids are performance-enhancing, there should be no problem collecting data and showing a significant correlation, right? My college has access to a large amount of databases, and I have been able to find absolutely no evidence.

Ask Any Doctor

Even if the performance is indeed “enhanced”, they are the best players of their Era… an Era that by the day looks to contain as many players that did something to “enhance” their performance as those that did not. So, like the pitchers of the Deadball Era who had the advantage of spit balls (until it was outlawed in 1920 due to concerns for the health of the batters who had difficulty seeing a tobacco chew-covered ball and the residual advantage of increased “power” numbers with the emergence of Babe Ruth who hit 29 homers in 1919 and would obviously benefit from the rule change the rest of his legendary career) each Era has to be held to its own merits.

Now, I don’t completely agree with Bill as far as the Josh Hamilton/A-Rod comparison… but I don’t agree with the criticisms of A-Rod either… especially when Andy Pettitte gets out on the mound every five days and pitches without much talk of the fact that he used PEDs… you know, because he was sorry.

I think that’s the important correlation here. Both Pettitte and Hamilton humbled themselves in a tough situation. It was endearing to the critical masses. It’s the same as when Ken Griffey Jr. says he wants to finish his career where he started and gets praised and Manny Ramirez says it and gets criticized. There’s a list of guys “we” like — tax cheat Derek Jeter, vehicular manslaughterer Donte Stallworth (in football), “I only cheated because I wanted to win” Andy Pettitte, “I wrote a desperate apology letter to get myself back into baseball” Jay Gibbons and self-destructive but lovable Josh Hamilton to name a few — and a list of guys “we” don’t — the personaltiy-less Barry Bonds, the easy-to-be-jealous-of Alex Rodriguez, “we saved baseball” scapegoats Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and perceived team destroyer Terrell Owens to name a few on that list — and whatever they do, the decision of “love” or “hate” will be justified further.

History will fix a lot of this. Babe Ruth wasn’t as beloved as he is today. Pick up a Sporting News from his Era and you’ll read a lot of negative things about the Babe. He was greedy, not worth the money, was unfaithful in his marriage and occasionally broke a team or league rule that required him to be disciplined.

And your sarcastic response “a floppy disk that I accidentally ran through the washer” just proves that you’re willing to put all your eggs in the basket of a theory that has no proof. To each his own.

You, my friend, are a Steroid Era Denier.