OT - Lance Berkman's take on steroids
The first thing that comes to mind when Lance Berkman opens his mouth and breaths smoke about every steroid user is:
"This dude better be clean, because if he ever tests positive he is in for an XL order of foot-in-mouth salad."
That being said, I don't know if it love how much he just fires darts at the cheaters or if I think its a little too self-righteous.
I've never been the "ban them from the game" kinda guy but I've always had a little discontent for guys like Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Giambi if only for the fact that they made their name on pretty much JUST hitting....and then word comes out that was illegitimate.
thoughts?
foot-in-mouth salad made me hungry. Lololol but srsly, I am a ban him from the game guy. I remember listening to Cecil Fielder's 50th and 51st home run on the radio with my grandma(a huge Tigers fan) and her being so excited. I was 9 and thought he was a god. If it ever came out that he somehow cheated, it would rob me of one of my fondest memories as a child. I'm sure kids in 1998 felt the same way about McGuire and Sosa, so the fact that they (allegedly)cheated could ruin the game for those kids.
I agree that Berkman will be the biggest moron in sports history if by some chance he tests positive, but look at the guy. He's fat. Let's not dance around it. Lance Berkman is a fat person.
There's no way he's on steroids.
I am actually all for PEDs in sports. I also don't see it as cheating when either A) the compound was legal at the time or B) There was no testing for it.
I'm not for PEDs in sports, but I do agree with point A and B.
Actually, MLB banned steroids back in 1991, though they did not test for them until a few years ago. (And of course, they've been illegal in the U.S. all along.) So they were cheating; it just was hard to catch them for a long time.
Think the widow of Ken Caminiti (or Lyle Alzado or any of the several other NFL roid users who died young) is happy he juiced up? It's not real safe to put these substances in your body. That's why they're banned.
Steroids didn't kill Ken Caminiti or Lyle Alzado.
Heavy steroid use has been correlated with heart failure, which is what Caminiti (along with several former NFL players and wrestlers) died of. It likely contributed to death even if it was not the proximate cause. As for Alzado, it's difficult to say for certain whether steroids contributed to his tumor, but he personally blamed his failing health on them.
Alzado's own physician said that steroids did not cause his cancer. Alzado was also a heavy recreational drug user and took HGH at a time when it was harvested from human cadavers and not synthetically made as it is now. Caminiti died as a result of a (recreational) drug overdose. He was a cocaine addict. Many of these wrestlers that have died were also drug addicts. Steroids do make for a great boogeyman, though.
berkman is full of it. he talks about how he hates steroids until you talk about tejada or one of his teammaates. he changes his tune very quickly if you mention someone he knows
He actually said negative things about Tejada when that came up as well. I found it odd when it happened, seeing as its a very uncharacteristic way for an athlete to act toward his teammates. Ive always been a fan of Berkman. I met him while working the grounds crew during a regional at Rice back when he was still a player. He's always been the innocent type, and I'd find it really hard to believe he took steroids as a younger player. And like you guys said, he doesn't really have the body type that screams "I took steriods." That said, who knows if he took any other sort of PEDs. I hope not.
And rather than posting a second reply not to you...
I'm not for guys getting banned for use before the testing. The batters who were juiced faced pitchers who were juiced, so the game was even between hitters and pitchers. While they potentially may have cheated the all time greats of yester-year, they probably (as there were probably plenty of players taking things) weren't cheating the game at the time. Hopefully that makes sense to someone.
is the same thing that saved baseball has also ruined it.
There is a lot of mis-information about steroids though. Over time, a very small dose of testosterone and growth hormone actually have a positive effect in slowing down the ageing process by keeping men's testosterone at a higher level.
It's one thing to use steroids in a controlled manner that is over seen by a doctor and it's a whole other thing when it's the total abuse of them as many athletes did without a doctor's supervision. Anything that is used too much can kill you.
Btw, I am positive MLB knew about the abuse of Steroids in the 90's but did nothing because it helped bring baseball back after the strike. You don't mess with success.
The only investigation I want to see is of the League itself. What did the trainers know, what did the mangers know, what did the owners know and, most importantly, what did the Commissioner know. I find it hard to believe that team/league management did [edit] not know what was up when guys were putting on pounds of muscle and hitting 70 bombs a year.
IMHO, we will never see such an investigation. The league is obvioulsy scared about fan reaction. It is probably also scarred of liability if the teams were at all invovled in the administration of substances which later lead, or contributed, to heath problems. While there is a debate on how harmful this stuff is (see posts above), there could be fertile grounds for a big lawsuit(s) if these guys start getting sick. (Not to mention how tragic it would be. Alzado was one of my favorite football players when I was a kid. It was tough to see how sick he got.)
My point here is the slow exposure of player after player doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know. (Anyone surprised about Sosa? Anyone?) It does distract the fans from the bigger questions: How invovled was the League? Did training staffs help obtain or administer PEDs, either directly or through giving "personal" trainers locker room access ala Bonds (allegedly)? Did MLB deliberately look the other way? Who made these decisions? Until those kinds of questions are looked at, I don't really need to hear about any more player names being leaked to the press.