https://www.gamedaynews.com/baseball/ranked-the-biggest-and-most-prolific-sluggers-in-mlb-history/
THE ONLY SPORT I ENJOYED WATCHING WAS MLB.. BOOG POWELL WAS THE ONLY PLAYER I WATCHED IT FOR, UNTIL... HE GOT CAUGHT WITH STEROIDS IN HIM. THAT ENDED MY "SPORT WATCHING" OF ANY SPORT!
YEARS LATER ARMSTRONG USED THAT SAME LINE: "I DON'T KNOW HOW THAT HAPPENED!" BS LIARS! I CAN'T STAND A LIAR!!!
Jean,
I also detest lying but have to defend the MLB players who used steroids (not necessarily that they should get into the Hall of Fame) .
This is totally the fault of MLB that didn't want to enforce testing because players hitting homeruns and going for home run records, like Sosha, McGuire and Bonds were doing was the best thing that ever happened to MLB at the time.
It's a greedy, FOR PROFIT organization (not the Olympics) and they intentionally looked the other way for many years with players using steroids since it was making MLB entities rich.
The players?
It's hard to truly understand the mind of a professional athlete unless you've been there or can relate.
These guys have been doing everything possible to be the best that they can for what is more important than anything else for them. They would eat dog doo doo if it make them better baseball players.
Their careers and salaries are all dependent on them getting the most our of their bodies and ability to develop elite skills that 1 out of 1 million have in any year to make it to this level.
Make no mistake too. The steroids did NOT make them great baseball players. They were already great. They had the skills from all the hard work on top of the natural abilities.
Steroids does 2 main things.
1. It helped them recover from a gruelling 162 game schedule and to recover quicker from workouts(so they can practice longer). It does help pitchers to recover faster, as it did Roger Clemens.
2. The biggest one is that it gives them more power to hit, especially homeruns.
It probably didn't improve their reaction time or reduce stike outs or make them better defensively which are skills that got them to MLB.
The advantages to a MLB player taking steroids are actually small compared to somebody in the NFL, where power/strength in a contact sport DEFINE your ability.
More on the next page.
The NFL, where muscle and strength are enormous advantages, took measures to test for steroids, starting in 1987.
NFL drug testing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_in_American_football
The use of anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs in American football is officially prohibited by virtually every sanctioning body.
The National Football League (NFL) began to test players for steroid use during the 1987 season
++++++++++
When did MLB start testing for steroids?
Not until 2003! And penalties were slaps on the wrist for many years.
That's because steroids were good for baseball, mainly because it increased the most exciting thing about baseball.......home runs.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2014/03/28/a-timeline-of-mlbs-drug-testing-rules/7024351/
Now I'm going to tell you something that you will probably not understand.
People assume that steroids are putting something unnatural into a persons body that allows them to do things they couldn't do otherwise.
And that it's cheating.
Our body requires many dozens of different nutrients every day. Very few can be manufactured by our bodies, so we have to provide those nutrients.........proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals and so on.
If you go to the grocery store or pharmacy, you'll find a huge section with many hundreds of supplements, some pretty costly and some with crazy names and promises of being able to do this or do that to improve your health, or strength or mental alertness or sexual performance.......you name it, they sell it.
Those industries make billions of dollars selling some great stuff and also selling snake oil.
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/dietary-supplements-market
Most people using this stuff, don't bat an eyelash in putting some of the craziest supplements into their bodies that are totally unnatural but on the promise that it will do something good for them.
But this is OK because the blatantly corrupt FDA has laws in which they tell us what we can put in our bodies and what we can't put in our bodies.
Massive FDA corruption!
Started by metmike - Oct. 22, 2023, 9:36 p.m.
On to testosterone and human growth hormone.
There is nothing UNnatural about these hormones, especially for men because our bodies make plenty of it naturally.
However, there are optimal levels for this natural hormone.
1. An optimal level for health. Close to what your body makes, unless you have a natural production medical issue.
2. An optimal level for performance in some sports which is HIGHER than that of #1.
If you have a career in professional sports that is the top priority in your life by a wide margin, which level will allow you to be your best?
Is using #2 "cheating" when you know everybody else that you compete with is doing it???
What if we are under the supervision of a sports doctor who is prescribing testosterone and monitoring us for any adverse reactions???
NOT taking steroids actually imparted a DISadvantage to those choosing that path. The athletes are going to do what they think will give them the biggest advantage, using their bodies and the circumstances.
It was 100% the responsibility of MLB to start aggressive drug testing at least 10 years before they did instead of looking the other way and every player knew this was giving them the green light to use performance enhancing drugs.
Why to you think other sports and the Olympics were testing long before MLB?
I feel the players that took them were victimized by the system/MLB that ENCOURAGED THEM TO TAKE the steroids.
One reason that I have great empathy and understanding here is that I competed power lifting and bodybuilding in the late 70's/early 80's.
In the late 70's, in the Detroit area, many of the big competitive gyms had guys selling steroids like it was candy to anybody that wanted them.
There were NO rules banning steroids in power lifting and body building, so what was wrong with putting something into your body that made it stronger or more muscular?
That was the entire idea of all your hard work. Create a body and performance that maximizes what it can do, no matter what it takes.
Somebody that doesn't compete, won't get that mentality. I would have eaten dog sheet if I thought it helped and I used to take stuff that probably tasted worse than that (-:
I did actually take steroids for a brief period. Since I always overtrained and already was blessed with naturally very high testosterone, it just allowed me to recover faster and want to get back in the gym for more.
That's the other thing. People have a wide range of natural testosterone. If a persons natural test is 50% the level of somebody else, isn't that a very unfair advantage??
Anyways, lucky for me in college, I didn't have any extra money or I would have spent it on steroids for more than the 2-3 months that I could afford.
In the 1980's they started "drug free" body building and powerlifting and thats what I competed in.
The VAST, VAST majority of competitions, however, had no regulations or testing for substances because that would kill the extreme development and strength outcomes that only steroids can cause.
You have 0 chance to compete at an elite level in those sports without using steroids and other enhancement drugs.
MIKE, I DO UNDERSTAND HOW SOME PEOLPLE FEEL THEY NEED "ENHANCERS". JUST LIKE THE ONES THAT FEEL THEY NEED ... UNNECESSARY RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY ~ BOTOX ~ FACELIFTS, ETC. THEY ALL HAVE TWO THINGS IN COMMON, IMO... THEY DON'T LIKE THEMSELVES & FEEL INFERIOR.
90% OF THEM LOOK LIKE FREAKS..BULGING MUSCLES & CLOWN FACES. OHHH, & THE LAP BAND SURGERY!! WHAT A JOKE THAT IS! LOLOLOL QUIT EATIN' SO MUCH, FATTY.
JUST MY OPINION, IS ALL.
Jean,
I agree strongly that they are just looking like freaks today, especially the ones in the images below!
The bottom line is that extremely driven athletes will do everything possible to be their best and have the right to put whatever they want into their bodies to get there.
It's totally up to the organizations that they compete in to make rules and enforce them WITH TESTING to prevent those athletes from using particular LEGAL substances, like testosterone.
Don't forget, steroids are totally legal for anybody that gets a prescription from their doctor. ...........unless you are competing in a sport that bans them.
As I mentioned, ALL the elite body builders and power lifters are all on mega doses of steroids and other stuff....and unless its a drug free contest, they break no laws.
It really has become pretty insane and needs to be reigned in with the mens competitions (which is unlikely) but in the womens bodybuilding competitions, steroids have completely destroyed the sport for a long time.
These women all look better than me in my prime!
As a previous, competitive bodybuilder this is repulsive to me, personally.
https://www.allbridalstore.com/four-reasons-why-bodybuilders-use-steroids/
(funny that this site is carrying the story)
I am dead serious when I say that if I could have got my body to look like that 40 years ago, it would have been a no brainer choice to do it.