Honestly, DG, I’m already sick of it. It IS a hugely important issue, especially when it comes to kids, not just athletic kids, either. The whole thing (doping) sends the wrong messages.
The issue that I really have, and the part I’m sick of, is that apparently Baseball is the only culprit, or so the media has inadvertently portrayed. The lack of coverage from a football, basketball, hockey, Olympics, tennis, etc. perspective is borderline obscene. And really the problem is that most of these don’t see their sport having this particular issue and have no incentive to help Baseball and sports-in-general with this mess.
Football attempts to look like they have a handle on this, but when their ‘roid-busted-and-suspended star still wins the Defensive POY award and the NFL does nothing to punish him further, it makes a mockery of their own policy. The player is being rewarded even though he is a known cheater.
Hockey has begun testing and I have no idea what the NBA’s policy is, but it is common knowledge that the NBA has a reputation of having some character issues off the court, even though there are a ton of decent guys in the league and they get lumped in with the Ron Artests, Latrell Spreewells, and the Portland Jailblazers. They, too, should push for testing reform because it can only help their own cause in the court of Public Opinion. They would have a lot to gain by being pro-active.
Baseball is being ostrecized for the problems that every sport is facing with this, and that the message is being lost when it’s being touted as a “Baseball Problem”. It’s not. It’s an American cultural problem.

… Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio (and A. Bartlett Giamatti) …

Ok so Iam going to have to play devils advocate on this one. Who cares? What message are they sending to kids? That steroids are ok? I wouldnt think so after all the negative light its been place in. And how can you blame Barry or Roger, at the end of the day, its the parents responsibility and noone elses. And as for this congressional hearing, what about the tax dollars its costing? The government wouldnt even care if it wasnt makeing these “investagtors” millions of dollars. Its a money thing, as usual. If it doesnt make somebody money in our country, it will never get accomplished. But really who cares? Juice em up, we love the long ball. I wanna see more home runs and more shut outs. Its a game.

John,

Hard to argue with this opinion: It’s a money thing. One of the things Vincent went on to say is that there is a “reward system” in place that encourages the use of steroids. He means, of course, the money. The gold medals, sure. But the money, most of all. Athletes make a lot of money, and we focus too much on the mega-watt stars. There is a vast difference between a Triple-A paycheck and a major-league paycheck. Is that difference worth cheating?

Look at the NFL. Think those non-guaranteed contracts might inspire some players to do whatever it takes — whatever necessary — to keep ahold of that job some kid, some cheaper, faster, better player is coming to take?

It sure is a money thing.

dg
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DG - You are obviously a passionate baseball purist. And for that, baseball fans need to respect and appreciate your words and the emotion behind them. You are right, other experts and other fans are right, we are definitely fatigued on the issue of steroids…almost to the point of acceptance.

However, I see the media and anti-juice experts simply shaking their heads in half-hearted disgust and disappointment and not enough fighting back. What is the poison pill that will sway the court of public opinion (and the decisions of kids) back to the corner of neutrality?

How about more information about the short / long term real effects of steroids and HGH. Tell me how much / little ‘roids help and then tell me the health risks. Tell me why players want to risk their health? What is the difference between a player taking the juice and not. How much farther was Barry able to hit a baseball? How many doubles turned into home runs? Tell me why Roger would jeopardize his historical place in the game for a few more K’s and a couple of more wins. For every press conference that lionizes a player for juicing, give me an expert who projects the impact on his stats.

Then, and only then, will the court of public opinion be in a position to make a reasonable decision as to the position of performance enhancing drugs and their place in the game.

There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that steroids don’t help in hitting home runs. This isn’t desperate fan talk. There’s basis in science. One argument is that the fast twitch muscle fibers aided by steroids do no assist in adding speed.

Here’s a very long PDF you can read about it:

http://www.arthurdevany.com/webstuff/images/HomeRunHitting.pdf

and a quote from it:

“As to steroids themselves, they are highly overrated. They encourage hypertrophy in bodybuilders, who use massive amounts, train long and hard, and do very high volume work. No baseball player can afford to train that long and the training would be highly counterproductive to his baseball playing. Body builder exercises produce a higher volume of slow twitch muscle fiber, the antithesis of power production. Slow twitch fibers make a player slow, even though they may promote endurance. Hitting a home run requires accelerating a bat from a stand still to over 70 to 110 feet per second in a few milliseconds. Such a feat requires rapid force generation that can only be supplied by fast twitch muscle fibers.

Muscle hypertrophy is also counterproductive to home run hitting. Bulky muscles are heavy and there is more body weight to accelerate if a bat is to be swung quickly. Hypertrophy affects hitting mechanics because it alters joint alignment and movement. Body building, and the slow twitch fiber composition that it produces, could not produce the power and speed that Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa exhibited in their prime years. Even they are not nearly as muscular as Ted Kluszewski or Steve Bilko were in their prime. In fact, they look like slightly taller versions of Mickey Mantle, a densely muscled player of the past.”

I’m not saying this is definitive, but there are educated arguments against the idea that steroids help. Bonds spike in steroids also lined up with the introduction of PacBell which essentially has the “Barry wall” in right field. It was made for him to hit home runs over. Sosa played in Wrigley and never hit as many home runs as Bonds or Mac.

As to why players do them, why do they cork bats? That doesn’t help either. They wear the same socks until they lose - all sorts of superstitious stuff that has no real effect. Ben Johnson taking steroids isn’t that relevant here - he never bulked up and one thing steroids do actually do is allow you to work out longer and help with recovery. Certainly you can argue that would help ballplayers, but it’s not necessarily the direct link some people take for granted.

“One argument is that the fast twitch muscle fibers aided by steroids do no assist in adding speed.”

That should be “slow” twitch. Sorry.

Chris,

I appreciate the study that you quoted above, and I’ve seen similar statements made in print, in studies, in journals, etc. What the above fails to address is THE RECOVERY benefit of steroids and Human Growth Hormone. This is a huge factor. It may be the factor. HGH is said to accelerate healing. OK. Steroids are used to help body builders recover quickly from training so … they can train again.

Consider the example given me by a former minor leaguer earlier this week: He had teammates tell him about their steroid cycles. How they would use and see their fastball not so much jump in velocity, but hold its velocity over several days. If the team was out of competition, the pitchers would cycle off the steroids and see their velocity drop — because of fatigue as much as anything.

Think about that. If you are able to swing a bat with the same speed and the same force on Monday as you can Friday as you can in August, while also being able to workout and keep up your strength through the grind of a season … is that not an advantage? Does that not produce more home runs? It’s not the added distance. It’s not the added force.

It’s the fortified stamina.

dg
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