When I was twenty years old, I was in the Navy. My military ID said I was five feet eight inches tall and weighed 120 pounds. I never measured but I would guess I was about eight percent body fat. Today I'm forty. I've been out of the Navy for fifteen years. I stand five feet eight inches tall and I weigh one hundred and ninety-eight pounds, fifteen percent of which is body fat, measured electronically. In other words, I'm pretty stout.
My before and after pics are night and day, but I've never done steroids or HGH of any kind. What I did do was bust my ass in the gym and in my everyday life. Until the last five years I never had to watch what I ate - I just ate whatever and grew. However, over the last five years I've had to make a concious effort to take in the proper amounts of protein and carbohydrates and hit the gym five days a week.
Did Barry juice? I have no idea. What I do know is that attempting to use pics twenty years apart as evidence doesn't wash.
He's an outstanding ballplayer in every aspect of the game. Since his rookie season in 1986, he's only really had a few bad seasons and one if them was when he was injured and when his dad died.
Typically, people who make the claims of him juicing are not true fans who follow the game very closely. Anyone can look at his stats and see that since his rookie year, he's improved in almost every area. His overall averages, on base percentage, and slugging percentages have gone up while his strikeouts have declined - Steroids can't make that happen. Surprisingly, his home run stats are fairly consistent across his career, rising slightly as his overall average went up, his strikeouts declined, and his base on balls numbers skyrocketed. But with the exception of that single seventy-three knock year, he was pretty consistent including the slight ups and downs that plague every player.
These stats show an outstanding ballplayer improving and honing his skills over a twenty-some-odd year career.
Was he juicing? I have no idea.
Nor do I care.
Even though I'm not a big fan of his, he's one of the finest ballplayers I've ever seen and it's been amazing to watch his career.
I can't wait for the day he hits number seven fifty-six and I get to see all the wailing and gnashing of teeth from all the never-has-beens, wanna-bes, washed-up-has-beens, and never-will-bes that infest the sport like a cancer. The burn off will be glorious.
Col Sanders
Same here - at 20, I was 6’1 and 165; now, over 30 years later, I’m 230. I watch football games and marvel at how I’m as big as the fullbacks. I’m looking forward to 756 because I’ve disliked Aaron since about ‘66.
He’s a scumbag fraud.
In all your hard work, how many hat sizes did you gain during your 30s?