I love steroids so much, I bought the pharmacy
Posted on 12/13/2007 5:40:14 PM PST by Pharmboy
Baseball players and other athletes use steroids for one reason -- they work.
Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, who launched an independent probe into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in March 2006, was expected to name on Thursday at least 50 Major League Baseball players who used banned drugs, despite rules and health warnings.
They can cause acne, enlarged breasts and shrunken testicles in men. They cause women to grow facial hair and can lead to infertility in both sexes.
Yet some players still use them. Why? Because they can help build muscle and endurance more quickly, mostly by speeding recovery from strenuous workouts, experts say.
"It's not just a question of improving muscular strength and recovery," said Jay Hoffman, chairman of the department of Health & Exercise Science at The College of New Jersey and a former National Football League player who says he used steroids.
"Hypothetically, there's a good chance that taking anabolic steroids will have a chance to make you faster and quicker," Hoffman said in a telephone interview.
In September, physicist Roger Tobin of Tufts University in Boston said steroids could help baseball players hit 50 percent more home runs by boosting their muscle mass by just 10 percent.
He said 10 percent more muscle mass would help a player swing about 5 percent faster, increasing the ball's speed by 4 percent as it leaves the bat.
"A 4 percent increase in ball speed, which can reasonably be expected from steroid use, can increase home run production by anywhere from 50 percent to 100 percent," Tobin said.
Photographs show former San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds bloating from a trim 185 pounds (84 kg) in 1991 to a husky 228 (103 kg) in 2001, when he hit 73 home runs.
Bonds, 43, has pleaded not guilty to charges he lied about his use of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances before a grand jury that was investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative.
(Editing by Patricia Zengerle)
With all these real cheaters, it’s tough to make an argument for keeping Pete Rose out.
A valid point...I spent 4 years in Cincinnati, and wouldn’t mind seeing the kid from the “Over the Rhine” area make it in.
Here's the thing about baseball steroid use that keeps me from immediately demanding Bonds' head--that strength referred to in this article still will not help someone hit a round ball with a round bat. That takes skill, pure and simple. IF you make contact, then the strength comes into play.
The point is that without the steroids, Bonds might have hit about 35-40 HR’s and about 35-40 more flyouts to right field.
A 40 HR season is pretty darn good, bit Barry just got greedy.
Now riddle me this: let's say it was discovered that Babe Ruth had a testosterone-secreting tumor (remember: we call them "steroids," but they are male hormones) and had 3 times the amount of this natural androgen circulating in his blood.
Should the Bambino then get an asterisk also??
No question...but his robotic arm helps too.
Don’t they work only if there already is talent?
I love steroids so much, I bought the pharmacy
Now that’s just silly...
Anyone taking them gets stronger and more muscular, but they won’t make you hit the major league slider any better.
Baseball hitters’ performance can be pretty accurately predicted based on previous performance, with adjustments for park effects, etc. Judging by the list of names, it looks like the ones that are known to have juiced raised up one level in the hierarchy - already great players like Bonds went up into previously unknown performance levels, already very good players (like Palmeiro) became greats, etc. Some names on the list were non-prospects who became just good enough to land a big league paycheck for a little while.
I understand the effect on hitters, but I still don’t get what benefit pitchers get, other than faster recovery between games - more muscle doesn’t make a pitcher’s fastball any faster or add bite to a slider.
It might not ONLY be strength...
The ball will go farther. I remember a study was published a couple years ago showing that Bonds' 400+ foot home runs skyrocketed after 1999. Went from something like 20 over his entire career up till then to 70 in the five years after. I don't remember the exact numbers but the contrast was ridiculous.
I don't know whether it'd improve a slider, but I don't believe for a second it wouldn't increase the speed on a pitcher's fastball. Eric Gagne is Exhibit A.
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