Saturday, July 21, 2007
Barry Bonds and Steroids
I have thunked about this situation and cannot reach clarity in my mind. Should Barry's record have an asterisk? Should the steroids issue be ignored? Why do people villify Barry when everyone loved Mark Maguire (sp?) who was built like a cartoon character because of his steroids? If you were Bud Selig what would you do? (no one needs to point out that this is just sports, so who cares - we know that.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
I think any athlete that is proved to have used steroids should be stripped of personal awards and their stats eliminated.
Barry is innocent so far, though.
You must mean that he hasn't tested positive. There is other evidence of his steroidal use. true no positive tests. So do you feel his record is untainted since there is no proof?
Sure he used steroids! And I find myself torn between my two views... He cheated the system, and so he must not be allowed to keep playing to break one to the greatest records... It goes to show you that he is no longer taking the steroids, which is probably why he has to rest so much. He plays a couple games, then has to rest... My other view is that the steroids did not make him swing the bat better... He is a great hitter... They just made him able to play longer. Without the steroids, I don't think his body could keep up with physical demand the sport requires... I finally decided that I don't care! This is history, whether we agree with how he got here or not... Bonds is about to break this awesome record... I want to see history in the making... I watch, and I enjoy!
With that said though... I wouldn't mind at all if he struck out or walked for the rest of the season... I don't think he'll be back next year... A tie would be ok with me...
I went to Wikiperdia and looked up Anabolic steroids and read about their history. Here is the excerpt. I found it fascinating.
Performance enhancing substances have been used for thousands of years in traditional medicine by societies around the world, with the aim of promoting vitality and strength.[1] In particular, the use of steroid hormones pre-dates their identification and isolation: medical use of testicle extract began in the late 19th century, and its effects on strength were also studied then.[2]
The development of modern pharmaceutical anabolic steroids can be traced back to 1931 when Adolf Butenandt, a chemist in Marburg, obtained 15 milligrams of the male hormone androstenone from tens of thousands of liters of urine. This hormone was synthesized in 1934 by Leopold Ruzicka, a chemist in Zurich. It was already known that the testes contained a more powerful androgen than androstenone, and three groups of scientists, funded by competing pharmaceutical companies in The Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland, raced to isolate it.[3][4]
This testicular hormone was first identified by Karoly Gyula David, E. Dingemanse, J. Freud and Ernst Laqueur in a May 1935 paper "On Crystalline Male Hormone from Testicles (Testosterone)." They named the hormone testosterone, from the stems of testicle and sterol, and the suffix of ketone. The chemical synthesis of testosterone was achieved in August that year, when Butenandt and G. Hanisch published a paper describing "A Method for Preparing Testosterone from Cholesterol." Only a week later, the third group, Ruzicka and A. Wettstein, announced a patent application in a paper "On the Artificial Preparation of the Testicular Hormone Testosterone (Androsten-3-one-17-ol)." Ruzicka and Butenandt were offered the 1939 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work, but the Nazi government forced Butenandt to decline the honor.[3][4]
Clinical trials on humans, involving either oral doses of methyl testosterone or injections of testosterone propionate, began as early as 1937.[3] Testosterone propionate is mentioned in a letter to the editor of Strength and Health magazine in 1938; this is the earliest known reference to an anabolic steroid in a U.S. weightlifting or bodybuilding magazine.
During the Second World War, German scientists synthesized other anabolic steroids, and experimented on concentration camp inmates and prisoners of war in an attempt to treat chronic wasting.[3] They also experimented on German soldiers, hoping to increase their aggression. Adolf Hitler himself, according to his physician, was injected with testosterone derivatives to treat various ailments.[5] The development of muscle-building properties of testosterone was pursued in the 1940s, in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Bloc countries such as East Germany, where steroid programs were used to enhance the performance of Olympic and amateur weight lifters.[6] In the West, scientific interest in steroids was rekindled in the 1950s and, in 1958, after promising trials had been conducted in other countries, Dianabol (a trademark name for methandrostenolone) was approved for use in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration.
From the 1950s until the 1980s, there were doubts that anabolic steroids produced anything more than a placebo effect. In a 1972 study,[7] participants were informed they would receive injections of anabolic steroids on a daily basis, but instead had actually been given a placebo. They reportedly could not tell the difference, and the perceived performance enhancement was similar to that of subjects taking the real anabolic compounds. According to Geraline Lin, a researcher for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, these results remained unchallenged for 18 years, even though the study used inconsistent controls and insignificant doses.[8] In a 2001 study, the effects of high doses of anabolic steroids were examined, by injecting variable doses (up to 600 mg/week) of testosterone enanthate into muscle tissue for 20 weeks. The results showed a clear increase in muscle mass and decrease in fat mass associated with the testosterone doses.[9]
1. A short doping history. Anti-Doping Hotline. Retrieved on 2007-04-24.
2. Kuhn CM (2002). "Anabolic steroids". Recent Prog. Horm. Res. 57: 411-34. PMID 12017555.
3. a b c d Hoberman JM, Yesalis CE (1995). "The history of synthetic testosterone". Scientific American 272: 76–81. PMID 7817189.
4. a b Freeman ER, Bloom DA, McGuire EJ (2001). "A brief history of testosterone". Journal of Urology 165: 371–373. PMID 11176375.
5. Taylor, William N. (1991). Macho Medicine: A History of the Anabolic Steroid Epidemic. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0899506135.
6. Sweitzer, Philip J. (2004). "Drug law enforcement in crisis: cops on steroids". Journal of Sports Law and Contemporary Problems 2 (2). Retrieved on 2007-05-16.
7. Medicine and Science in Sports, Anabolic steroids: the physiological effects of placebos. (Ariel & Saville, 1972).
8. Lin, Geraline (1996). Anabolic Steroid Abuse ISBN 0-7881-2969-4
9. Bhasin S, Woodhouse L, Casaburi R, et al (2001). "Testosterone dose-response relationships in healthy young men". Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 281 (6): E1172-81. PMID 11701431
Now that's a post, Dad.
I'm not sure why we only focus on strength when it comes to hitting homeruns. I don't think that power is the number one factor in being a successful homerun hitter. It would be like saying, "His legs were bigger and that's why he scored so many goals." It's a skill issue more than it is a strength issue. Have you ever gone to the batting cages and tried to hit a fast pitch? I get excited just to fall tip it!
Hank Aaron was 6' 180 pounds. Not exactly a mammoth. Steroids don't enhance skill. He may have enhanced his power, but you can't dispute that he has an amazing ability to connect with the ball dead on.
P.S. I am not a Barry Bonds fan and have no emotional connection to him whatsoever.
John
Five softball homeruns this season and counting. 5'11 and 165 pounds.
That should be FOUL tip. Proofreeding is not my think. John
That's good. "Proofreading is not my think."
Agree that steroids don't give you an ability to hit homeruns. They just give you an ability to hit homeruns during the tired second half of a season and during old years when others are worn down. Therefore, they taint your comparative career numbers.
I have not defined where I stand on this issue - except that steroids apparantly gives the user an illegal advantage.
But Hal, regarding your statement, "the tired second half of a season and during old years when others are worn down," this is baseball we're talking about... not football or basketball or soccer or any other sport that is physically draining - it's baseball, where you swing a 40 oz bat 10 or fifteen times and run a few bases and run down a few flies and throw a few balls into the infield. This is not a demanding sport physically - unless you're a pitcher. I may be wrong - and I probably am - but I don't see how steroids will give one more stamina or longevity in playing the game of baseball.
Then explain why they give guys days off just to get rested during the season.
Good point. I have a theory. But explain why you can play four games of regional baseball playoffs in one day and feel just as strong for the last at-bat as the first and still able to go about the next day's business as usual. But if you play one basketball or football game you need to rest up for several days just to get back to 80%.
Region softball does not involve the following:
Airplane travel for 6 months or more.
Late, late games.
Lost sleep.
Constant adjustment to times zones.
Away from family/spouse.
Standing for long hours in the sun (just standing in the sun in a baseball uniform can be physically draining).
The wear and tear on the body of a 6 month season, not to mention the training in the off-season.
I think steroids advantage the athlete the second half and provide longevity to his career. Also, Gary Sheffield made a great point. He said that he and Barry were similar athletes until the obvious size increase in Barry in his middle 30s. With this huge size increase came a significant spike in his HR numbers. Gary probably used roids to maintain his size, not to increase, and he pointed out that his numbers have been relatively consistent without a huge spike in HRs. Hank Aaron's numbers are a lot like Sheffield's, but Hank was able to play so long at a consistent level. Barry's numbers are bloated over the past 10 years, along with his body. I think he cheated. And I think he has cheapened the coolest record in sports.
Well, I obviously can't directly relate to the list of hardships MLB players have to deal with. So let me just relate on a smaller scale. When I played four regional games in one day I was actively working a fulltime physically demanding job; I had four active kids to play with/raise/get up in the night with/etc. (two of which were in a baseball league of their own, which I was involved in actively); I was a time-consuming ward clerk; I was an active jogger; etcetera. I was not super-human. I was just a regular active guy. And as a regular active guy I believe my regular-active-guy activities were just as emotionally draining, sleep depriving, physically draining as the posted list MLB players deal with. Nevertheless, the fact remains that there is no way on earth I could have played four basketball or football games in one day - and especially the next day been able to resume my "regular-active-guy activities," but I did easily resume those activities - having played four baseball games in one day. Because baseball is so unphysically demanding. To be good at it one need not have any significant amount of endurance. So if anabolic steroids increase one's endurance, any endurance benefits for playing the game of baseball are insignificant.
DAD - you're not gettin it, you did that for how long? Cool, that is awesome... Try doing that for a season, then training in the offseason, and then doing it the length of a career... it begins to take a toll on your body. Even you with your popeye calves and forearms... you manly man you!-erin
Joe said: "Gary probably used roids to maintain his size..."
I've found In'N'Out hamburgers work well too.
Post a Comment