[JustinD]

Originally Posted by G1911

We don't think this has to do with a ballpark built for Aaron to hit as many homers as possible?

The source for Aaron's greenies is his own autobiography where he said he tried them once in 1968, felt like it was going to give him a heart attack, and it was "a stupid thing to do." The book was published long before the steroid scandal and anyone cared.

Does anyone have 1) evidence greenies produce more home runs and, 2) that Aaron was a consistent and regular user of them during his Atlanta years? I'd love to see this evidence used to make the claims, as I'm not familiar with it.

If you have some time, I would read "Your Brain on Cubs: Inside the Heads of Players and Fans". It has some great discussions relating baseball to neurology. It uses Cubs fans as a discussion point of fandom. They have some interesting information as to these substances and baseball.

On Greenies - "Amphetamines produce little or no enhancement in reaction time but significantly reduce the effect of fatigue on a person’s ability to track a moving object such as a ball. Dextroamphetamine, an amphetamine variant this is popular as a recreational drug, improves decision-making and reduces impulsivity in healthy human beings, which would be an effective enhancement for batters that tended to swing at balls outside of the strike zone.”

This was the how and why so many used them to slow the game. My personal favorite description of greenies was used by Doc Ellis, an avid user of just about everything, in "No No, A Dockumentary". If you have not seen it yet, I would reccomend. It is fantastic.