Bonds exposed: Shadows details superstar slugger's steroid use

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Posted By: Al Crisafulli

Indeed, steroids turn flyouts into home runs.

Do they turn infield singles into two-hop groundouts? Bloop singles into flyouts? Do they turn a hard, opposite-field foul liner into the stands into a lineout to center? A foul pop into the stands behind the plate into a tip straight back into the catcher's mitt?

Do steroids beef you up to the point where you can no longer leg out an infield single on a weak grounder? Do they turn a line-drive double down the first base line into a hard flyout to right?

Do they turn a line drive single to center into a deep flyout instead? Do they turn a double in the gap into a long flyout to the warning track?

We have no idea, do we? No. We all know they turn long fly balls into longer fly balls. But do they turn weak hits into outs? Good, solid singles into lineouts?

I would think they probably do. And yet Bonds hit .370 a few years ago.

Here's another question - lots of times, people make allowances for a player's numbers because of the park they played in. I've heard many people say that Joe D would have hit 80 more home runs if he didn't play in Yankee Stadium. Well, would Barry have hit ten more home runs a season if he was playing in Pac Bell instead of windy Candlestick? The year he hit 46 home runs at Candlestick, years before his steroid use began, could it be that there were 10 flyouts that got hung up in the wind, that might have gone out if he was playing in Pac Bell, or still with the Pirates?

Furthermore - if he wasn't batting against juiced-up pitchers, is it possible he could have gotten around on ten pitches during the season that were swinging strike three's instead? Maybe he could have hit 83, instead of 73.

We'll never know. And until we can scientifically answer all those questions, I refuse to marginalize his numbers over the last five or six years. The man is an amazing ballplayer, playing in the steroid era, against other players who are on steroids.

-Al