Was PUD GALVIN The First Doper?

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by Seven

The story of Pud Galvin is widely known by many who study the history of our game. If we're being honest, doping of any kind has been going on since the sport began. Whether it was players like Galvin or Ruth getting injected with animal testosterone, Mantle paying money to visit "Dr. Feelgood" to inject him with something that led to an infection later on, or the copious amount of players that popped Greenies liked candy in order to be on high alert and ready to hit/pitch anything. Doping in our sport has been around for a long time. It's only been recent, when the players from the steroid era truly became stigmatized for doing something.

Could not be summed up better.

It's a fact of life that people in all sports push to be the best in their game. Galvin was very open about his experiences and ideas. The naysayers will tell you it was unlikely to work, but intent is the crime...so yes Galvin was the first open steroid user in the hall.

As mentioned earlier, Mantle lost the 61' home run race due to a poorly placed steroid/speed/vitamin concoction by the same Dr. Feelgood that was doping JFK. The needle pierced his bone and caused an infection that kept him out.

Lyle Alzado was admittedly stacking tons of pure decabolin steroids while in college. If real steroids were available to college kids in 1967 -1970 at Yankton College, can any logical sense believe that professional players were not fully using?

It rankles the feathers of all the purist dreamers, but the "steroid era" was a complete and utter myth. It should be called the "we finally started testing era"

Sorry to tarnish the silver claret, but this is why the self-righteous anti-hof stands don't fly in my mind. I am sure someone will take offense, but the facts and evidence are all there.

To be honest, I don't care either. We will always be looking for these items and it will always take time to develop something to find it.