HOF ballot coming up

[HOF Auto Rookies]

Originally Posted by steve B

True, the steroids mostly speed recovery. Which is exactly what makes it help build strength for an athlete who trains.

When things were coming out I asked someone I knew who was a wrestler/bodybuilder (classic wrestling, not TV wrestling) about steroids.
He said that the aid in recovery was the key. Typically someone needs downtime in training, heavy weights one day speed the next, or a couple days of weight followed by a couple light days. The muscles get damaged and get rebuilt a bit bigger and stronger. But it takes time, and overdoing it makes you weaker.
But with steroids the recovery is fast enough that someone can train hard every day. So the benefits of the workouts are at least twice as fast. Some stuff also lets the rebuilt muscle be much stronger, so a combination leads to a lot of mass and strength very quickly.

The downside is that once a person lays off the stuff they're going to be injury prone since now the workouts do far more damage than normal recovery time can account for. Nearly all the main users had a lost year with maybe a second "off" year after as they got hurt and readjusted to being normal again. And a rash of those happened in the year or two leading up to the testing program. still more came as the program was begun although the first year was very weak testing.

It's not possible to fail a test that isn't taken.

Steve B

Good points, it certainly does help with recover and I certainly looked at that route when I got injured. But regardless if you take steroids, doesn't make you better. Matt Lawton, Chuck Knoblauch, it did nothing for them. You still need to have the God given skillsets, and steroids don't change your genetic code or your muscle type fibers, so you still need to be able to see the ball and hit the ball. Does not help optical focal or hand eye coordination.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by HOF Auto Rookies

Good points, it certainly does help with recover and I certainly looked at that route when I got injured. But regardless if you take steroids, doesn't make you better. Matt Lawton, Chuck Knoblauch, it did nothing for them. You still need to have the God given skillsets, and steroids don't change your genetic code or your muscle type fibers, so you still need to be able to see the ball and hit the ball. Does not help optical focal or hand eye coordination.

I used to have a lot of the same arguments as you, but over time I realized I was just being hopeful, because I didn't want to believe steroids were really changing the game.

If the precipitous drop in power numbers of the top guys the last few years isn't an indication, I don't know what is.

Just looking back at McGwire. He went from having debilitating back issues in Oakland, to hitting towering 600 foot homers on a regular basis in St. Louis.

That just doesn't happen. I can forgive him if he used steroid treatment to try to get his back healthy as a medical issue..............hell, that's what any civilian on the street would do, rather then suffer through a lifetime of back pain.

I think it's pretty plain, that he went and took it to the next level after that. Started using stuff a bit more sophisticated and harder to track then the garbage Canseco was allegedly shooting him up with in Oakland, whether it's HGH, Testosterone or whatever.



Not necessarily bad for the body.........but not so great for what we consider the sanctity of the sport.

[HOF Auto Rookies]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

To hitting towering 600 foot homers on a regular basis in St. Louis.

That does not happen, ever at all, no one hits a bomb 600 ft on a regular basis, not even in BP. But I get the jist of what you're saying. They did a test to say, for example 'let's say with steroids, for power on HR's we would add 15 feet or so.' So they looked at the HR's of Bonds etc to see if his still would have gone out or not, and very very few were questionable. There is no scientific evidence to support this, just a theory.

But, I will say again, you still need to be able to hit the ball no matter how much drugs you take.

[David W]

Originally Posted by HOF Auto Rookies

Good points, it certainly does help with recover and I certainly looked at that route when I got injured. But regardless if you take steroids, doesn't make you better. Matt Lawton, Chuck Knoblauch, it did nothing for them. You still need to have the God given skillsets, and steroids don't change your genetic code or your muscle type fibers, so you still need to be able to see the ball and hit the ball. Does not help optical focal or hand eye coordination.

I was on steroids this spring (prescribed for a torn tendon, prior to surgery this summer). Initial diagnosis was tendonitis, I could not run without limping and having it swell up. I got a steroid shot from the doctor and within 8 hours I was playing basketball, with no pain. This would last for 2-3 weeks, then it would swell. Got a second steroid shot, playing softball, basketball, and soccer - no pain.

That is the benefit of steroids, quick recovery from injuries, including serious ones like mine where the outside tendon in the foot was torn in half and required surgery in June which has taken 5 months to recover from.

[HOF Auto Rookies]

Originally Posted by David W

I was on steroids this spring (prescribed for a torn tendon, prior to surgery this summer). Initial diagnosis was tendonitis, I could not run without limping and having it swell up. I got a steroid shot from the doctor and within 8 hours I was playing basketball, with no pain. This would last for 2-3 weeks, then it would swell. Got a second steroid shot, playing softball, basketball, and soccer - no pain.

That is the benefit of steroids, quick recovery from injuries, including serious ones like mine where the outside tendon in the foot was torn in half and required surgery in June which has taken 5 months to recover from.

Cortisone?

[David W]

Originally Posted by HOF Auto Rookies

Cortisone?

I'm not sure what the steroid was, it was injected into the tendon

[Touch'EmAll]

For whatever its worth, right or wrong.......let them in.......BUT have the proven PHD users collectively in the same room in the Hall and call it the "Steroid Era" time era room.

So they do get in, but kinda sorta have an unseen asterisk by placing them all in same room.

And feel free to let in Roger Maris and Bo Jackson. Talk about famous, they were two of the most famous of all players of their era's.

Jeez, how many TV commercials were made with Bo Jackson? He had the ENTIRE country captivated by his on field talents. He had every kid in America scrambling for his baseball and football cards. If its fame you are after, it doesn't get much more famous than Bo Jackson. Some of the recently voted in ya-hoo's couldn't even hold Bo Jackson's jockstrap, for crying out loud!