A Fraud caught Juicing in 2003

[pcgd]

The effect is most likely 350 to 370. Doubles turn into homers. Basically Wrigley on a windy day..

I think gaining 20 feet is a stretch. Maybe 5 feet, at the most.

I agree with you, 20 feet was being generous to the previous poster that said you'd increase the distance by 250%.

Even if strength directly related to the distance you hit a home run (It has little to do with it) steroids don't make you 250% stronger than the average human.

Most people making the claims that steroids automatically make you a uber-ballplayer never played the game itself and don't realize that although strength can help, the game is more about flexibility, reflexes, and talent. Steroids will aid in recovery time and yes, strength. But like I said, the results don't turn So Taguchi into Albert Pujols.

[Epiphanic]

The effect is Steroids are getting too much credit for the power boost over the past two decades. There are more factors that led to the homerun boom:

• Expansion: MLB expanded by 4 teams during the 90's, leading to pitchers that wouldn't be pitching in the majors showing why they aren't ready. The average starting pitcher struggles to pitch into the 6th inning these days. (It didn't help that two of the expanded locales, Denver and Phoenix, are higher-altitude places, which gives the ball a little more jump.)
  
• Smaller Ballparks: Many teams have opened up new ballparks since 1990. A majority of them have smaller playing dimensions and outfield fences that are closer to home plate than their previous homes. Places such as Cincinnati, Houston, and Philadelphia went from "pitcher's parks" to "hitter's parks" simply because of their cozy confines. Hell, Detroit's Comerica Park moved in the fences after one season because not enough homers were being hit.
  
• Batting Armor: As far as I know, MLB still has no restrictions on how much batting protection a hitter can wear while batting. Bonds hit so many homers not because of steroids, but because he wore so much armor at the plate that he and others no longer feared the inside pitches, and thus could hit just about any pitch thrown on either side of the plate. Craig Biggio holds the current record of being hit by pitches because he wore a garbage can on his arm. The batters have no reason to move off the plate, so they're able to go after more pitches without fear of getting hurt by the ball.
  
• Balls: Today's balls are tighter-wound than the baseballs from before, as tests have proven. A tight-wound ball travels farther than a loosely-wound ball.
  

While I think steroids may have aided athletes in returning to games quicker, I don't believe that steroids are the logical reason, nor the smartest answer, as to why power numbers were up over the past two decades. Baseball has always been a game of statistical anomolies(sp?).

Phil Birnbaum argues that expansion is only responisble for a 3% increase in homeruns. While certainly there is some "talent dilution" with expansion it doesn't lead to an increase in homers at the magnitude we've seen. Link.

I don't have any evidence ready to support or refute the park size and tighter ball arguments. I don't doubt they have an effect, but I don't know to what magnitude.

I'd add to your list, Hedley... 162 game seasons. If you look deep enough into the numbers (retrosheet.org... go for it), HR's per AB were the same in 2001 as they were in 1961. However, not only is there a difference in the number of games played, there's also a small difference in the number of AB's per game. The reason for more HR's per season is that there's more games, and as a result, more AB's per season.

1961 was the first season with 162 games. Although that fact suggests that steroids don't (or didn't) affect home run hitting ability.

Taking steroids and adding bulk actually proves to be counterproductive when it comes to hitting a baseball. While slow-twitch muscles provide power, they also make serve to make a player slower -- bulky muscles are heavy, and just serve as more weight a player has to accelerate when he goes towards putting the bat in motion, which, one would think, negatively affects bat speed, the most important part of hitting a baseball. Also important, is a batters mechanics. Have you ever seen a really muscular person? The mass affects their joint alignment and movement. They don't have the same range of motion that a less bulky person would have.

However, steroids do allow players to put on muscle mass and still maintain their bat speed. Stronger players that are just as fast will hit the ball harder and farther than not-as-strong players. Tufts University physicist Roger Tobin notes that 10% more muscle mass allows a player to increase his bat speed about 5%. That could allow upwards of a 50% increase in home runs. Link.

Most people making the claims that steroids automatically make you a uber-ballplayer never played the game itself and don't realize that although strength can help, the game is more about flexibility, reflexes, and talent.

It's true that steroids don't help people hit a baseball, but they do help people hit a baseball harder. Steroids can help players increase their strength or what have you without sacrificing flexibility or reflexes.

Now, shouldn't Lasik surgery create a similar bioethical quandary for Major League Baseball? How about Tommy John surgery?

This raises an interesting discussion. Essentially what you're asking is if we allow Lasik or other reconstructive surgeries, why not allow PED's? On the Lasik question, if we outlaw that, do we outlaw all corrective lenses (contacts and glasses)? It's a slippery slope argument and the problem with those arguments is that they lead to silly positions and an "all or nothing" mentality. At some level, I think an "arbitrary" line needs to be drawn. Where it's drawn is up for discussion.

We shouldn't hold most of these records or numbers as sacred as we already do, which is basically the only reason why there's such persecution of steroid-using players in baseball, compared to football where people couldn't give a damn about steroid use.

I don't have a response to that outside of saying I agree with it and wanted to give it some for internet face-time.

[Cujo]

Just watching A-Rod's "confession" for the 3208th time.... I've been to GNC several times before, and since when did they start selling "the good stuff"??

The more and more I see clips from the interview, the less and less I believe A-Fraud. I'm sure the sole reason he came clean was so the media and fans wouldn't give him the "Baroid" treatment during the season. But after he admitted having juiced, A-Rod dodged every other question Gammons threw at him and blamed everything on being young and stupid. Then on top of that, he, for no reason at all, began calling out Canseco and the lady from SI for getting the truth on him, the people who were right and exposed him for the cheater that he is! ...only to turn right around and say he was proud he got caught and could finally come clean about having cheated the fans.

From what I can tell, A-Rod has not and will not change from getting busted. The public will eventually forgive him, and he will to continue to he the same self-centered, narcissistic a**hole that he's always been.

[FiddySicks]

The effect is most likely 350 to 370. Doubles turn into homers. Basically Wrigley on a windy day..

I think gaining 20 feet is a stretch. Maybe 5 feet, at the most.

Athletes (especially those who play in sports where games are daily or every 2 days) take supplements and took steroids (and whatever else) to maintain muscle mass, as their daily habits prevent them from having a normal eating cycle like we'd have.

Steroids are getting too much credit for the power boost over the past two decades. There are more factors that led to the homerun boom:

• Expansion: MLB expanded by 4 teams during the 90's, leading to pitchers that wouldn't be pitching in the majors showing why they aren't ready. The average starting pitcher struggles to pitch into the 6th inning these days. (It didn't help that two of the expanded locales, Denver and Phoenix, are higher-altitude places, which gives the ball a little more jump.)
  
• Smaller Ballparks: Many teams have opened up new ballparks since 1990. A majority of them have smaller playing dimensions and outfield fences that are closer to home plate than their previous homes. Places such as Cincinnati, Houston, and Philadelphia went from "pitcher's parks" to "hitter's parks" simply because of their cozy confines. Hell, Detroit's Comerica Park moved in the fences after one season because not enough homers were being hit.
  
• Batting Armor: As far as I know, MLB still has no restrictions on how much batting protection a hitter can wear while batting. Bonds hit so many homers not because of steroids, but because he wore so much armor at the plate that he and others no longer feared the inside pitches, and thus could hit just about any pitch thrown on either side of the plate. Craig Biggio holds the current record of being hit by pitches because he wore a garbage can on his arm. The batters have no reason to move off the plate, so they're able to go after more pitches without fear of getting hurt by the ball.
  
• Balls: Today's balls are tighter-wound than the baseballs from before, as tests have proven. A tight-wound ball travels farther than a loosely-wound ball.
  

While I think steroids may have aided athletes in returning to games quicker, I don't believe that steroids are the logical reason, nor the smartest answer, as to why power numbers were up over the past two decades. Baseball has always been a game of statistical anomolies(sp?).

2 of those points could be applied to the days of the dead ball era. Hell, they only used one ball A GAME in those days, and the parks back then were so big that one of them, Braves Field, was so large that the universally-loved-on-CCSLC Ty Cobb once said that "Nobody will ever hit a ball out of Braves Field." I guess I've come to the realization if you're going to put an asterisk on whatever people who took steroids or whatever was done in this era, then you might as well go all the way back in time and put an asterisk on all those pitchers that put up astronomical numbers that still stand to this day, like Cy Young or Walter Anderson. The game was CLEARLY tilted in their favor, so it wasn't a level playing field, right?

So I do agree with hedley here: Baseball is a game of anomalies. We shouldn't hold most of these records or numbers as sacred as we already do, which is basically the only reason why there's such persecution of steroid-using players in baseball, compared to football where people couldn't give a damn about steroid use.

Well said Flame, well said. My thoughts exactly. There's really no black and white to be had on this topic.

[See Red]

He's coming up very short in this press conference...

He didn't even really think he was cheating? Didn't even know if he was doing it right? "I was only 25-26 years old."

that. Only 25 years old? I wasn't that "young" and "naive" when I was 16.

I'll add that I don't care about steroids -- I don't care if he used them, but , just man up and be honest. He looks worse after this press conference than he did after his interview.

[BrySmalls]

He's coming up very short in this press conference...

He didn't even really think he was cheating? Didn't even know if he was doing it right? "I was only 25-26 years old."

that. Only 25 years old? I wasn't that "young" and "naive" when I was 16.

I'll add that I don't care about steroids -- I don't care if he used them, but , just man up and be honest. He looks worse after this press conference than he did after his interview.

A-Fraud he is and will always be.

[JayJaxon]

Why didn't he just stick to the "Hey, I screwed up. I'm sorry."? That would have been a lot better.

[Cujo]

He's coming up very short in this press conference...

He didn't even really think he was cheating? Didn't even know if he was doing it right? "I was only 25-26 years old."

that. Only 25 years old? I wasn't that "young" and "naive" when I was 16.

I'll add that I don't care about steroids -- I don't care if he used them, but , just man up and be honest. He looks worse after this press conference than he did after his interview.

A-Rod, A*Roid, A-Fraud, whatever you wanna call that sumbitch, continues to lie out his steroid-injected ass.

If you saw the presser, then you know A-Rod straight-up lied to Peter Gammons about knowing what he was using and where he got it. But for him to blame his "cousin", who was probably Ivan Rodriguez if you ask me, and for him to blame it on being immature at the age of 25, and for missing out on college, makes A-Rod's version of "how it really was" sound like a fat load of horse .

Bottom line: A-Rod knowingly used. He's a liar and a cheat. He may walk away from the game as a rich man, but will never touch Cooperstown.

[NJTank]

I think by the time A-Rod retires the Steroids thing will be buried and forgotten

[patsox]

This guy's lack of skill at lying disgusts me. It's easy to tell that he's absolutely full of . He should have just come into the press conference and said he's sorry he regrets what he has done, has never juiced since then, and that he never will again and apologize some more and then stick to his prior story which made at least a minimal amount of sense.

[rams80]

Bottom line: A-Rod knowingly used. He's a liar and a cheat. He may walk away from the game as a rich man, but will never touch Cooperstown.

I think the majority of writers or "keepers of the gate" who throw snit fits over steroids will be dead, retired, RIF'd, or without a paper/other news organization to write for by the time A-Rod retires.

[JQK]

And to think the Red Sox and their fans wanted him so bad....

[patsox]

And to think the Red Sox and their fans wanted him so bad....

Yeah, thank god we didn't get him.

[See Red]

And to think the Red Sox and their fans wanted him so bad....

Last off-season? The bulk of Red Sox fans wanted to keep Mike Lowell, actually. Don't you remember the "Don't sign A-Rod" chant at Coors Field after game four? And I don't remember the Red Sox making a legitimate offer to A-Rod, and I can't find a number, at least. I'm sure it was nowhere near what he signed with New York for. There was a bunch of people who wanted A-Rod, myself included (I'd still love to have him on the Sox... ), but nobody's quicker to point out his postseason failures than Sox fans are. Meanwhile Lowell had just won the World Series MVP.

Good thing one of our teams has an intelligent Front Office, eh? Not one that says they're unwilling to negotiate with a player, and then signs that player to a deal that was far larger than any other team was willing to offer.

[Cujo]

Johnny Damon on A-Rod

Damon: "There's worse things that he could have done..."

Reporter: "Johnny, what would have been worse?"

Damon: "Um, Murdering someone."

[patsox]

Johnny Damon on A-Rod

Damon: "There's worse things that he could have done..."

Reporter: "Johnny, what would have been worse?"

Damon: "Um, Murdering somoene."

I like how the GEICO Caveman commercial came on before that. I also love how he said that entire thing with a straight face. Honestly, is that guy mentally retarded or what? He didn't commit a crime Johnny? Really?

[Evan]

Johnny Damon on A-Rod

Damon: "There's worse things that he could have done..."

Reporter: "Johnny, what would have been worse?"

Damon: "Um, Murdering somoene."

That's the funniest thing I have seen in a while. He is right though, Alex has not killed anyone...

[TFoA]

Bottom line: A-Rod knowingly used. He's a liar and a cheat. He may walk away from the game as a rich man, but will never touch Cooperstown.

I think the majority of writers or "keepers of the gate" who throw snit fits over steroids will be dead, retired, RIF'd, or without a paper/other news organization to write for by the time A-Rod retires.

Agreed. I think I've said this before, but this will not be as big of a deal if A-Rod continues to have the same caliber of seasons that he's had by the time he retires.

Johnny Damon on A-Rod

Damon: "There's worse things that he could have done..."

Reporter: "Johnny, what would have been worse?"

Damon: "Um, Murdering someone."

That is another reason, other than the Jesus look that he rocked with the Sox a while back, to love Johnny Damon. The fact that he said that with a straight face was just great.

[Cujo]

A-Rod's "cousin" really does exist.

ESPN identifies Rodriguez's cousin as Miami resident, Yuri Sucart

[See Red]

A-Rod's "cousin" really does exist.

ESPN identifies Rodriguez's cousin as Miami resident, Yuri Sucart

So he's not completely full of . Just mostly.