Let's Get Big!!

   Mike's Sports Daily has a good article on steroids and baseball. Here's the link:

http://journals.aol.com/cu21ti27mi/MikeSportsDaily/

   I agree that steroids saved baseball. Whether they ruin it in the near future is a different question, but they initially had a major positive effect.

   Baseball was dying on the vine, and was a few months removed from an ugly strike. Air Jordan was the world's greatest athlete. People had abandoned the national pastime in droves. You could make a pretty good argument for baseball being the #3 sport in America. Then came Mark and Sammy.

   The big baseball event that brought back the fans was a home run derby between 2 guys who were playing better baseball through chemistry. They each bashed a record that had stood for decades, and America ate it up. Throw in a Red Sox miracle, and baseball was looking good again...until a few months ago.

   Personally, I like my players to be as big as possible. Had steroids existed in the Ted Williams age, I'd be interested to see if he lacked the courage to Get Big.

   While flying a fighter in a war kind of makes the courage charge a moot point, I wonder if Terrible Ted or The Yankee Clipper would have used the Clear and the Cream if they were avilable. Come to think of it, Mickey Mantle didn't seem afraid of exploring Inner Space. Would he have shied away from a quick shot (lol) and an hour in the gym if he could have bashed 74 homers a year or stole Marilyn Monroe from that Dimaggio SOB?

   Babe Ruth seemed like the kind of guy who would have dreaded the hour in the gym more than the hypodermic to the derriere. Those gyms were open in opposition to Happy Hour somewhere, and the Bambino didn't look like he missed many meals worrying about his bench press. Weightlifting wasn't that common until just recently, but now it's almost required. Has innocent weightlifting changed the game more than a few dozen guys with a some Added Incentive? A good question for another post...

   I believe that giving it 100% involves using whatever performance enhancing drugs are available. I try to juice up when I have a particularly important blog entry coming up. Some andro, some super-caffeinated tea, a brisk swim, a fat line of cocaine- whatever unblocks the dam.

   If I played baseball, I'd probably be in the stall with Jose. Sure, I may only live to 50, but 25 of those years would involve me spending the millions I made as a Home Run Machine. If they were absolutely harmless, and with the money regularly paid to today's great power hitters...I'd be a fool not to bring myself to deal with the Spike.

   Honestly, I feel that a bigger * should be next to Babe Ruth's name than Barry Bonds. Bonds was on drugs, and they certainly aided his performance. Ruth simply never once lifted a bat against a black opponent. Skipping out on 15-30% of the population- and filling their void with lesser white players- must have added a few Swats to the Sultan's totals.

   It wasn't his fault, but would Ruth have been as good if he took on ALL comers- black, white, Asian or Hispanic? Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't....we'll never know. Likewise, even if we shave 45 pounds of muscle off Bonds, and he hits 17 dingers a year for the rest of his career....will we be able to deny his heyday, when the juice was in effect and the homers flowed like wine? 

   I'm no Bonds fan- in fact, I have thrown food at him before. Nor am I on some pro-black kick here...I'd put the same * next to Josh Gibson or Sandahurah(?) Oh, for the same reason. In this case, you have to call it how you see it.

   Will future societies so improve nutrition that everyone is walking around at a chiseled 245 pounds?  If steroids were developed that were totally safe, would it not make sense for a young ballplayer to use them? They may have supplements in 2025 that make today's steroids look like Pez, and people may hit 80 HRs a year frequently.

   Will they put the * next to everyone who played before they figured out the proper nutritional pyramid and added the safe Get-Me-Huge supplements? Will they look back at McGwire's 1999 Popeye forearms and see a harbinger of a New Age?

   Not as strange as it sounds...baseball is almost 2 centuries old, and 2 more centuries look rerasonable at this point. 2 centuries ago, humans lived to 45 years old, and all but the rich showed some signs of malnutrition. Few got any kind of medical care at all. The bunks on the Mayflower were 5 feet long, and made for 2. Napoleon wasn't that short for his time- unless he was working a cannon  next to his giant artillerists, which is how he got the "Little Corporal" nickname. A few medical advances and  a bit of improved agriculture had a major effect in human size, power and stamina.

     But if we start tossing the * around, we'll be opening a fissure that could swallow everyone except Henry Aaron- who played clean against all comers, hit pitchers throwing off the older/higher mound, never swung at a juiced ball, and who may keep his record forever if Bonds suffers a Marion Jones-like drop in productivity.

   I now have just a little bit more respect for Hammerin' Hank. Once you really think about it, he's the only one you can root for with a clean conscience.