McGwire Admits Steroid Use

[Jordan4life_2007]

I think the Roiders all deserve an award for trying so hard to help their teams win, but that's just me......

 

LOL. An award? I wouldn't go quite THAT far. But I can definitely sympathize. I workout quite often. And I'm always looking for some kinda edge (I'm a regular at GNC). If I played a pro sport, and I thought there was something out there that could enhance me overall, you best believe I'd consider it. Would I do it? Probably not. But that's only because of the risks and long-term ramifications. If not for that, I'd do it in a second.

[StrangeSox]

His interviews/ letters made me think he's even more of an idiot/ douche than I already did.

 

edit: because he didn't actually apologize for anything, is apparently completely ignorant of the actual effects of steroid use and refused repeatedly to take personal responsibility and tried to blame it on the "era".

Edited January 13, 2010 by StrangeSox

[StrangeSox]

Thank You!!! I totally agree! They cheated in the exact same way, Their illegal performance enhanceing drug of choice just did not work as well during their time. They damn sure used and abused them all they could though. Take all the cheats out and you lose almost all your hall of famers from the 70's on. Not just the "roiders".

 

Along this line of performance enhancers, MLB players have a curiously higher rate of ADHD/ADD diagnoses. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the prescribed medications are often powerful stimulants.

[BearSox]

I dont think breaking the law has anything to do with baseball, the HOF, or whether a player is HOF worthy.

 

 

 

How is a spitball not premeditated?

 

How does a spitball not put their "entire game at an improperly different level of competition"?

 

If anything a spitball is worse. You can scientifically see the difference between a doctored ball and a nondoctored ball.

 

Conversely there is no absolute correlation between steroids and being a better player. There could have been hundreds of players taking steroids who sucked for all we know.

 

Two words, Brady Anderson.

 

If that isnt enough proof that steroids clearly does make you a better ball player, I dont know what is.

[BearSox]

How did cheaters of today make the HOF irrelevant when it has been accepting cheaters for years?

 

Who cheated first:

 

Gaylord Perry

 

Big Mac

 

Barry Bonds

 

Which of them is in the HOF?

 

The saddest chapter in baseball is the current chapter where people have evolved this "holier than thou" attitude, and forget that the Hall is filed with cheaters from all eras, and that baseball needed a few scapegoats to cover up the fact that everyone was cheating.

 

Either ban all cheaters, or ban no cheaters.

 

Throwing a spit ball is like holding in football. Its against the rules, but if the ref or ump doesn't see it, it's not cheating.

 

Steroids and HGH are completely different because most of the use with them in sports are ILLEGAL, and are giving the players a clear physical advantage against those who don't break the rules.

 

A pitcher can still hang a spit ball and have it be hit 400 feet for a homer. However, a batter can have warning track power, but suddenly after one offseason, become a guy who can knock out 20 easy.

 

There is a HUGE difference, and you trying to justify it all together as just "cheating" is laughable.

[JuiceCruz16]

Throwing a spit ball is like holding in football. Its against the rules, but if the ref or ump doesn't see it, it's not cheating.

 

Steroids and HGH are completely different because most of the use with them in sports are ILLEGAL, and are giving the players a clear physical advantage against those who don't break the rules.

 

A pitcher can still hang a spit ball and have it be hit 400 feet for a homer. However, a batter can have warning track power, but suddenly after one offseason, become a guy who can knock out 20 easy.

 

There is a HUGE difference, and you trying to justify it all together as just "cheating" is laughable.

What about all the "cheaters" that abused "greenies" all the amphetemines used illegally solely as a performance enhancing drug. Plenty of those rewarded and celebrated for this "cheating". The modern players performance enhanceing drugs just worked better, but they were illegally used for the exact same purpose by the players and organizations. Ban them all then!

[Soxbadger]

Two words, Brady Anderson.

 

If that isnt enough proof that steroids clearly does make you a better ball player, I dont know what is.

 

What??

 

Just because Brady Anderson had one fluke power season presumably on steroids, is not "clear proof".

 

If anything it is "circumstantial evidence". Not to mention that Brady Anderson was an All-Star with an ops+ of 128, 4 years before hitting 50 hrs. In fact in only 1 year did Anderson have extreme power improvement and in only 2 years did he see batting average increases.

 

So the better statement is: Based on Brady Anderson's career, there is no "clear proof" that steroids make you a better player.

 

There is circumstantial evidence that it may improve your power, but then we would have to believe Anderson only took steroids for 1 year, and abruptly quit and that there is evidence that steroids have no impact on batting average, obp etc, only power as Anderson's stats from 96 and 97 are almost identical outside of 50 hrs compared to 18.

 

Throwing a spit ball is like holding in football. Its against the rules, but if the ref or ump doesn't see it, it's not cheating.

 

Steroids and HGH are completely different because most of the use with them in sports are ILLEGAL, and are giving the players a clear physical advantage against those who don't break the rules.

 

These 2 paragraphs dont make any sense.

 

Throwing a spit ball is not like holding. If you get caught throwing a spit ball you can be suspended. If you are caught holding, you are going to receive a penalty.

 

The second paragraph is peculiar as well. Are you saying that they are different because they "illegal" to use in the United States? Or are you saying they are "illegal" to use in baseball? Its unclear.

 

And what does it matter if its a clear "physical" (which its not clear, there is very little actual proof, mostly circumstantial and anecdotal evidence) advantage. Is there not a clear "advantage" in corking a bat, or throwing an illegal pitch, or using contacts that bring out the red laces on a ball?

 

 

A pitcher can still hang a spit ball and have it be hit 400 feet for a homer. However, a batter can have warning track power, but suddenly after one offseason, become a guy who can knock out 20 easy.

 

There is a HUGE difference, and you trying to justify it all together as just "cheating" is laughable.

 

Um can a batter still not strike out? They still have to hit the ball, and hitting a hr isnt just as easy as "being strong" because if it was, baseball would be filled with the "worlds strongest men".

 

If I went out today and started doing steroids, I would never become a mlb player. It would give me no advantage at all.

 

There is a HUGE difference to you, because you are taking arbitrary and circumstantial evidence, and presenting it as FACT. You say "one offseason, become a guy who can knock out 20 easy." Who are these players?

 

Its fine that you want to create a world where steroids are "bad" and all other forms of cheating are "okay if you dont get caught."

 

Breaking the rules to gain an advantage is cheating.

 

It doesnt matter if your caught or not, its cheating.

Edited January 13, 2010 by Soxbadger

[Pants Rowland]

Brady Anderson was an All-Star before hitting 50 hrs.

 

That was just because chicks dug the 90210 sideburns.

[sircaffey]

Two words, Brady Anderson.

 

If that isnt enough proof that steroids clearly does make you a better ball player, I dont know what is.

 

People use that example all the time, but I still wonder if it's really that good of an example. Yes Brady went crazy one season, but the very next season and for the rest of his career, he went back to being what he was before that 50 HR season. Did he only take steroids for that one season? I would think it would be crazy to believe he didn't at least take them the season after hitting 50 HR. He hit 18 HR that season.

[Balta1701]

People use that example all the time, but I still wonder if it's really that good of an example. Yes Brady went crazy one season, but the very next season and for the rest of his career, he went back to being what he was before that 50 HR season. Did he only take steroids for that one season? I would think it would be crazy to believe he didn't at least take them the season after hitting 50 HR. He hit 18 HR that season.

It's also possible that the heavy doses of steroids caused some health problems that made him change his routine or come off a cycle or get injured in a different way or switch drugs or any number of things. Or, for all I know, he could have been clean (he wasn't Mitchell reported was he?).

[ptatc]

Along this line of performance enhancers, MLB players have a curiously higher rate of ADHD/ADD diagnoses. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the prescribed medications are often powerful stimulants.

 

It's not even the stimulant effect that helps as much as the increased focus. This will be an interesting dilemma. These drugs can have an opposite effect for people without ADHD. It can make them more hyper and more distracted. If a normally calm player all of a sudden turns into Al Hrabosky we'll know something is wrong.

 

[StrangeSox]

Like you said, it can increase your focus if you actually have ADD/ ADHD. Without it, though, it's a pure stimulant and you'll definitely get an energy boost on it. Even people with ADD get an energy boost while the medication is in the blood stream; it just effects your brain function differently. It's just the modern "greenies", except now they have a medical clearance for it.

 

 

I would tend to think that you would have a hard time getting to the MLB level with the focus, concentration and motivation problems ADHD can bring. I wouldn't expect MLB players to have significantly higher rates of ADHD.

Edited January 14, 2010 by StrangeSox

[Balta1701]

Link.

A convicted drug dealer who says he used to supply steroids to former baseball slugger Mark McGwire told ESPN on Thursday that McGwire's goal was to get "bigger, faster, stronger" to improve his performance on the field, contradicting recent statements by McGwire, who said he used the drugs to maintain his health.

 

Curtis Wenzlaff, speaking to ESPN's Outside the Lines, said he feels there is no doubt that the array of drugs he provided McGwire helped him become a more-accomplished home-run hitter.

 

"Will it help you hit a baseball?" Wenzlaff said. "Let me put it to you this way. If Paris Hilton was to take that array, she could run over Dick Butkus."

 

McGwire and the St. Louis Cardinals declined to respond to Wenzlaff's interview, which will be featured on Outside the Lines on Sunday (9 a.m. ET, ESPN).

 

The New York Daily News reported in March 2005 that Wenzlaff provided McGwire with the following drug recipe: ½ cc of testosterone cypionate every three days; one cc of testosterone enanthate per week; ¾ cc of equipoise and Winstrol V, every three days -- all to be injected into the buttocks.

 

At the time, Wenzlaff would only confirm that he provided steroids to McGwire's former Oakland teammate Jose Canseco. But on Thursday, Wenzlaff confirmed what had been reported and confirmed by FBI sources and documents nearly five years earlier -- that he supplied the drugs to Canseco and McGwire and he added that the drugs were to help McGwire become a better baseball player, not to recover from an injury.

 

When asked for his reaction to McGwire's claim that he only took steroids to stay healthy enough to play, Wenzlaff said: "I chuckled. If excelling and kicking ass on the field is the end result I guess that's a healthy, good feeling. But for health, there are other things you can take for health that are anabolic, but it wouldn't be that type of combination."

 

When asked about McGwire's goal for taking the array of steroids he recommended and provided to McGwire, Wenzlaff said, "As anybody -- bigger, faster, stronger."

 

He also said that he thinks the combination of drugs he provided for McGwire would help McGwire's hand-eye coordination.

 

"When you implement into what you are doing -- for instance hitting -- an individualized, specialized program with muscle growth and explosiveness ... while you're on your drugs, it will improve your hand-eye coordination."

[Balta1701]

Howard Bryant writes that there's been a behind the scenes, and somewhat public as well, backlash against McGwire's comments and comeback.