Why Should Bonds HR's be tainted?

Question

I get tired of people jumping up and down about steroids. The fact is that they prolonged his career and whats wrong with that? People don't die from doing steroids. There's the odd case when someone abuses them. No different then abusing anything. Should we ban burgers because people eat too many and kill themselves with obesity? You think Babe and the boys wouldn't have taken them if he had the chance? The guy smoked drank and did everything under the sun but he's our hero? I'm sick of the whole steroid issue theyre never going away so why not legalize it? Times change and discoveries are made. They are far better for you than smoking or drinking but society just goes on and on about how bad they are. Meanwhile all the people in congress smoke and drink but thats better? And furthermore if you want to get technical Bonds also has to face juiced up pitchers that the Babes never did. The only people who undermine his achievements are people who grew up watching the Babe. Get over it.

Answer 1

OK first of all Steroids WEREN'T BANNED BY BASEBALL until 2002. Which is when those who claim he took them also pretty much say he stopped. So anytime until 2002 anyone who allegedly took them WASN'T BREAKING ANY MLB RULES. As to the pitchers face it they weren't as good in Babe Ruth's day in general. They didn't throw as much of a variety of pitches, and people who know baseball will tell you that. I could go on and on about the stupid counter-arguements to the question BUT there is no point to it as these are the arguements of people who won't listen because they insist that Bonds broke the rules and there is no arguement. Oh and Pete Rose BET ON BASEBALL, lied about it for YEARS when all the Commish who banned him asked for was an ADMISSION and he would be reinstated into Baseball, which was against the RULES at that time. There is a difference between breaking the rules of MLB and breaking NO RULES.

Answer 2

Number one, you are an uninformed idiot. Your statement "People don't die from doing steroids" proves it. Tell that to the families of NFL star Lyle Alzado, pro wrestler Davey Boy Smith, and countless other "odd cases" as you put it. Yes, Babe Ruth drank, smoked, and whored around, but he hit over 700 home runs using nothing other than a piece of wood, and often with a raging hangover to boot. HE didn't need drugs to cheat his way into the history books, and neither did Hank Aaron, WIllie Mays, Mickey Mantle, or Ty Cobb, not to metion dozens of guys in the Hall of Fame.

Guys like you are the same guys who want pot and crack legalized too, with the same lame rationale..."it's not going away so legalize it". You idolize self important losers like Bonds and Canseco, yet Pete Rose can't get into the Hall of Fame because he bet on baseball? Gimme a break. I know that Bonds will be in the record books, but there should be a huge asterisk by the numbers that says "Steroid assisted".

Oh, by the way, let's slam dunk your "Bonds faces tougher pitchers" argument too. Once the league started cracking down on the juice, pitchers' ERA's went up and Bonds's HR numbers went down...big. Translation...he's not as good without the juice. I generously estimate that without steroids he would be in the 500's tops. And many respected sports analysts agree.

Steroids are like making a deal with the devil...you are the best at your sport for a few years, maybe, then you pay for it when your body starts breaking down...heart, liver, kidney failure, brain damage, or cancer if you're really lucky.

There is no argument that you could possibly make for steroid use that I can't totally and thoroughly refute. I know this answer won't get me ten points, but I don't care. I just don't want some kid looking at your statements and think it's OK to use steroids, and screw up his or her life and health too.

Answer 3

First off steroids are not allowed in MLB because they're performance enhancement drugs not cause they kill people, without that Bonds wouldn't have all those home runs. So talking about drugs that kill you or obesity is out of the subject. Now The Babe (I didn't grow up watching him, I bearly remember watching the Dodgers win the World Series in '88) did things that probably slowed him down, smoked and dranked. Now imagine if he didn't smoke and drink. And nowadays, bats and balls are made to make it easier to hit home runs, back in the day the balls were heavier and didn't carry as much. Stadiums are also built a certain way to help out franchise sluggers.

Answer 4

All the "Babe" stuff aside, it's still considered cheating. Steroids doesn't prolong your career, it makes you a better/stronger hitter or pitcher almost immediately. Besides, if steroids affected pitchers that much you'd think they'd be throwing 120mph fastballs, but they aren't. Bonds (may) have faced some juiced up pitchers, but certainly not all of them were. Bonds was juiced up 100% of the time, not all of his pitchers were.

Personally I don't care if he did or didn't use steroids. But if he did, it's just plain cheating. End of story. It's sad that he'll never be able to escape that, but he brought it on himself.

Also, If the babe could do it while smoking and boozing all the time and just not giving a f---, imagine if he wasn't doing all that and was clean 100% of the time...

Answer 5

I think basically what it comes down to is the controversy over the fact that these guys are professional ball players and are role models, so using steroids is like using a cheat code in a video game. It is teaching youung aspiring athletes the only way to win games and make home runs is by juicing up. I see your argument on Ruth, but what ever happend to human competition without the use of any sort of substance? I think I would have to root for the guy who can hit x amount of home runs, run the fastest, etc. as the hero, rather than the guy who cheated his way to the top. Yes, I think Barry Bonds is a cheater, because even though some baseball players use performance enhanching drugs, not all of them do. So in order to make it legal, every player would have to use them. And I really don't think that every player wants their penis to shrivel up inside their bodies.

Answer 6

Ahh Steroids...the viagra of baseball.

Perhaps the concern is that he has started looking more like an angry David Banner, and the bat a toothpick in his hulking hands.

Unfortunately smoking and drinking doesnt seem to improve the performance of our congresspeople. (I wish we could find a drug that would.)

As for your concern about Babe-watchers undermining his achievements, that issue will take care of itself in the next years.

However imagiine how many home runs Ruth would have hit without the women and booze...thought it would have meant a lot fewer interesting stories (especially if he had viagra back then)

Answer 7

The fact of the matter is that Steroids provide an unfair advantage that is why they are banned in most competitions. In addition, the name Lyle Alzado and Ken Caminiti should tell you they do kill, not to mention all the high schoolers that have died because of them. The fact that they weren’t illegal in MLB doesn’t mean they can use them they were Illegal in the United States. Saying that he could use them because they weren’t against the rules is absurd, do you think kidnapping you taking to you South America and forcing you to work the sugar cane fields should be allowed. Remember there is nothing in the rules of MLB that says I can do that?

Answer 8

The numbers themselves will never be removed from the record books, but if Barry is indeed convicted for anything illegal, he might not ever make it into the Hall of Fame, like Pete Rose or Shoeless Joe Jackson. Remember, "fame" not only means producing remarkable achievements in your field but also how society as a whole thinks of your behavior.

Answer 9

I agree, they really never leave Barry alone. Everybody now takes steroids, they just want to pick on Barry, so he wont break the home run record. Mark Mcgwire told on National TV that when he was playing with the A's, everybody took them. Leave Barry alone.

Answer 10

Nice post.

I agree with many of your points. But steroids are still against the law.

It doesn't matter what the MLB says, but he might have violated US law.