Will the Matthews Jr scandal finally wake people up to the rampant drug use...it isnt just a Bonds issue?

Question

Fact...Bonds is a drug using cheater and deserves all the negativity surrounding him but in wake of the Gary Matthews Jr. scandal are people finally getting the idea that drug use is incredibly rampant and still going on today. Think about it...Matthews apparently was using last year (no wonder the sudden career year) but he had the balls to do it with baseball being scrutinized by everyone. This isnt a Bonds issue and it wont go away when he does, guys arent afraid to attempt to cheat even knowing how badly everyone is trying to catch them. And can we blame them, matthews got a 5 yr, $55 million deal exclusively from cheating. Baseball needs to either agree to intensive testing and lifetime suspensions for cheaters or drop the whole drug debate completely.
So the question really is ...Do you want to see serious testing and lifetime bans or should the whole drug controversy be dropped, if they dont mind wrecking their bodies should us fans care?

This isnt an attack on Matthews or an indictment, the question is pretty simple. Should fans demand "real" testing of players and massive suspensions or lifetime bans or as a fan do we honestly care whether they screw up their bodies, after all we just want to see a good game. Plenty of people have opinions of Bonds (or McGwire, Canseco,etc.) but cheating is very real....end it or live with it? Whether or not Matthews, Bonds or any ballplayer did something against baseballs rules when and if they did isnt the point of this question. Baseball and/or fans need to take a stance....accept that cheating is part of the game and live with it or enforce strict testing policies and end it...period!

Answer 1

Well everyone knows that there was a ton of drug use. Remember Mark Mickie? Sammy Sosa? It's all over, the Matthews Jr isn't nearly as big. But it is likely that Matthews will miss time this year (bad news for my fantasy team!)

Answer 2

I hate Bonds too, but not for doing the same thing that other players were doing - I just hate Bonds, but give him some credit. For Bonds we are talking about past use when MLB looked the other way and didn't ban as many substances. And you have know that there were pitchers using as well and other hitters so his numbers may look juiced, but why don't everyone else's numbers look that obvious? Because he had serious talent, it doesn't matter how far you can hit a ball if you can't make contact. Guys like Conseco were borderline to begin with, juicing only made so that they could compete.
Matthews - jeez... made $50 million on one catch. He is not even close to an offensive threat - so he obviously must have forgotten to take the performance enhancing drugs. The big news will be if the Angels can get deal voided. By tying up the Angels free agency money their off season moves were limited and if he is gone they are back where they started from - which doesn't hurt as much offensively. With no other free agents left to go after this could be the start of a courtship that will free up Figgy to play centerfield full time. With that kind of money left in the kitty they may have the gonads to challenge NYY for A-Rod next year if he opts out of the final year of his contract.

I also have a feeling that they may offer him something that no one thinks of - let him play SS again.

Answer 3

The problem here is that everybody wants to believe everybody on their team is clean, and that isn't how it is -- but the testing still hasn't caught up with the cheating, so there's no way to know. Without a proper blood test to check for HGH, it's a guessing game, and every time somebody has a career year now, eyebrows get raised, but nobody has the guts to say anything about it.

Why did the Angels sign Gary Matthews Jr.? Because if they didn't, somebody else would have, and then Angels fans would have wanted to know why their front office wasn't signing the players they needed. Look at the guys who've got caught -- outside of Palmerio, what's the real punishment? Giambi, Sheffield, Bonds...everybody knows they've cheated, but they're still playing, still making ridiculously high sums of money, and nobody thinks much of it. Sure, everyone is going to be angry when Bonds catches Aaron -- and let's be honest, Bonds most likely finds that amusing, because he seems to enjoy playing the villian -- but nobody is going to step up and put a stop to it.

Apparently, Ken Caminiti wasn't enough of a lesson -- the players must have only caught the part about him winning an MVP, and missed the part about him passing away just a few years later, a broken man destroyed by steroids.

Answer 4

This has been a problem in baseball for the last 4 years, and they dont have any evidence that Gary Mathews Jr took steroids. All the MLB said was thats he was involved in a scandal. Which doesnt mean that he took part in the scandal. It couldve been won of his teammates or trainers. Also baseball is talking about suspending him for 60 to 80 games when he has not even been tested for steroids. Now I dont remember Bonds ever getting Suspended.

Answer 5

if you get tough on all drugs, the one thing that i would like to remind you is the leeding causes of more death not only in the US but in the world is alohcal and cig,s! infact even if you combined the rest of the elegal drugs together they still would not come close to the death rate that the two will acumulate! yet there legal? Because the goverment controlls the product,there for they get the revenue off the goods! i feel that if they could corner the market on these other drug areas they might be pursuaded to legalize a few more of the other so called danerouse drugs!!! god couldnt be any worst that what they have us eating /drinking/breathing/lets face it!!!! if you do it on your days off and dont bring it to work or dont get caught than i say go for it! and whats done in the confinds of your four walls is no bodys buisness but yours and whom ever you choose to do it with! i feel we spend to much time worrying what are neighbors are doing and not enough about the person you look at every morning in the mirror!and .........I believe that if we are going make excuses for all the players whom have been caught on drugs and than got help and then got caught and then got help! I think PETE ROSE should be pardon and his name be put where it rightfully desever to be ..... the baseball hallafame!!! god knows that its not like he was doing drugs or soming! that would have been OK!!!

Answer 6

you are right about people focusing on bonds too much, but the reason they do focus on him is that he is the biggest media figure and also chasing one of the most sacred records in sports, the all-time home run record...and you are absolutely right about needing better testing and increased suspensions, because it is clear that the current system has not completely deterred use like the players' union and bud selig thought...however, matthews would be innocent either way, because what he did was not illegal by MLB rules at the time of the incident

Answer 7

no, there have been dozens of minor players getting caught. palmeiro, mathews, and others doesn't change anything.