Is there any chance that Babe Ruth was on some sort of steroid?

Question

He used to be a skinny guy and then got real big. I know he ate a lot, but he also got a lot of muscle.

i know steroids werent around but maybe there was a similiar substance. and you have to admit that he was the only one in his era who could hit home runs at that pace. he once had as much as the entire american leaue.

Answer 1

yes call dogstoid

Answer 2

As many previous posters pointed out steroids did not exist at the time. More so the idea of improving the body really didn't either. A key ingredient to steroid usage was hitting the weights. I think the first team to install weights wasn't until the 60s and even into the 60s guys that lifted weights were considered sissies.

Getting big isn't a sign of steroid usage anyway. Lots of guys go from sticks to big without touching a substance. It's called age. A guy who sits around gets a spare tire. Athletes get muscle from all the weights they lift. Men normally fill out in the 27-30 age range and are not fully developed muscle wise until about 30. The problem is the eyesight is already declining by around 32. So too is reactions. So the extra muscle is more compensation for the minor loss of speed and reactions.

Stats are how you catch steroid and HGL users. Mathews might as well as worn a "I use steroids" T-shirt last year for example.

How long it's been going on is what bothers me. I believe it was Canseco, might have been Giambi who was introduced to steroids by Reggie Jackson's personal trainer. So this may have been going on as early as the 70s. It just wasn't until the 90s that it became so rampant blatant. Of course Canseco's book did a great deal to expose steroid usage. If not for his book we might STILL not have testing.

The late 70s are realistically the earliest steroid usage started. In the 60s most ballplayers didn't even lift weights. So all the steroids in the world wern't going to help. For steroids to be of real use you have to really hit the gym also. Wasn't until the 70s that baseball players started taking their cue from football players and hitting the weight pile and such. I remember many articles about how 70s players with a single off season suddenly sprouted impressive power numbers. Think back knowing what I know now I suspect some of them did more than just lift weights.

Answer 3

All this talk of the Babe eating hot dogs. He was the highest paid athlete of his time. He earned $100,000 a year during the Depression when the average person would have been happy to earn $50 a week. I have to believe that the Babe was eating the best New York Sirloins. As for drinking, it probably was not beer during Prohibition, too bulky to smuggle, it was probably bootleg Scotch or Canadian whiskey.

Answer 4

Babe abused his body so it's a credit to him that he hit so many HR's..that's how gifted he was...He did work with a personal trainer starting in 1925 after he showed up for Spring Training way out of shape (this was a new concept in Baseball then)..He cleaned up his act somewhat after this. But as for steroids..I doubt it very much.

Answer 5

Probably not. Fact is he did get very big and steroids eat up body fat, which he had lots of.
Plus those were the days when the game was the thing and steroids were not the flavor of the month.

Answer 6

I doubt it, but he did have the advantages of: (1) earning enough money so he didn't have to work in the off season, (2) having Lou Gehrig bat behind him, and (3) never having to face a black pitcher.

Answer 7

steroids were invented in germany in the year 1914. they were used in ww1 for german soldiers. the steroids were not avalible in the united states until a much later date. impossible

Answer 8

A Brief History of Steroid-Assisted Achievements in Major League Baseball

Babe Ruth, 1926

A child named Johnny Sylvester was in his hospital bed, weak after an operation. Doctors sought anything to lift the boy's spirits so they arranged for his favorite player, Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees, to visit him. The Sultan of Swat did more than visit the big building with sick people inside--he promised the bed-ridden boy that he'd hit a home run for him in that afternoon's game!

A few hours later, Ruth was in his familiar place: slumped over the bar at O'Mickey's pub near Yankee Stadium.

"Oh, hell, whatdideye do, Mick?" he quizzed the bartender, clutching his 14 fingers of scotch. "I promised some kid I'd belt a dinger for 'em. I'm in such a rut right now, I don't think I could hit one if I called one."

"Babe," the Irish barkeep said, "I wouldn't do this for anyone but for the great Sultan himself. My friend, Blarney Barney, he's some high-faluten' doctor of some sort, and he gave me these here magic strongman pills."

Ruth's eyes creaked open, his gargantuan head lifted of the bar.

"Now, I ain't promisin' ya anyting, Babe. But these pills are proven' to make a man much weaker den you feel like he could take on Tarzan and Hercules in the same scuffle."

"Mick," Ruth said, "you best not be trying to pass some snake oil my way."

"No, no, no, Babe!" the barkeep protested. "Tis the genuine article, or my mother's name wasn't Mary O'Sullivan McVanderhooven, bless her dear heart."

With that, Babe downed the pills, and rushed over to the stadium to lift some barbells before the game. Not only did he honor his promise to Johnny, but he belted two more home runs on top of that!

It would be the only time Ruth would take Mick's "magic strongman pills." Turns out they had a wicked aftertaste that interfered with Babe's steady diet of beer and blended whiskey. But, weeks later, Mickey would turn Ruth onto his doctor friend's "magic numbness pills," which today we call Percocet.

Answer 9

Only if they put steroids in hot dogs

Answer 10

Im almost sure that he didnt because then they hadnt invented steroids, he could've hit those homers easily in that time the stadiums were smaller and that could help him too much.

Answer 11

I highly doubt it. He was a pig, womanizer, and used to throw hot dogs in the stands.

There's no denying he's one of the greatest, but he was big because of his drinking, too.