Steroids in baseball? Hasn't cheating always been a part of the sport?

Question

We smiled at corked bats, and grinned about spitballs, greaseballs, nails in pitchers belts, stealing signs, why is steroids any different? And, in the steroid era, who is to say who did and who did not use them? And , if it comes to pass that a great many used them, do we wipe out the stats for the past ten, twelve years altogether?

Answer 1

Thank you and you summed it up perfectly
There has always been cheating.

Answer 2

Steroids ruin the integrity of the sport (any sport) and it's players. You can't tell me that "gym equipment being better" and "trainers knowing more about the body" can compare in any way to the cocktail of illegal steroids that Barry Bonds was/is taking. Bonds hit 73 home runs when he was 37. He hit .370 and won the batting title at 38. Better gym equipment doesn't do that. The question of whether steroids allows you to play the field better is still up for debate. However, steroids do help a batter make contact because they increase bat speed. This allows the hitter to wait a fraction of a second longer to start swinging the bat. It doesn't sound like much, but it gives the batter more time to identify the spin on the ball and react to the pitch. Skills that would help a 38 year old win the batting title.

Answer 3

You are right, the cheater has always had an honored place in baseball. Gaylord Perry and Ty Cobb in the HOF. Not to say that steroids are good, but pretty impossible to identify who used from who didn't. Frankly, I am a lot more okay with Bonds than when a chump like Brady Anderson hit 50.

No one changed the records when they changed the hight of the mound or when there were various live and dead ball eras.

No one ever punished anyone when the groundskeepers left the water on in front of home plate or let the infield grass grow too long depending on what team was coming in to town.

We need to all just let it go. It happened. It can't be changed. Get on with our lives.

Answer 4

I see where you're comin from but....with steroids we're talking about an entire career to put an (*) beside. With everything else you mentioned, we're talkin one pitch, one at bat, one instance. A person can taint an entire season or an entire month with just a couple doses of steroids.

Now who did and who didn't. In my opinion you can't say for sure unless the tests come back and say 100% YES, BUT why do guys like McGwire and Bonds REFUSE to come out and say I NEVER USED STEROIDS....it leads one to believe something is going on. I think we would all be surprised to know who really did use some kind of performance enhancers. I know it took me back when Palmeiro tested positive. The system had flaws and guys managed to slip through it. There is no doubt in my mind Barry Lamar Bonds used steroids, but we have no proof on paper he did so which leads me to answer your next question.

Unless you can prove a guys used steroids, i don't think you can touch his numbers. It sucks that you can't but with the flawed system, Bonds and others snuck through and put up big ones. And now these records are seemingly going to be tainted for many years to come. In reality, the only person to blame is Bud Selig and commissioners before him for not stopping this before it got out of control. Barry beat the system and while you hate him all you want there are no penalties you can put upon him or his numbers unless you can dig up some dirt on him that PROVES his probably use.

You know in a way, maybe we should thank guys like Bonds for beating the old system, it got a new system in place that although it has it's flaws too, it has already caught some people red handed. No, I guess I don't want to thank Bonds for anything, I dispise the man, but his stats as of now are set in stone and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

Answer 5

Yes, the numbers put up in this era are tainted and rendered meaningless due to baseballs turning a blind eye in ana attempt to get the fans back after the strike. And the spitball was ruled toi be illegal in the late teens, corked bats illegal, etc...players doing those things were fined and suspended. Nothing was done about steroids because the HR is sexy and they wanted to get the fans back. Truly sad.

Answer 6

No . Honorable cheating in baseball was always a highly individual and very personal endeavor; A pitcher scuffs up a baseball a baserunner steals a sign -honest mano-mano cheating
Steroids on the other hand damn near falls under the RICO statues.
Because they lacked the education and the experience to do so Barry and others needed to go outside of baseball to make their cheating possible. Once they went outside of baseball, the crimes they commit ed were no longer the "crimes "of baseball which are only enforcible on a baseball field , but actual real world crimes.
Honorable cheating is one thing but criminal behavior is a whole 'nother story.

Answer 7

obviously baseball can't wipe out a decade worth of stats. they have to accept it as part of the heritage of the game, just like other things that, whlie not exactly a positive, are still part of the history of the game, i.e. the black sox scandel...that being said someone still needs to get to the bottom of how/when steroids were brought into the game. for all we know this could have been going on for longer than some think. personally, i think that owners that were willing to overpay average talented players is a major cause of the steroid era. players were looking for a way to keep that edge over the average players and prove that they were worthy of making thess lucrative amounts of money....also did anyone else notice that mcgwire, canseco, and giambi all played in oakland and all are now linked to steroids? perhaps someone should take a look at the team doctors and training staff in oakland for answers...just a hunch i had

Answer 8

I do think there has been more cheating that we all might want to admit...........however, we can't punish everyone. It's too late!

One of the rubs with Bonds, honestly, is that he is not loved - say, the way Mantle or even McGwire was. He's not a nice guy and so we don't want him to have the record.

It's also about the cheating..............but it's really personal with Bonds. Let's face it, he's not our hero for more than the steriods.

Answer 9

the baseball hall of fame is the biggest sham in sports. guys like gaylord perry who threw a spitball are passing judement on guys who used steroids and its a joke. and explain to me how nobody has ever been elected to the hall of fame unanimously. not the babe. not hank aaron. not nolan ryan. nobody. and what is a first ballot hall of famer? your either good enough or your not. its a bunch of crap

Answer 10

Everyone who has ever played baseball has cheated. End of story. Now, can we all just shut the hell up about all of this nonsense and move on with real baseball discussion. Just enjoy the game and get on with it already.