Do you mind if I break my own rule about steroids and Barry Bonds?

Question

I never wanted to bring up the subject but some of the answers we see on this site about Bonds and steroids is nothing short of ridiculous. The fact is that Bonds testified to a grand jury that he applied a "cream" to his skin and did not know it was a steroid. This occurred in 1999 which was two years prior to the implementation of the MLB/Union drug policy. Since that time (2001) Bonds has never tested positive for any of the (53) banned substances contained in the MLB/Union agreement. These are the facts and anything beyond this comes from those of you that have no clue what you are talking about. I challenge anyone who believes there is more to the Bonds issue than this to pass on a credible official site on the internet that we can all read. I have never been a Bonds fan in any way but the least we can all do is have some idea what we are talking about. There is nothing wrong with having an opinion as long as you refer to it as that and don't pass it on as fact.

Craig S. and Chipmaker I need your input and support.

Swingman: There is a test for Human growth Hormone (HGT) but the MLB/Union agreement only allows for a urine test. HGT can only be detected uusing a blood test. I believe the MLB/Union agreement should be changed to include a blood test as well as a urine test. This would allow for detection of several other banned drugs as well. There are masking agents that work well with urine but can still be detected with a blood test.

Drug testing by MLB is not published but it is estimated that Bonds has been tested about (50) times in the seven years the policy has been in place. HGH is one of the (53) banned substances, and as I said, can't be detected with a urine test.

Brettj: The subcontractor responsible for the drug testing itself sets the rules for how the testing will occur, not MLB or the players union. The players to be tested are selected by the computer and the players are not notified prior to the test. Neither MLB or the Union is notified with information as to who or when players will be tested.

Mr. Danger: Bonds has been a consistent homerun producer his entire career. In his 21 seasons he has hit between 33 and 49 homeruns 14 times and has only hit more than 50 homeruns once in his career. So, can you tell by his homerun output which years he used drugs?

Answer 1

Probably shouldn't have opened this can of worms. The haters simply do not want facts getting in the way of their practiced, olde-style, mouth-foaming rants and rages.

I hope they burn themselves with their torches and fall on their pitchforks.

Answer 2

"Armchair warriors often fail
And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers clean up all details "
Guess what ? The legality or illegality of whatever substance that Bonds used IS NOT AN ISSUE !! IT'S NOT IMPORTANT!!
IT DOESN'T MATTER IF BONDS HAS THE PUREST WHIZ IN THE BAY AREA
It's time to take this gorilla of a non issue off the table because it's mass is preventing everybody from seeing what the real issue is:
The real issue is that Bonds used something legal or otherwise to provide him with an unfair advantage over his competition and thus defraud the game.
Given Barry Bonds bloodlines he certainly should have known what he was doing and yet he did it anyway.That is called criminal behavior
Baseball has rules that discourage and penalize unfair play.
The infield fly rule
The balk
The pine tar rule
The marring of a baseball rule
The various interference rules
Put them all together and their intent is chyrstal clear: "We don't want any one player to have an unfair advantage over another player unless it's based on natural ability. "
Barry Bonds& The Steroid Boys may not have violated the letter of that law But the stomped the crap out of it's intent-and they did it on purpose.
Lastly there is the circumstansial part which should have been enough to get these guys thrown out of baseball if Selig had any "nads.,which as we all know he doesn't
Chart the number of home runs by individual players over the past 100 years .
Do it the old fashioned way with a lot of graph paper a ruler and a pencil or use a computer program
Somebody give me a non outside agent reason to explain the spike in that line that Barry Bonds and The Steroid Boys put on it.
If you can't offer a reasonable explanation to explain that spike that doesn't include an outside agent,then it is reasonable to assume that an outside agent was used.
It's called circumstansial evidence and Scott Peterson and Timothy McVeigh [ and others ]are sitting on death row as a result of being convicted on the basis of circumstansial evidence.
The BBWAA will not let Bonds in theHOF because of the above reasons and I think that MLB should have banned him a long time ago for the same reasons.
Edit 1
Frizzer Yeah part of it is the actual number.
From 1986 to the end of the 1995 season Bonds had hit 40+ hrs just once-1993
From 1996 to the present he has hit 40 + 7 times including that monster 2001 season of 73 HR
We all know that numbers w/o context are crap so here's the context that we ban Barry Bonds and The Steroid Boys with.
From 1920 to 1990 Fifty or more home runs were hit in a season nineteen times and four of those times were by the Babe.
From the 1995 to the present Fifty or more home runs were hit a total of twenty one times Mc Gwire has four of those and Sosa has four
It gets better:
Further breaking the 50+ HR seasons down we see that from the 1920 to the 1997 seasons sixty or more home runs in a season had only been accomplished twice
From the 1998 season to the present its been accomplished six times.
What happened to make a rare event a commonplace occurance ? Why do the usual suspects names keep showing up on lists ?
The only reasonable explanation is an outside agent because as the fans of the game that we are , we know that its not the quality of the ballplayers.
Within the context of that "explainable by outside agents only" statistical anomally I have no choice but to put all of the members of the Barry Bonds and the Steroid Boys baseball club.
There may very well be reasonable explanation , I just don't know what it is.
"Offer up your best defence
But this is the end
This is the end of the innocence" D.Henley

Answer 3

It is a fact that Bonds has not tested positive for any banned substances except amphetamines. But then we to remember his connection to BALCO. BALCO was committed to developing 'undetectable performance enhancing drugs!' The key word is 'undetectable.' Also Human Growth Hormone is virtually undetectable by any known test. There is no proof that Bonds took anything. I will concede that point. The two major substances that Bonds has been linked to are considered nearly undetectable by all available tests. If he was taking either of these substances then MLB would not be able to detect them. Therefore no positive tests! Also, MLB's testing regimen was woefully inadequate to fully test for all banned substances. Players were informed with plenty of time to eliminate all traces of most substances before taking the test.

I am very negative about Bonds because he turns belligerent and elusive whenever asked direct questions. He has blamed other athletes and diverted attention when the spotlight turns to allegations. He blamed Mark Sweeney for the amphetamines and claimed the 'cream' was 'flax-seed oil.' I do not trust anything he says. He has used his son to garner sympathy. He a manipulating, power-hungry SOB.

Having said that I can't confirm that he ever took steroids. Everything is speculation. Bonds' attitude and behavior indicates to me that he is hiding something. I don't like him as a person. He can hit a ball and that is something I cannot do. He has my respect for that. My final opinion is that he has taken illegal performance enhancing substances and stopped recently when MLB testing became more stringent, penalties became more severe, and his off the field training was being investigated. It is my opinion and I will never assume it is more than that. Just my thoughts.


PS - I'm adding this to placate some answerers. Most people are only commenting on Bonds because he's at the center of the question! Nowhere in the above question was another player mentioned. Throwing out more speculation when it is not asked for causes more drama and detracts from the questioner's original dilemma. If you want to comment and get answers about other players ask your own questions.

Answer 4

Well I have no proof but I do have logic...I am sorry but I cannot look at Bonds when he came into the league and then look at him now and think that he did it naturally. For one you can't do exercises to increase the size of your head. Also, I don't believe Bonds when he said he didn't know it was a steroid. He is a professional athlete...keeping his body in shape is a lot of his job...to think that he wouldn't know everything he is putting in and on his body and what it does seems a little far fetched but that is just my opinion. There are a lot of things they don't test for like HGH and Bonds could use masking agents for when he was taking the tests also. I don't care if he hasn't failed any tests and I don't believe a word Bonds says. I think he did (and maybe still does) steroids and you will never be able to change my mind...the before and after pictures of him are enough for me...I don't need test results!

Answer 5

very good point and very good evidence

i'll opinionate myself by saying I believe Bonds has taken and might still be taking Human Growth Hormone (HGH)

from what I understand, HGH is undetectable by any of MLB's drug tests. what gives it away (to me) is the size increase Barry Bonds has incurred over his playing career. And i know this is the big arguement, but noone ever backs it up

HGH is designed to increase the size of your muscles by an extraordinary amount. BUt what people don't understand is that the body needs larger bones to support these muscles. Otherwise the HGH would cause the muscles to grow so large that the bones would give out and break easily. So, HGH also increases bone length and density ot help support the new muscles.

One sign of HGH use is a consistent increase in the size of the skull and feet. THIS is clearly evident in Barry Bonds. his hat and shoe size has grown largely since his playing career, mostly around the time he turned 30

that is my one true arguement. had i had the time to document a source i would but next time i will be sure to

Answer 6

Sadly too many people here don't want to get facts. They care more about looking cool here by doing the in thing which is bash Bonds even though most(not all) have any clue what they are talking about. Also many of these same people bashing Bonds are the same fans who cheer for Mota (Pitcher of the Mets who was caught red handed) & other players who where implicated but conviniently either preend they don't remember or want to continue with the lame excuse that bonds is going after a record while Mota & others aren't. Pure hypocrisy if you ask me.

Answer 7

The widely held opinion that Bonds didn't take steroids until 1999 to me is very important. What doesn't get said about Bonds much is that he may have been one of the very few MLB superstars of the 90s (up until 99) who wasn't on the juice. Many people believe that Bonds felt slighted by all the attention McGuire and Sosa got in 98 during their chase for the single-season HR record, and he said "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", and then went on the juice himself.

Answer 8

this is a opinion why does everyone say he got bigger muscles then everyone says its not natural well hell no its not he had to work hard for them and baseball is his job so he had all day to work on them I have seen barry at the gym and he works hard. I personaly leave the testing to the profesianals things you guys may read and see on the internet are things said by humans with opinions only barry nows if he used them wich I now he didn't. I myself now with hard work anything can be done and muscle and mass building isnt as hard for some people in one year some people may gain up to 40 pounds and dont go around signaling buff guys as steroid users dont be jealous I think thats the main thing for most ppl that accuse barry jealosy.
another thing I have never seen barry shirt less so wat if he is big it could all be fat. so yea. another thing ppl will prob. start talking that alex rodriges used steroids wen he becomes famous like barry and it will all be jealousy. dont hate the player hate the game.

Answer 9

Two things.
1) Internet sites, even official ones are written by humans with opinions and those 'facts' come out according to those opinons and the political winds of the editors
2) They do give notice to testing, which is why so few people are caught. The ones that do get caught must have missed that voicemail and that practice is ridiculous.

"Warning, In two weeks we are going to be coming around your office at 8am sharp to see if everyone comes in on time and we will use that % as a benchmark for our stakeholders."
Sure enough, they come around and 100% of employees are in on time. They clap at the dedication of their staff.

See what I mean.

Oh, one last thing, for 15 years Pete Rose contended he NEVER bet on baseball. I am not surprised Barry said he didn't know what it was.
If he didn't know what it was, he was telling the truth. If he did know what it was, why implicate himself.

Answer 10

I agree, some answers I've seem some answers that are ridiculous, and I know don't know about anything else on this subject, but your facts there. If there are other official statements that say otherwise, I'd love to know.