Why aren't players who have high average and home run records during the "steroid era" given more credit?
Think about it. If I were a steroid free player who hit 700 home runs during the supposed "steroid era", I would have eventually faced quite a few steroid enhanced pitchers in my career. By this rationale I would have accomplished more than Hank Aaron who only hit 755 without the possibility of facing enhanced pitchers.
First, thank you for recognizing that anabolic steroids really weren’t around when Aaron set the record.
Now, prove exactly who did and who didn’t use PED’s, and you’d have a valid argument. The point is, however, that between masking agents and companies such as BALCO. whose mandate isn’t to manufacture steroids but to constantly develop new variations on steroids, in order to keep ahead of testing agencies, it’s extremely difficult to know who did and who didn’t use them. Not impossible, because there is still plenty of physical evidence for some such players, but extremely difficult.
I agree with your thesis, but proving isn’t currently possible.
because there is no telling who is on them, who isn’t. cheating is unavoidable and so is being dishonest. there are ways to get around taking steriods, they have methods to cheat tests and so on. you may be "CLEAN" but to the baseball fan, or anyone in general, you just "maybe clean" .
This whole steroid thing is bull, everyone at one point used them, using steroids won’t help you hit the ball, it will just make you hit the ball farther, it takes ability to hit a 100mph fastball off Eric Gagne. Bonds is a beast with or without roids.
If the significant majority of players were on the juice, I’d agree 100% with you. But since only a relatively small percentage are, it gives those who are (hitters and pitchers alike), an unfair advantage over un-juiced players….In other words, it’s not a level playing field within the era itself
If we had a list of every guy who used and every guy who didn’t then this would be a somewhat valid argument. Since every player of the era who has hit huge home run totals are suspected juicers then your argument means nothing. Between Big Mac, Barry, and Sosa there are so many allegations made that you can’t be sure any of them are clean. There is no way to know how many home runs were added because of cheating even if you do prove it. The same goes for the pitchers. I know a lot of them used steroids too, but I think it hurt the quality of pitching more than it helped. Steroids may improve velocity, but they don’t give a guy more movement or a better breaking ball. I think it helped guys get to the bigs based on a better fastball who otherwise didn’t have the stuff to be there. So you had a bunch of guys with one good pitch and a few that weren’t anything special. In my mind this has just as much potential to add to the home run totals than it does to take them away. Maybe I’m wrong here….but it makes sense to me. I just think there is no way that "clean" player from this era is any better than a player from any other period in the games history. To even suggest that is rediculous.
because they don’t deserve it.
I heard Jalen Rose (a basketball player of all people) say the most intriguing thing about the steroid era when asked about Bonds on ESPN radio this morning. If we are going to count all of the statistics, championships, etc. during that time period, then they all COUNT, so you can’t just put an asterisk next to Bonds, without putting one next to every player out there. Does that mean Roger Clemens’ 300+ wins and 4,000+ strikeouts shouldn’t count, because he was on the juice? Should the Anaheim Angels give back their World Series rings because Troy Glaus, the series MVP is a ‘roid boy. How can anyone distinguish anything during this period when the use is so widespread. Look at the decrease in power in some significant players this year and the past few years–Helton, Glaus, Bagwell, Thome, Konerko, Giles, etc. How is anyone going to know who did it and who didn’t? I’m sick of everyone picking on Barry. He may be a first class jerk, but he is such a tremendous hitter, you can’t deny him the record.
they will in time, like in about 100 years