Topic: Alex Rodriguez

[stealth]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,25033655-23218,00.html

Why would a baseball player need to take steroids? It's not like it's a game that requires super human strength to play, much in the same vein as cricket.  Seems to me this is more about his image than about his performance.  People make mistakes and I can't say I wouldn't have been tempted to do the same thing as what he's done.  Still, it's another reminder that there's nothing pure whatsoever about sports.

[PJYelton]

Most performance enhancing drugs are taken to help with recovery.  Taking steroids allows these players to hit the weight room everyday and play 162 games a year without their bodies breaking down.  Its not necessarily to bulk up, hell pitchers are the worst abusers of steroids in baseball.

[JaWiB]

A-rod...All I have to say is 

[ober]

Is anyone really surprised about this asswipe?

[charlie]

Bonds, Rodriguez, McGwire, Sosa... all the best home run hitters took steroids and had increases in the number of home runs they hit during the time they used. I'd say there's a pretty good chance that it helps.

Is anyone really surprised about this asswipe?

No.

[ober]

Actually, if you look at the numbers, he claims to have taken stuff from 2000 - 2003, which were some of his best years.  But his second best year of his career was 2007, when he was supposedly off the juice.  So I don't think your argument completely stands up.

[charlie]

Not really. My argument is fine. Roger Maris hit 61 home runs presumably without steroids, so sure any player can have a great year.

The question is whether steroids help a baseball player. And the answer is of course they do. Rodriguez might not be the best example, but Bonds certainly is. Sosa and McGwire as well.

When all the home run records are held by guys who took steroids, that means either everyone took steroids (which we know isn't true because the guys before the 80s didn't) or it means they help.

[stealth]

But it's hitting a ball with a bat.  I mean, that doesn't take brute strength, it just takes good hand-eye coordination.

[charlie]

Right... and I lack the strength to ever get a ball to travel 350 feet no matter how well I hit it, but in large part due to steroids Barry Bonds can hit a ball 350 feet even if he hits it off the end of the bat far away from the sweet spot. He can also swing the bat faster which allows him to make contact with balls that he otherwise wouldn't have been able to react to before.

In baseball, if you can hit the ball hard enough to go over the fence on the fly, it is a huge advantage for your team. The stronger you are, the more likely you are to be able to get the ball over that fence to gain that advantage. The home run records are held by guys who we're all pretty sure took steroids. It's pretty clear that it helps.

[Perspective]

But it's hitting a ball with a bat.  I mean, that doesn't take brute strength, it just takes good hand-eye coordination.

If you want to hit it 400 feet and clear a 10 foot wall it takes a bit of strength too.

[PJYelton]

Of course there isn't any reason to believe that he wasn't juicing in 2007 as well, not to mention even if he is miraculously telling the full truth now and quit after 2003 its takes a number of years for steroids to leave the body.