A sad day for MLB

Those who do are able to not only use their work ethic, but actually work harder, because of the boost that the entire body gets, including mental processes, such as aggression, focus, etc. Their bodies also ignore nagging injuries, bad days etc., since they're always so boosted, elevated mood levels, everything, including blood pressure, is constantly heightened.

Of course, this is what leads to the breakdowns we see, both in bodies, minds (Lyle Alzado), and even premature death, again Alzado (44) and Mike Webster (53).

Bloofington said:

Of course, this is what leads to the breakdowns we see, both in bodies, minds (Lyle Alzado), and even premature death, again Alzado (44) and Mike Webster (53).

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I'm not so sure about this. Just off the top of my head: Walter Peyton died at 45, Lou Gehrig died at 37 and Ricky Bell (USC) died at 29. J.R. Richards suffered a career ending stroke at 30 and heart problems forced Arthur Ashe to retire at 36. On the other hand; Brian Bosworth's career was probably cut short by steroid abuse.

I really do believe that professional sports would be better served if steroid usage was medically supervised and the records open for inspection to keep the field level.

Anyone ever see that documentary on Jim Otto? A long career in the NFL is going to take its toll on the human body.

Of course, but using drugs that have the inherent side effects of weakening connective tissues, elevating blood pressure, causing kidney malfunction, stomach and liver tumors, and increased aggression, isn't going to help matters, when it comes to participating in naturally debilitating activities.

And when it come to drug testing in sports, I've said it lots of times before, and I'll say it again. If you're going to follow the Jose Canseco-djl4570 model for policing pro sports, something proposed back in the Iron Game decades ago, blood and urine tests are a joke. You'd have to take tissue biopsies and hair samples, every ten days, starting two months before the competitive season, and ending on the day of the season, to truly be able to have "records."

No sports federation is going to take the tens of thousands of samples, and run the hundreds of thousands of tests, that you'd have to run in order to truly have any sort of accurate results for their sport, in any given SEASON.

If a sport can pay millions of dollars to these guys, they can spend a little bit of money to police their sport. Besides, it would provide a lot of jobs.

I agree. Now go ask the Player's Association about that. That's why it took so long to police baseball in the first place. The Player's Association kept balking at any policing moves, and their attorneys succeeded in delaying the whole process for decades.

It all comes down to money. Nobody wants to give up any money to make the sport better.

Wellll, it's more than that. A union supposedly works for its members. After the mid-80's, when it became quite evident visually, that certain players in MLB had taken a tip from track and field and the NFL, and started using steroids and HGH, what do you think the players did? Prevailed upon their lawyers to protect things like their "right to privacy," and "personal freedoms," etc. Of course, because no group of criminals wants to get caught and reap the consequences. But, there's nothing criminal going on, because "everybody's doing it," and "nobody's getting hurt, right?"

Of course it's about money. Money and lawyers, protecting everybody's piece of the pie. And the pie is huge, because 73 home runs sells better than 45. So, as Jimmy Hoffa said, . . .

"sooner or later, everybody does business with everybody."

And Hoffa wasn't even around for the U.N.'s Oil For Food program. :sm_angel:

The way I look at it is this, yes Bonds hitting 714 sucks, but the fans hating him and his record of abuse is what going to trump that. You mention his successes and the person standing next to you will say "Yeah, but he juiced and was an %^(&@," so it doesn't really matter to me.

That whole thing with Kittle and the jerseys for charity thing though I think is really going to haunt him.

And I still laugh whenever I think about fans throwing turkey basters at Bonds.