STEROIDS HAVE NO BEARING ON MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYER STANDINGS: A RESPONSE TO THE RECENT BARRY BONDS ARTICLE, By: Robert Lodespoto

5/15/2006

I feel compelled to reply to Sean Thornton's commentary on steroids in baseball.

I have to disagree with him. I don't think there is a steroid problem in baseball, at least not in the sense of steroids inflating power numbers. I don't really know why these players are using them, there is no evidence that they have even been helped by them, and a closer, unbiased look at their numbers will reveal that.

The problem Major League Baseball has is the media, and the disconnection fans have with today's players.

The sports media, some how, for years now, has had the public convinced that modern baseball players can't put up the kind of power numbers that were put up in the 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's, without the use of performance enhancing drugs. What makes the whole thing stupid is the fact that back in those days the fences were about 15 to 20 feet further away from home plate, in some cases even further, they played a shorter season, and the players were nowhere near the condition of today's players, Mantle and Ruth are both known to have made plate appearances while drunk.

Also, the claim ignores the fact that even though today's power hitters have to play against better rested pitchers, what with their 5 man starting rotations 100 pitch limits, and stacked bullpens, the overall quality of those pitchers has gone down considerably. More pitchers today lack good stuff, more and more we see pitchers throwing hanging fastballs and breakingballs, pitches that power hitters just eat up. 

Look at today's hitters, they have almost as much body armor on as the damn catchers!!! Todays power hitters aren't afraid to lean into the plate, and if a ball almost hits them, or does hit them, the umpires of today are quick to issue warnings, causing the pitchers to have to throw more
strikes. 

What I want to point out is that IF these guys were putting up their numbers because of steroids being used over the course of their careers, we would not see that one season spike in the numbers, and then all these other seasons where they used they steroids put up what has always been viewed as average power hitter numbers of 40 to 50 home runs. 

Look at Bonds' numbers since "allegedly" starting to use. In '98, '99 and '00, while allegedly using steroids or growth hormone, he didn't hit over 49 home runs, and he had hit 40 homers 3 times previous to those seasons (4 if you consider the strike year when he had 37 at the time the strike
happened in early August), doing so while much smaller, and in '02, '03, and '04, while still allegedly using steroids, he again hit only 45 to 46 home runs in each of those seasons. Add to that the fact that Bonds is a lifetime .300 hitter, it was just a matter of time before Bonds had a blowout year like the 2001 season. There is simply no evidence in his numbers before allegedly using steroids, compared to during his alleged use, that suggests steroids helped his performance. Without the 73 home runs, he would still presently have well over 600 home runs, based on mostly 35 to 45 home run seasons, and was so feared a hitter that he was getting ridiculous amounts of walks before ever ballooning up in wait and eventually hitting 73 home runs. 

Sean Thornton, and many many many others, insist that Bonds has obliterated the record books since 1999, and it simply just is not the case. If anything, his overall numbers dipped, he could no longer run, thus hurting his base running and fielding.  Look at McGwire's numbers, this man broke into the big leagues hitting 49 homers his rookie year in 1987, shattering the record for home runs hit by a rookie, and he did it while tall and skinny kid, he was 6' 5 and 200 pounds soaking wet, and all the sports writers of the day were claiming he would break Ruth's record even back then. In the following years of '88, '89, and '90, he hit between 32 and 39 home runs, and then slumped in '91, hitting only 22... In 1992, however, he came back and knocked out 42, not because of steroids, but because of a new seated batting stance where almost all his power was generated from his legs. According to Canseco,
McGwire was using steroids before then, going back to the late 80's... But managed a mere 22 home runs in 154 games? And if steroids helped his power numbers, and he was using them starting back in the 80's, why did it take 10 years for him to put up the numbers that were allegedly due to steroid
use? Again, the allegations make no sense.

Look at Canseco's numbers, right from the horses mouth, he claims to have been using steroids since before even getting into the majors... In 17 major league seasons, he has managed only 40 or more home runs 3 times, and none of those times did he exceed 46 home runs. Again, I ask, where is the evidence of inflated numbers because of performance enhancing drugs?  Canseco talks about his 42 home runs in 1988 as if it was some incredible number that had never been seen... Canseco's numbers are what the baseball experts claim these guys should be getting without steroids!!!

Rafael Palmeiro? He was busted for steroids he claimed Canseco lied about him taking. What are his career numbers? Another steroid using home run hitter that never put up more than 47 home runs while using.

Should we look at Sammy Sosa's numbers? He never hit more than 40 before the '98 season when he hit 66. He has had 3 total 60 home run seasons, but in the time that he has been allegedly using steroids, and before there was strict testing, he had seasons where he hit as few as 35.

In contrast to Bonds' career numbers, Roger Maris had only hit 30 or more home runs, not counting the 61, twice, never batted .300, and only managed 3 100 RBI seasons... Maris wasn't even fit to carry Bonds' jock strap. In Bonds' first 12 seasons, he hit 374 home runs, drove in 1094 RBI, and
batted .288... Maris' 12 year career managed only 275 home runs, 851 RBI, and a .260 batting average. Maris wasn't even fit to carry the jocks of his contemporaries, yet this was the man who broke Babe Ruth's single season home run record?

Fans look at today's baseball player as being greedy, being in it for the money, and then they hear that these athletes are using steroids to break the records of their childhood heroes? Of course they will believe it. And the media has totally ran with it. Put an ego like Bonds at the front of the controversy, people are more inclined to pay attention, just to see the guy they love to hate fall hard. The man with the most home runs in the last 8 years is Sammy Sosa, nothing is really being said about him, hell he got busted for a corked bat, and the story quickly disappeared, mainly cause the guy is likable. The media tried to go after Mark McGwire in 1998, but he was too well liked, and the accusations against him were pretty much ignored.

At the end of the day, steroids are only having an effect on newspaper sales, tv news ratings, book sales, and public opinion, cause they haven't dented player stats.