Arena The Major League Baseball Thread

honestly i don't even know. the phrasing just made me laugh.

 

Of course they're trying to make themselves better. Why do you think players use steroids? Or cork their bats? Or throw spitballs? Or wear titanium necklaces? They think it will help improve their game. It's all about getting an advantage, about being better. Again, decry it all you want, but I'd much rather have someone on my team who wants to get better than someone who is throwing games on purpose.

And no, the Sox weren't cheating, they were actively losing. And when players actively try to lose, it makes you wonder if the entire sport is fixed. That's why Kenesaw Mountain Landis came down so hard on them and that's why gambling is an immediate lifetime suspension.

This assumes all steroids or any other PEDs have to be injected, rather than ingested. Or you know, how about this:

Unscrupulous Team Doctor: Oh, your arm hurts? You need a cortisone shot.* Allow me.
Unsuspecting Player: Thanks, doc!
Unscrupulous Team Doctor: *injects player with untoward levels of testosterone*

Not too hard.

*Cortisone, by the way, is a steroid. Players get cortisone shots ALL THE TIME. How can this continue to go on! Ban cortisone for the good of the game!!!!!

Yes, true. However, the positives, such as untold millions of dollars and a career in major league baseball, tend to outweigh those things. Of course, actually playing the sport can cause irreparable harm. Ask Mike Matheny about his dozens of concussions.

Amazing.

 

They don't. Anyone who says that is full of ****!!

 

Admitted PED user struggling early for Yankees against the White Sox.

Amazing.

 

^But hey, A-rod just singled.

As a Yankee fan I am pleased. But god, it's hard rooting for him.

 

I almost felt ashamed for switching off the Dodgers/Cards game (Bums up 2-1 after 5 1/2!) briefly to watch A-Rod's first at bat... he was lucky to get that single. And to add to what you've been pointing out, B, I'd wish some folks would stop harping about how Maris is still the true single season HR champ, etc. No. Like the dead ball, pre-integration, pre-expansion era's, the PED era happened, players played (duh), and certain records were broken. Can't just sit there & pretend that none of it occurred.

 

And I don't think that point is made enough. Or at least not listened to enough. Everyone sees all the offense and especially home runs in the late 90s and early 00s and says "STEROIDS!" while looking at the comparatively low totals now and points to the testing as the reason. But no one has ever made a clear study on the actual benefits of steroids for baseball players. And there were a ton of other factors in recent years.

Baseball underwent not one, but two expansions in the 90s, only five years apart. Historically, offense increases post-expansion and usually goes back to normal levels after about five years. This time around, in that fifth year, the second expansion caused another spike.

Remember all the talk of a juiced ball? That was probably partly true, it's widely believed it caused the massive home runs totals in 1987. If you don't know the story (as I understand it), the usual ball-makers employees were on strike, so MLB had to go elsewhere for them. Sometime around mid-August that year, the strike ended, MLB got their regular balls back and home run totals and offense in general dropped back to normal for the rest of the season.

There was also the influx of new stadiums, many of which were rather home run friendly.

The argument that Barry Bonds' records are a result of steroids might be true in part, but it's part of a much larger story that goes ignored. Frankly, I've always been partial to this theory.

Amazing.

 

Hmmm, I never heard of/even considered that before. Very, very interesting to think about it.

 

Watching the Dodger game on ESPN and they cut to A-Rod's first two at bats so I didn't have to miss any of the Dodgers/Cards. I'm a Dodger fan and have always followed the Yankees as well, but it's really hard to root for that guy now.

 

Not going to pretend records broken during the steroid didn't occured (and as casual fan at best, even I watched the Sosa/McGuire HR race, I'll admit), but I'm also not going to sit here and gloss over the fact that most of those records during that time were likely obtained through fraudulent means.

 

Does anyone really think that this Joint Drug Program has a snowball's chance in hell of actually cleaning up the game? It was implemented in 2006 and here we are seven years later still with the focus on drug cheats rather than baseball. I doubt when forced to choose between getting rid of the cheats and winning, the MLBPA is going to be a largely ineffective entity, despite their words to the contrary. A lot of pro athletes will do anything to win.

As for the records broken duting the "Steroid Era", I think there definitely needs to be an asterisk next to those in the record book. Like Juliet316 stated, there's no point in ignoring the fact that most of those records were obtained through fraudulent means.

 

It's better than the post - strike era where the MLBPA successfully barred any sort of PED testing at all. Of course both sides afterthat had to be dragged kicking and screaming into letting testing into the game via Jose Conseco and Congress.

From what I've heard being reported today on certain outlets, including ESPN, apparently the players themselves are sick of the steroid era and want the cheaters gone. Meaning that a lot of the players are quitetly petitioning the union to allow tougher punishments for those who get caught testing positive for PEDs (I've heard anywhere on the news from players wanting 'two strikes and their gone for good" to "one strike and their gone."). And some players have had some, uh, colorful choice words for those suspended on Twitter today. Which does kind of make sense when you think about how all those who test positive (or who are concretely connected otherwise to stuff like BALCO and Biogenesis without failing a test like Bonds and Rodriguez), pretty much taint most everybody else in the sport, even if most of them are not doping or otherwise cheating. So who knows. Unlike the NFLPA, the MLBPA is allowing HGH testing, so, it's not a perfect system, but at least baseball's trying far more than it did even a decade ago.

 

Until we fully understand the 100% exact effect PED's have on the ability to play the game (because at the end of the day, their inherent skill gave them a baseball career. If I were to begin to take PED's, am I going to become a major league caliber player? Hell no.), it can't be fully fraudulent. Also, obviously, pitchers were using PED's as well during this era, so you've got a PED-pitcher throwing to a PED-batter, then where's the cheating exactly? We'll never know fully of course, but the outrage should be toned down.

 

I'd rather have a 25-man roster of players who don't cheat to win. Saying they do it to make themselves better is nothing more than a justification for their cheating. Trying to make themselves better would be doing the extra work that getting better actually requires. Extra batting practice. Extra time in the weight room. Work on your pitches so you don't have to spit on the ball. None of these guys care about their teammates or the game. They want bigger numbers so when they go into free agency and have to negotiate than can point to how many home runs they hit and beg for more money because they see themselves as being worth it when in reality they aren't worth the paper they are printed on. Now, I love baseball, but in the end all these guys do is hit a little ball with a big stick and they make way too much money doing it. They should be grateful and stop cheating and just play.

We're probably going to have to agree to disagree, AmazingB. I enjoy the debate, though.

 

Do you really think they're not putting in work, though? They're just sticking a syringe in their ass and then laying on the couch all day? The people doing PEDs tend to be either guys who are obsessed with being the best and are taking PEDs as an addition to all their practice they're already doing or specifically to counteract physical symptoms of aging or illness, or guys who are worried about making it because they're giving it their best and they're not elite, so they're trying to get an additional edge alongside their practice. They're not doing it instead of practice. It's people who want every advantage they can get, not people who are doing it instead of putting the work in. There's nobody taking a bunch of HGH and then going and playing Call of Duty.

 

This is pretty hilarious I had no idea what it was before. It wasn't showing up on my phone.

 

But...but this is the basis of my made-for-TV movie "From Neckbeard to Left Field: The Armen William Tunick Story."

YOU GOTTA BELIEVE, TUNES!

 

Braves winning streak is now up to 12 games after a 2-1 win over the Nationals!

 

The Braves are showing no signs of regression, they just keep charging along. Scary team to play right now.

 

All streaks (duh) must come to an end, which happened to the Dodgers last night in St. Louis: incompetent offense (4 double plays hit into by Dodger batters) + Brandon League reverting back to being the schmuck that he is (gave up 3 ER off of 2 home runs in the bottom of the 8th)= a 5-1 win for the Cardinals. Nothing to really worry about, except for Mattingly's bunt strategy (Uribe's on 2nd base in the 7th, the Dodgers still down by 1... Punto comes up, bunts, and the throw goes to 3rd base to nab Uribe. TOO MUCH BUNTING, DON!).

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/danoshinsky/things-that-have-happened-since-the-braves-installed-that]It's[/url] the Waffle House effect!

 

Rather unfortunate to see.