Steroids? Gimme a break!

Did Barry take illegal substances? I suppose he probably did, though its certainly not as obvious as some would make it seem. He has yet to fail a drug test--oh, there are conspiracy theory explanations for that, of course conspiracy theories are all based on the lack of evidence as evidence. Work-out regimens and diets for bulking up are far more prevalent than at any time in history and I guarantee there are plenty of people out there who have put on more muscle than you would've thought possible without taking any drugs at all. Go back and check out Shaq's physique when he was at LSU or Patrick Ewing at G-town--they were skinny little runts compared to their pro days and no one points accusing fingers at those guys. Furthermore, I doubt Bonds did any drugs that were uncommon to the average athlete.

Lots of guys have taken illegal substances over the years--how many homers did the Babe hit hungover from binge drinking during the Prohibition?--and none of them got to 756 home runs. Interesting to note that the pitcher that served up #755, Clay Hensley, did a suspension for getting busted for steroids. And for those that claim that in the old days everybody was pure, well, how do you know? Did Willie Mays ever piss in a cup? In Ball Four Jim Bouton talks about all kinds of chemical inducements players used in the '60s--why do we assume that the search for performance enhancers is something new? Is it because its easier to aim a pitchfork at Bonds than to make the painful realization that athletes have been cheating since games began?

Mostly this is all the work of sportswriters who are in the business of pointing out the flaws of others to distract from their own petty worthless lives--dude, I hope Mitch Albom gets an eternity of Barry Bonds in heaven. The writers play the 'public safety' card as if those guys do anything but suck up to the most inane and pathetic parts of our own culture.

I can dig that you don't want to encourage youngsters to use these supplements because are dangerous. But the way we go about trying to disincentive this activity is all wrong! We hold up Mark McGwire as a scapegoat which tacitly tells to the kids 'if you do steroids you'll hit 500 home runs!' Far from the truth, incidentally. Taking steroids won't make you any good at anything, it just expands your muscles--and shit, man, that alone doesn't even imply strength! Its just the increase of muscle mass not strength! If we were serious as a culture about discouraging this kind of drug use we wouldn't be casting stones at Sammy Sosa, we'll be holding worthless shlubs like Clay Hensley up as the real role models.

'If you do steroids you're no more likely to win 300 games than you are of being the answer to a trivia question!'

Am I Barry Bonds fan? I don't particularly think one way or another about him. But I do know this: if Barry Bonds wants to shoot heroin into his eyeballs during the 7th inning stretch, that's fine with me. If he wants to drug himself to an early grave for a little glory that's his business--football players have been doing it for decades and no one seems to care. Women in America have fought for decades to control their bodies, not sure why baseball players aren't afforded the same rights.