A little more detail: http://eye-on-baseball.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/22297882/28370837 That should pretty much kill any chance of the Hall of Fame for him, unless views among the voters about drug cheats change dramatically from where they are now.
His chances were already zero. He's the only guy from the Mitchell report to get sniped again afterwards.
I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the big lug. He hates the Red Sox and their miserable wretched fanbase. He takes drugs with impunity. He's made gobs of money. Other than the money part, we are a lot alike.
he tried for one last hoorah.... probably figured he could beat the test or take something short acting that would be out of his system quickly. problem is, at that age, it's hard to maintain the strength and muscle gains when your natural testosterone levels are in decline. so when you come off, you're basically shit out of lock. It wasn't hard to tell who was on juice 10 years ago (before the mitchell report), for the most part. At least hitters, pitchers took it for different reasons (recovery, lubrication of joints).I used to name random people and my friends were like "no way". then the mitchell report came out and the congressional hearings. You had the obvious guys like moon face Bonds and Giambi, but then you also had guys like Manny and A-rod who's shoulders would double in size within a year or two. One person who i have NO idea how he's escaped the scrutiny..... albert pujols. Pujols is 100% a juicer. of course that doesn't mean you can hit a baseball (which is why i don't really give a shit to begin with), but the guy is a just a physical beast. you don't get like that naturally. just look at his traps
Lol I have seen him in the local fresh market recently, this guy doesn't look roided out in the least.......... his wife or gf, on the other hand, look quite enhanced. He seemed like a cool dude, however I was the only person on the checkout line who really didn't give a rats ass who he was...........
That's my point. You still have to hit the baseball and know how to play the game. PEDs don't help your hand eye coordination. That's why that shit is blown out of proportion. Does it help recovery? Sure. Does it help make them stronger, so they can hit the ball harder? It can. But no one mentions that just as many pitchers took PEDs and that's how they were throwing 100 mph gas or throwing 120 pitches a game. There's always two sides to the coin. They need the NFL policy of "turn a blind eye because everyone's going to do it anyways, and that's what the fans want". The ONLY reason MLB got fucked is because they had NO testing in place. NFL had testing in place, it just happened to be a joke...and that's all they needed.
Believe me I hate the crackdown on roids as much as anybody, but the "steroids don't help your hand eye coordination" argument always cracks me up. Of course they don't. That is like saying that the Pats' cheating when they taped other teams doesn't matter because you still have to play football. Obviously there are multiple aspects involved in being a good baseball player. It makes no sense at all to try to minimize the fact that somebody is gaining an edge in one area by pointing out they still have to be skilled in the other area. By that logic, it shouldn't be an issue when somebody gets caught corking a bat, because hell...if they can't hit the ball in the first place the cork won't help right? The players that took them didn't just want to be good, they wanted to be dominant. Ichiro and Derek Jeter are great baseball players but imagine them if they had taken steroids.
I agree with what you said. My point was that the media makes it out to be more than it actually is. Of course it makes a difference, but when when a majority of people are trying to get that same edge, it becomes a nearly moot point. Even when you test for it, there are ways to beat tests and people will still use rampantly. When you're talking about careers, competition and millions of dollars in contracts people will always find a way to beat the system.
