Bonds Did Steroids

That's what the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting regarding baseball slugger Barry Bonds.

Back in January '03, Dayn Perry covered this beat for Reason in a still-relevant story we called "Pumped-Up Hysteria: Forget the Hype. Steroids Aren't Ruining Baseball."

"In short," concluded Perry, "steroids are a significant threat to neither the health of the players nor the health of the game. Yet the country has returned to panic mode, with both private and public authorities declaring war on tissue-building drugs."

That's more true than ever. Read the whole thing here. And then hit the batting cages.

Comments

[dj of raleigh]

Steroids will build 30# of pure muscle
while you are laying flat on your back.
Used in a weight training routine,
they can get you over a wall you hit.
When they are used in sports, and they are,
then how do you tell your kid, who loves sports,
that s/he isn't to use them, how do you justify it,
when and if all the heroes and stars are,
in other words, when the winners are using them.
Are you going to get steroids for YOUR kids?

[canard]

Your kids already have steroids. They are produced in the adrenal glands, the ovaries, and the testicles. Without steroids, none of us would be fertile, and most of us wouldn't be sane.

[careful reader]

Nick, what source did the Chron writers cite in that front-page splash article?

[SM]

dj of ralieigh,
"Are you going to get steroids for YOUR kids?"

If they are proven safe, then the answer to your qauestion is yes. Despite your rather melodramatic commentary, if i may say so.

[SM]

Oh .. only if they are legal. Whew !

[Nick Gillespie]

The Chron cites "federal investigators." Here's a link to the actual SF article:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/03/02/MNGNM5C3AV1.DTL

[Bo]

Off the subject, and sorry if it's been discussed, but is there a pattern to dj of raleigh's line breaks? Or is it just making poetry out of normal arguing?

[dj of raleigh]

"Are you going to get steroids for YOUR kids?"

> If they are proven safe, then the answer to your qauestion is yes.

[Geroge Bush Sr.]

I really could care less what someone does to their own body. The issue is irrelevant to me.

My anger is derived from the fact that we don't know what the long term effect of consistent steroid use is. We know their powerful, and we know that they have dramatic results.

Accepting steroid use in competitive sports essentially forces those who do not want to risk their health by engaging in steroid use, in order to remain competitive. I certainly think this is an unreasonable requirement to place upon any athlete.

Most over the counter supplements haven't even been proven to have any effect on an athletes body, and those that have, don't result in dramatic advancement.

Steroids can have incredibly dramatic effects in terms of developing muscle mass, and in terms of shortening recovery time.

[Michelle]

Flex Wheeler is a great example of what can happen when you abuse steroids. There are several articles where he mentions that his prolonged abuse of the drug sped up the kidney disease that was already expected to happen (hereditary). Now, that he has expressed how much he wants to stay away from any type of steroid, he has to take catabolic steroids in order to reduce his mass muscle size developed from pumping anabolic steroids for eighteen years.

[Douglas Fletcher]

There's actually someone walking around called Flex Wheeler?

Thanks for the laugh, I needed it.

[Geroge Bus Sr.]

Well, maybe not on a personal level, but when discussing competitive sports, there are certainly rational arguments against it.

Steroids are not an unproven GNC supplement with minmal results. They have dramatic results that can greatly affect the level of one's athletic ability.

By accepting them in competitive sports, you are forcing others to engage in using them in order to keep up with the standard that they create.

[Ron Jung]

While playing football in college, there was a tremendous pressure to use steroids. I did not. Players who I know to have used them have had kidney failure, impotence and have gotten it trouble because of "roid rage". They do make the playing field uneven at risk to their own health. It is not good for sports.

[RayK]

Use and abuse of steroids is two entirely different things. One of the reasons people suffer adverse reactions from these drugs is they have no medical education in dosing, timing, cycling, etc. Proper use of steroids can have many beneficial effects. For example, testosterone supplementation has been shown to dramatically and permanently reduce adipose fat tissues in older men. That is only one of the many examples of recent studies.

If a person can choose to have fat sucked out of their butt and injected into their face for cosmetic reasons, there is no rational argument against the medically supervised distribution of steroids for strength, health and cosmetic reasons.

[careful reader]

>> Nick, what source did the Chron writers cite
>> in that front-page splash article?
>
> The Chron cites "federal investigators."

The reporters actually said they were told that "federal investigators" were told, but didn't say who did the telling, and how they knew that what Bonds did was counter to what he said he did.

It's weak for an inside story, much less for a frontpage screamer headline like this was.

The Chronicle apparently did some bad reporting there, and they got you to carry water for them...!?

[jay]

We live in a sick culture where taking supplements are the way to make ones game. Steroids are clearly dangerous and stupid. The list of those whose lives and health are ruined I see in the media and run into in my local gym. Think Flo jo for example. Look at her overwhelming win as a bulked out sprinter in the first olympics and then her poor performance in the 2nd olympics much smaller. She quit too late.
Also, many of the over counter stuff they sell outside of the multi-vitamin havent been around to prove themselves as being safe.
Its great to be big and pump lots of iron I admit. But then again with my oversize bone structure, short limbs, and being only five eight it was the only thing I could do. at 225 pounds I didnt need the drugs but the idea I would jeopardize my health for them is absurd.

[bailey]

yes i think Bonds did take steriods because how can a player that couldnt hit for his life the first couple of of years all of a sudden come out and 40 and up home runs a year. so yea i think he is on steriods.