Tag: Steroids

Mark McGwire admits to using steroids

Mark McGwire has finally come out and admitted what everyone always thought – that he used steroids when he broke baseball’s home run record in 1998.  What’s he going to admit next, that he has red hair and a goatee?

I don’t really understand all the hoopla when it comes to steroids in baseball.  Contrary to what you might have heard on sports talk radio, steroids do not help you hit home runs.  What they do is allow your muscles to heal faster and recover quicker when subjected to trauma or damage.  This means that when someone is engaging in strenuous weight lifting and they are taking steroids, they will be able to recover quicker in between workouts  then someone who is not taking steroids.  This allows them to lift more and work harder than someone who is not taking them.

So in other words, a person taking steroids is able to work harder than a person not taking them.

The notion that they are some kind of home run hitting magical elixir is absurd.

I guess one might make the argument that steroids help a person gain more muscles and more muscles help a person hit home runs, so it’s cheating.  The problem with that argument is that simply lifting weights help to gain muscles too.

Is lifting weights cheating too?  How about eating egg white omelets and broiled skinless chicken breasts?

I’m not even convinced that big muscles help a person hit home runs.  Hank Aaron held the life time home run record for the longest time and he wasn’t a big muscle type of guy.

It’s probably a good thing that Mark McGwire came out and told everyone what we all thought to begin with.  It’s not like he was the first baseball player to use steroids before they were banned by Major League Baseball.  I’m sure that as time goes on, more players will come out and make similar “confessions”.  If they were smart, they would come out now while all the attention is being focused on McGwire.

Nobody said ball players were smart.

by Rick  /  January 13, 2010  /  Posted in: Baseball
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What in the world is going on with Sammy Sosa?

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If you didn’t know that the man on the right was Sammy Sosa, you would think it was just some creepy looking guy with pasty skin and freaky looking eyes. It’s Sammy Sosa with pasty skin and freaky looking eyes.

He looks like a vampire or a zombie.

Is pale skin one of the side effects of long time steroid use?  If it is, it wouldn’t be the first time Sammy Sosa displayed an unwanted side effect from hard-core steroid abuse.  Who can forget the time Sammy Sosa was called before Congress to talk about performance enhancing drugs in baseball and he lost the ability to speak English?  If I’m not mistaken, that’s one of the possible side effects of steroid use.  I once took a cortisone injection in my shoulder and I stopped being able to speak Klingon.

A coincidence?  I think not.

One of his “friends” told the Chicago Tribune that he is going through some kind of “rejuvenation process for his skin” and that it left his skin looking white.  This friend also said something about Sosa using moisturizing treatment at night on his face.

If he’s using moisturizer on his face, why are his ears white too?

1 Comment by Rick  /  November 9, 2009  /  Posted in: Baseball
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Poor A-Rod

I listened to the Alex Rodriguez press conference yesterday and I found the whole thing to be wildly entertaining. The problem, at least for Alex Rodriguez, is that I don’t think that was the intended purpose of the press conference.

To entertain me.

Why doesn’t he just come out and say exactly what he did? The only thing people hate more than a cheater is an idiot. The more A-Rod talks, the more he sounds like a total idiot. For example, his explanation on how he got the steroids; He says that a cousin smuggled them in from the Dominican Republic. He claims that he doesn’t really know what they were or what exactly they did.

There are just some things you don’t allow even a cousin to do. Injecting your buttocks with a mysterious substance from the Dominican Republic is one of those things.

Steroids weren’t even banned in Major League Baseball until 2005. He should just come out and be completely honest. Don’t hold anything back. In today’s press conference, he refused to identify his cousin. Does he honestly think he can keep the name of his cousin a secret?

I wish him the best of luck with that.

by Rick  /  February 18, 2009  /  Posted in: Sports
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A-Rod sits down with Peter Gammons and talks about the loosy goosy era of baseball

Rodriguez Steroids Baseball

Alex Rodriguez tells ESPN’s Peter Gammons that he is sorry for what he did, but he fails to say exactly what it is he did.  He refuses to state what exactly he took and he refuses to state where he got it.  It almost sounded as though he was blaming everything on GNC. He mentions the vitamin retailer quite a bit.

A-Rod insists that since 2004, he has been completely clean of banned performance enhancing substances.

He also has quite a bit of anger for Sports Illustrated reporter Selena Roberts. He said that she is a stalker that is making things up.

I’m not sure A-Rod is in any position to judge the truthfulness of anyone.

by Rick  /  February 10, 2009  /  Posted in: Sports
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The NFL has a steroid problem?

It looks like quite a few NFL players have tested positive for steroids. ESPN is reporting that the New Orleans Saints have three players, Deuce McAllister, Will Smith, and Charles Grant have tested positive under the NFL’s steroid policy.

NFL players are taking steroids? What’s next, an ESPN report that players on the road cheat on their wives?

Of course players in the NFL take steroids. Men don’t naturally put on as much muscle as the average NFL lineman or any of the other strength position players without taking extraordinary messages. That includes lifting lots of weights and taking lots of supplements, including steroids.

Steroids don’t make you stronger. They don’t give you more muscles. What they do is allow you to heal and recover quicker. That means you can lift a lot of weights and spend less time recovering in between workouts. Some people mistakenly think steroids allow you to work less, but the complete opposite is true. They allow you to work harder and more often. [ESPN]

by Rick  /  October 25, 2008  /  Posted in: Sports
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The Washington Nationals TV ratings are like steroids

What do the TV ratings for the Washington Nationals have in common with steroids? Both are being investigated by Major League Baseball.

Speaking to members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, Commissioner Bud Selig said that MLB will be checking into the accuracy of published Nielsen ratings. The SportsBusiness Journal reported last week that the Nationals were pulling in an average of only 9,000 households in the Washington area.

That’s pretty bad.

It’s not as bad as the TV ratings the team was pulling when it was still in Montreal. They weren’t even televised the last few years was the Expos.

by Rick  /  July 17, 2008  /  Posted in: Sports
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Rick Reilly is kind of creepy

I was perusing the sports section of Waldenbooks the other day when I stumbled upon this book from former Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly. It’s entitled
Hate Mail from Cheerleaders and Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly. It’s a collection of some of Reilly’s Sports Illustrated columns.

I’ve never really liked Rick Reilly. He always struck me as being kind of a douche.

For instance, he got some attention a few years ago when he called out Sammy Sosa in the Cub’s locker room to go with him to a lab and take a urine test for steroids. Sosa freaked out and Reilly wrote a column about it.

Though he often attacked Sosa (and Barry Bonds) for using steroids, he continuously defended Lance Armstrong against allegations of blood doping and using other performance enhancers. Granted, there has never been any proof that Armstrong cheated. Then again, nobody has ever proven that Sosa or Bonds cheated either.

Speaking of Lance Armstrong, he even wrote the forward to this book.

I flipped the book over to see how much they were actually charging for this piece of drivel. Not that I wanted to buy it. What I saw on the back cover surprised me. It’s a photograph showing Reilly sitting in a chair with the same three cheerleaders from the cover. Instead of looking at him like they were pissed off — like they did on the front cover — it shows them kissing him. One of the girls was actually sitting on his lap.

Don’t they have laws against this? Even if they were supposed to be college cheerleaders and not high school cheerleaders, he’s old enough to be their father. I guess the idea of the photo is to show that though the cheerleaders were quite perturbed at Rick Reilly over something he wrote, they since softened their opinion of him to the extent that they now only want to shower him with their teenage kisses.

Something like that.

I just find it more then a little creepy. In my opinion, men Reilly’s age should be kept away from cheerleaders.

by Rick  /  June 19, 2008  /  Posted in: Sports
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Now Congress is investigating baseball player wives

Wondering what Congress is doing about ending the war in Iraq? They are too busy investigating Major League Baseball. Specifically, they are looking into steroid and human growth hormone use by players before such substances were banned by Major League Baseball.

Not only are they sniffing around to find out what former players such as Roger Clemons were taking, they are evidently investigating baseball player wives.

From the New York Daily News:

Brian McNamee told congressional investigators Thursday that Roger Clemens’ wife took human growth hormone before she appeared with the pitcher in Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue in 2003, according to a Washington source.

I understand why Congress is looking into steroid and human growth hormone use by baseball players. The Constitution is quite specific that Congress is to provide oversight over professional sports leagues.* It doesn’t say anything about their wives.

* No it doesn’t. I was being sarcastic. I do that sometimes.

5 Comments by Rick  /  February 8, 2008  /  Posted in: Sports
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