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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2009 > February > 05 > Entry
Barroid Bonds, Roid-ger Clemens, and A-Roid…
Baseball season is just around the corner. You can always tell because the steroid revelations begin to pick up. Barry Bonds’ urine tests have shown to be positive for steroids and amphetamines back when he was apparently popping more than just home runs. Roger Clemens looms under the suspicion of using steroids. Even the immortal Alex Rodriguez has been the victim of juicy aspersions cast upon his sculpted physique.
I’m reading BASES LOADED - the Inside Story of the Steroid Era in Baseball by the Central Figure in the Mitchell Report. That would be Kirk Radomski. What a strange title for a book? The whole thing makes me ill.
roid: short for steroid (the Dickson Baseball Dictionary/Third Edition-by Paul Dickson)
“Back then it was a different culture. It was loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naïve. And I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time.”
- ALEX RODRIGUEZ, admitting that he used performance-enhancing drugs in the early years of this decade. (NY Times-Feb. 11, 2009)
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: booms and busts
Comments
By vick
February 9, 2009 4:38 PM | Link to this
“Alex Rodriguez admitted in an interview with ESPN on Monday that he used performance-enhancing drugs for several seasons at the beginning of this decade, but he said he has not used the substances since then.” (NY Times/Monday, Feb. 9)By downsized
February 8, 2009 10:48 AM | Link to this
A very depressing topic indeed. Our beloved game, our “national pastime” is the victim of designer drugs and greedy cheaters. A few observations: my anger says erase the “new” records but they happened. Like Tony Gwynn, I guess I prefer the asterisk. How do you keep Joe Jackson and Pete Rose out of the HOF and ever let these roidmen near the place? I would have loved to see what Josh Gibson, Paige and others could have done in MLB. I’d like to see world peace too. Ruth may have been at least partly African-American. All that aside, it’s miserable that the cheaters have ruined something so wonderful. It’s more than the economy that’s in a depression. Every fellow baseball fan I know is in anguish and anger over this issue. It’s kind of like a book Vick reviewed not long ago, “Has Everything Turned To S#%&?”By Page Turner
February 7, 2009 5:16 PM | Link to this
“Ruth was known to have all kinds of 1920s home remedies injected in his system for increased potency (I assume in the field). Ruth has also never been tagged with an asterisk despite the fact he never had to play against competition with black skin, or travel farther than the Mississippi to play. I would love to have seen Ruth face Satchel Paige in a sweltering San Juan double header. Bonds has produced in an era of the global talent pool, cross-country travel, and intense media scrutiny.” — Dave Zirin, EdgeOfSports.comBy vick
February 7, 2009 1:08 PM | Link to this
“According to an SI.com report that cites four sources, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids in 2003. That season, while playing shortstop with the Texas Rangers, Rodriguez hit .298 with a major league-best 47 homers and 118 RBIs, and was named A.L. MVP.” (The Sporting News/Feb. 7, 2009)By Raoul
February 6, 2009 3:57 PM | Link to this
Vick, I love baseball too. Part of the attraction is in the stats of all the great players. Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb played in wool uniforms in the hottest part of the day, in dusty, windy, dirty ballyards, to which they traveled aboard non-air conditioned railcars. Sure they drank a lot of beer and gin, and ate a lot of hot dogs, and woke up with hangovers all the time. Sure, they probably took a lot of pennicillen shots. You might say the only influences on them were decidedly Non-Performance enhancing. But they still went out and played. Alas, as with much of our beloved past and pastime, those days are gone. Let Bonds and McGwire and Clemens start their own book of juiced up stats, and be entered not in our beloved, ancient texts.By vick
February 6, 2009 11:51 AM | Link to this
Clever, Page Turner. Playing the race card doesn’t bolster your point. We live in a country that until recently only had white men as presidents. That is history. Cheating is a part of history. It should not be a part of the record books however. Cheaters deserve an ASSterisk or the erasure of their “records.”By Page Turner
February 6, 2009 11:32 AM | Link to this
What could be sacred about the records of a GAME that, until 1947, excluded many of the best players? Those “records” have been distorted since Day 1.By vick
February 6, 2009 10:47 AM | Link to this
Why does it bug me? Well, Page Turner, I’m a hardcore baseball fan. The baseball record book is sacred to me. When pumped up hitters like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were able to shatter precious records that had never been broken before that was wrong. Babe Ruth drank a lot and he ate fatty foods. Roger Maris smoked. Micky Mantle’s career was derailed by partying with Billy Martin. Their enhancements were mostly negative and they still had great careers. Where are Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro, etc? Hiding. They don’t deserve to be in any record books or in the Hall of Fame. Gambling I can with live with…I can’t accept cheating. I’m not alone in my views…By Page Turner
February 6, 2009 10:15 AM | Link to this
I’m curious why this bothers you so much. Haven’t ballplayers been using all manner of substances since before The Babe?