For the last several years, baseball has done everything they can to take steroids out of the game. But I say ‘Let There Be Juice’! Runs are now at a premium, as scores are now back to what can be considered another Deadball Era. The only logical conclusion is that it’s because they took the juice out of the players.
The 1990s and early 2000’s were an exciting time in Major League Baseball. Home run records were crumbling at an alarming rate. Fans were glued to the television and nobody cared that veins were popping out of everybody’s necks, arms and thighs or that foreheads were expanding quicker than ball caps could.
If a pitcher hung one over the plate, anywhere close to one of these big boppers, that ball was flying out of the building. Pitchers were on PEDs as well. Roger Clemens and Andy Pettite were pitching at a high rate into their early 40s. And God knows there were others.
Many doctors support people using steroids and PEDs. They say that people condemning their use do not understand the drugs’ full potential. It can bring bigger and stronger athletes that can recover from injury and overall fatigue faster. Used in the right way, there are many leading physicians that believe PEDs are a good thing for modern athletes.
Of course most of us baseball fans have shunned the idea of such a thing. We’ve always been taught that performance enhancing drugs were wrong and it was cheating. That may be true; but, what if we are wrong. What if using these drugs, in closely monitored ways, by team doctors would not jeopardize their health, and in fact improve it?
The sudden epidemic of Tommy John surgeries have exploded since the testing of PEDs and other steroids. Could this be linked? Many doctors think so. For the last 3 to 4 decades there have been baseball travel teams, and year ’round baseball played by America’s youth.
This was not the case in baseball’s infancy. Even professionals would do odd jobs in the off-season because the money which was much less. Little did they know, they were actually saving their bodies. A pitcher wouldn’t throw a single ball for three months on end. That actually gave his ligaments and joints time to rest and heal. Sure, the playback then was not as athletic, but their bodies held up through the test of time.
Well, we all know we cannot go backwards. Fans would not except players built like Babe Ruth today. Today’s fan wouldn’t even except a player built like some of the more athletic players of days gone bye. They want to see players that are in the weight room testing their skills as well as their strength. This constant weight training and other ways of pushing the bar, is tearing down the players bodies. So the only answer is to let them juice. If a player wants to take that risk, have at it.
Why should we the fans care if it’s all a level playing field. Have them snarling and foaming at the mouth, on the on deck circle! They’re getting paid a lot of money, and we’re forking over a lot of money. That should mean that we should see the best of the best at their best.
I know most will not agree with his opinion, and think I’m out if my tree. And to a degree, this is a story of tongue and cheek. But I say ‘Let Them Juice!’ Keep them off the operating tables and rehab facilities, and put them back in the arenas putting on the greatest show on earth. A 500 foot blast bringing down rain.
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