Wednesday, May 23, 2007

The Sultan of Smack

One of the Juice Boys is back in the headlines:



















On the left is Jason Giambi in 2006; to the right is his rookie card.

Boston Globe: Report: Giambi failed amphetamines test

NYDailyNews: Exclusive
Giambi meets with MLB officials


Red Sox Nation will never forget Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series, (aka the Bronx Robbery) where long before Grady left Pedro in too long, long before Aaron Boone put himself into history with his walkoff homer against Tim Wakefield in the 11th inning, juiced Jason Giambi hit two solo homeruns. No juice, no comeback, no win. I repeat my call for the tiny hypodermic needle to be placed next to the stats of every one of these cheaters.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just read about Giambi over at Highbrid Nation and the writer over there really put things in perspective for me. The media has really blew the whole "performance enhancing drug" thing out of proportion. Seriously, I'm not saying its ok to use these drugs but can we please stop acting like these drugs give athletes some kind of super human advantage over thier peers.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I cannot for the life of me figure out opinions about professional athletes and the advantage of steroids. Steroids does not help you hit the homerun. It does not. You swing the bat, you hit the ball it goes far.

But, take out one major factor that not one person I've read blogging or read from any journalist except maybe the guys over at Bryant Gumballs show on HBO. Steroids makes injuries disappear, it makes recovery time nil. It turns the broken down body of the player who is in game #74 of the basketball season play at the same level or higher level than when they played in games 1 thru 5. It takes the injury list off the table. Remember Mr. "I did not take steroids" Raphael Palmero. How much time did he ever spend on the disabled list? He was an everyday ball player right? How many times on the DL? Answer? NEVER. Not once.

As to the writer at Hybrid Nation putting things in perspective...I don't think the message was solely that the media has blown the performance enhancing drug thing out of proportion. I think they've let slide another MAJOR scandal under the rug.

The human advantage thing? The advantage is staying injury free and having quick recovery, period.

truth said...

evorgleb, are you serious? Look at the numbers. Barry Bonds hits between 16 and 34 home runs per season in 8 major league seasons; suddenly at age 28 he hits 46, and for the next 11 seasons he hits between 33 and 74?

Rafael Palmeiro hits between 8 and 26 homeruns in his first six years, then magically at age 28 he hits 47, then for the next seasons between he hits 38 and 47 (I am omitting the 23 he hit in 1994, the strike year).

Steroids didn't give players a superhuman advantage, but enough of an advantage that they shouldn't be in the same record book with stars who got their numbers the hard (non-drug-enhanced) way. The numbers lie, because the players were juiced.