Posted on 12/04/2004 8:24:41 AM PST by TRY ONE
Anyone have Before/After Photos of Barry Bonds ---
One photo ~ 20 years ago when Barry was ~ 180 lbs with a hat size of ~ 7 1/2;
And a recent photo showing him ~ 260 lbs with a hat size of ~ 9 3/4;
"His kidneys shut down and he had a transplant."
Yeah, kind of like the NBA's Alonzo Mourning. Oh, and FloJo (Florence Griffith Joyner) just happened to die in her early thirties, I guess from natural causes. Right. Walter Payton too.
My opinion (even though you didn't ask)? He knew, he made a conscious decision, he's a pr!ck, and he should be sent packing now, before there's any "asterisk" controversy when he passes Ruth and Aaron.
Yeh, but his attorney was on tv and said he was rubbing the cream on his body in front of G_d and everybody and he didn't know the cream had steriods, so he isn't responsible.
Case closed.
[lol. Gotta love those paid mouthpieces.]
For the same reason they won't allow corked bats, or vaseline on the ball when pitched, or stick-em on receivers in football, etc., etc. Those are performance enhancers which give an athlete an artificial advantage. It's sports... it's supposed to be about clean, fair competition. Yeah, it's a money making business, but it relies on the fans believing the playing field is level.
Hell, why not allow batters to come to the plate packing guns, and if they get a pitch they don't like, they can shoot the pitchers, then round the bases? Why not allow them to carry the bat all the way around the bases with them? It would certainly make breaking up a double play a lot easier. Again, the idea is to make the playing field as level as possible. Steroid use throws that all out of whack.
Medical reasons aside (and there's lots of debate on that issue), the issue relates to maintaining a level playing field among the participants in the sport. Bobby Bonds might be a better home runner than Hank Aaron or Babe Ruth, but if his performance was enhanced in a manner not available to the others, would his capabilities really be superior? The rules are there for several reasons, and that's one of them.
Remember Lyle Alzado, he played NFL football for the Broncos and later the Raiders? He was picked up by the Broncos out of Yankton College in SD for practically nothing by the Broncos and made the team. He became a steroid junkie in an effort to maintain a competitive edge. As his football career advanced so did his strange behavior, eventually he left football and, not long after, died of a malignant brain tumor.
Yes, over time Bonds does get bigger and clearly heavier - but with age, most people do. But the increase in his head size and muscle mass are undeniable, and to me, a pretty good indication that he used steroids.
But the other thing about Bonds is that he has, for all of those seasons, put up 30-50 HR's almost every year. You can't explain that through steroid use alone - the guy is a great hitter with a good eye and a beautiful swing. However, that being said, the incredible numbers he's put up over the period from 2000-2004, definitely stretches plausibility unless you accept that he has been using steroids, particularly given his advancing age. Most baseball players see their performance peak from age 28-32 (or thereabouts). For Bonds to put up the most monsterous numbers of his career from age 37-42 is, to say the least, extremely suspicious.
There's a big change from 1999 thru 2001.
Virtually EVERY NFL guy is on the stuff. The biggest joke in this whole thing is the NFL coming out with their 'holier than thou' proclamations about their steroid testing. Every year they pick one insignificant player to be the sacrificial lamb for p.r. purposes and they suspend this guy to show how tough they are on steroid enforcement. The whole league collapses and they start over if steroids are ever dissallowed in the NFL. Baseball has a problem with 'roids, no doubt about it. But the NFL is a complete joke and completely phony on this subject.
A lot of what they're saying is designed to enhance the image of bodybuilding. But I don't think we're breeding people that much larger today than we were 30 years ago.
I've heard other bodybuilders report differently, but not in more public avenues.
Quite right Gary, if fat deposits were signs of steroid use, I'd be typing this from a maximum security steroid detox unit. LOL
Also, Marion Jones didn't put on incredible amounts of mass, just some. But Payton and others were really 'cut' and that muscle definition doesn't just come naturally.
Man, tell me about it. I'm 58. I try not to gorge myself, but I finally just quit getting on the scale. I can tell by my clothes I've lost a little, and whether or not I get on the scales there seems to not be a lot I can do about this fatty arbuckle thing I've got going on. When I was 20, I weighed 117-118 lbs., then it worked up to 165 by the time I was 40. I've lost 25 lbs. since then a couple of times, only to gain it back by looking at something fattening. Now, I don't know what I weigh. I suspect about 165 (though I've been up to 179 a few months ago). Also, some of the blood pressure meds I take list weight gain in the side effects. Oh, and I'm a woman which probably makes it worse. However, at my age, I am not enthusiastic about starving or doing without carbs just so I can still look like Miss Piggy even after dieting. :@(
And, I just got tired of asking an inanimate object (the scales) whether or not I can be happy today.
LOL. Me, too. The years have given me two diseases. One is furniture disease: my chest dropped into my drawers. The second is dickey-do disease: my stomach sticks out further than my di** do.
At one time I trained with a man who was a world champion power lifter in the 181 pound class. I never understood why I didn't develop the strength that he did. He wound up in the hospital when his liver ceased functioning.
The doctors were mystified about his condition until he informed them that he was using Dyanabol {sic}. He lived and I understood that his being 5'2" tall and having a muscular walking weight of over two hundred pounds wasn't normal. I found another training partner.
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