Google

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

In The Good Old Days.

Even if you don't follow Major League Baseball you've probably heard about the latest performance enhancing drug use suspensions, including Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees.  People think that the achievements of plays like Rodriguez, and the previous generation of players associated with PEDs, like Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire, are tainted by comparison to the greats, who supposedly played clean.  But once again I wonder how clean some of those guys were.  Drug testing didn't exist in the days of Ruth and Gehirg, Mays and Aaron.  What stuff might those guys have tried?  Unlike the modern cocktails it's likely any of the crude methods they tired had little if any effectiveness.  Or for that matter the drugs they may have used that aren't normally associated with performance enhancement, like speed.

Not that this is an excuse for today's behaviour.  Rodriquez and the others broke the current rules, knowing very well what might happen.

No comments: