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Compton's Stance on Steroids
March 27, 2006
by Jeff (Compton)

1. Now, more than ever, baseball is a business.

2. Steroids allow players to perform at a higher level. Players who are motivated by fame and/or money are particularly drawn to use steroids.

3. Steroids make average players good and good players great. Note the improvement of someone like Bret Boone vs. Barry Bonds.

4. The use of steroids brings certain health risks, including tendon tears, muscle strains, acne, roid rage, and a slew of other conditions which may shorten a player's career. Most players who take steroids understand these risks and take them nonetheless. There are contless examples of career-ending, steroid-induced injuries.

5. Just because someone is good, or even the best, doesn't mean they are on steroids. But in sports where strength and speed are at a premium, one should recognize that steroids is always a possibility.

6. Human strength generally peaks in the early 30's, but the requisite baseball skills of speed, strength, and coordination mean that baseball players generally peak around 27 or 28 (speedsters generally peak a bit earlier). If anyone displays a significant increase in performance before or after this age, I'd take a closer look at what may have caused it. FWIW, Barry Bonds, in his late 30's, displayed an increase in performance never before seen in the history of baseball. Note that his best year prior to that time was at age 28.

7. An asterisk, when used with a record, indicates that some people have taken special consideration for the given record and made arguments against its validity. It does not indicate unanimous agreement to invalidate the given record. That said, to put an asterisk next to every record with questionable validity would be ludicrous. Babe Ruth's horse pills (and nail-filled bat), Mark Mcgwire's andro, Barry Bonds' steroids, the greenies/amphetamines taken by a large number of players in the 70's, the vials of cocaine Tim Raines kept in his back pocket as he stole second base, Norm Cash's composite and heavily lacquered bat in 1961, Amos Otis' corked bat, Craig Biggio's protective batting gear, the extra padding on Jeff Bagwell's batting gloves, players who went to WWII, the 560 foot fences of Chicago's West Side Grounds, the 250 foot fences of Boston's South End Grounds, Dante Bichette's semblance of a career in Colorado, the exclusion of blacks pre-1947, the spitball, clean baseballs... There are too many things which have "unfairly" influenced players and their levels of performance (both positively and negatively) over the years. An asterisk next to every questionable number would mean more asterisks than numbers in any record book.

8. Not only is it impossible to identify all of these performance-affecting factors, but where do you draw the line? When do they become worthy of an asterisk? Andro? Creatine? Protein shakes? Whether or not it's injected? Whether or not the equipment they are wearing is considered "extraneous"? How many violations before a record is truly "tainted"? Where are the lines drawn? And who draws them? And how are they enforced?

9. Even *if* a line is drawn, it is questionable whether baseball will ever have the balls to objectively enforce a strict policy.

10. The best performers, in any occupation, are almost always cheaters who get away with it.

11. Every Compton Crip takes copious amounts of steroids. This will continue until steroids are explicitly banned in the HOFL.

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