Sports Illustrated Reports AROD Tested Positive for Steroids

[MessiahRp]

Yeah I think that when HOF voters look at Thomas' numbers I hope they consider those steroid testing demands he always put out there. Thomas was right in that roid-induced numbers cost him a lot of money and likely HOF votes.

 

Rp

[jaybird2001wi]

The thing about Frank Thomas is the skeptics who would accuse him of roiding up don't ever recall he was once a College Football Tight End for Auburn. The guy was always big and according to this wikipedia entry, he is known to be an advocate for drug testing:

Advocate for drug testing

As early as 1995, Thomas was advocating drug testing for professional baseball players.^{[25][/sup] After hitting his 500th home run, Thomas stated, "It means a lot to me because I did it the right way," alluding to Barry Bonds's then-present pursuit of Hank Aaron's career home run record.[26][/sup] Thomas was the only active baseball player to be interviewed during the preparation of the Mitchell Report. He did so voluntarily.}

I never was much of a fan of Frank Thomas when he was with the ChiSox because he always killed the Brewers, but one of my buddies from back in the day always loved him. Ironically, my buddy grew up big fans of both Frank and Junior Griffey and he didn't like anyone else.

[homer]

I don't think you can use body type alone to judge guys. There are plenty of dudes who are skinny at 18 and get buffed at 25 - check out Jordan in college vs. Jordan at age 30.

[steve267268]

I am not ruling ANYONE out anymore. I am not surprised to hear this about A Rod, though... not at all. Guy is huge now. Griffey using steroids during the latter part of his career wouldn't surprise me and neither would Frank Thomas.. i don't care if the guy is tall, doesn't mean he HAS to be built like a house. It's possible, but i don't want it to be true. I used to wear the "Big Hurt" shoes for crying out loud!! I played KGjr Baseball for SNES!!

 

One thing that DOES bother me... and i really don't want to even think this.... but A Rod took Ryan Braun "under his wing" while Ryan was making the transition to 3rd base... We now know how A Rod made that transition, although i'm positive it was more of a defensive thing that he and Braun talked about.. it's just.. horrible to even imagine.. nevermind..

[brettac1]

What is the point of this now? This is going to be the storyline for the entire season. Ugh.

[ILuvDaBush]

I could see Braun being a 'roider, though I would imagine he would be smart enough to use HGH.

[RU Rah Rah]

Yeah, if you got sick of the A-Rod and Madonna story last year, here it comes on steroids (so to speak).

[Invader3K]

I could see Braun being a 'roider, though I would imagine he would be smart enough to use HGH.

I really doubt any guys who have come up in the last couple years are probably using steroids or HGH too much...the testing in MiLB is actually pretty stringent, from what I understand.

[TheCrew07]

I'm not surprised by this at all.

 

Griffey broke down way too early in my opinion to be on roids. Roids not only add strength, but tremendously aid in recovery time as well. Griffey's big knock has been a lack of conditioning in his career, he hasn't ever been a gym rat and he's always gotten by on his talent. Had he worked harder and stayed healthy we'd be talking about him as the home run king instead of these other guys.

 

I've always suspected Nolan Ryan as well, no one has that kind of arm that late in their career, no one. We'll probably never know, but he always seemed like a prime candidate to me. I used to hate on him during his Advil commercials... yea Nolan, it's Advil that get's you through the season...

[Patrick425]

Invader3K[/b]]

ILuvDaBush[/b]]I could see Braun being a 'roider, though I would imagine he would be smart enough to use HGH.

I really doubt any guys who have come up in the last couple years are probably using steroids or HGH too much...the testing in MiLB is actually pretty stringent, from what I understand.

If I'm not mistaken, there is no way to test for HGH, thus the comment by ILuvDaBush.

 

I'm troubled by the fact that certain records have fallen or may fall with the aid of PEDs. However, what bothers me more is that everyone is under suspicion. As already mentioned in this thread, people are stating that they would not be surprised at anyone mentioned as testing positive. Names like Griffey, Ripken, and Thomas have been mentioned. Any player who puts up big numbers (past, present, or future) will be looked at with a curious eye. I feel sorry for the player who is just a good player and who is clean but has to live under the current cloud of suspicion that has overtaken the game. Although, I guess I shouldn't feel to sorry. They are still making lots of money to play baseball.

[razzzorsharp]

To me, there is not much difference between taking steriods and speed, which was prevelent in the 70's. Both have the same intended purpose.

[Tbadder]

I don't think you can use body type alone to judge guys. There are plenty of dudes who are skinny at 18 and get buffed at 25 - check out Jordan in college vs. Jordan at age 30.

 

I would be the least surprised person if Jordan was found out to have shot up. I think this is really good for the game (A-Rod being named). This brings us closer to naming the era the steroid-era. It's not one or two. It's not a small cadre of players who duped the record books and fandom while bailing out baseball with the tacit approval of teams and trainers and the upper echelon of MLB. It was a significant amount of players from every team in the MLB. Give it time. We will hear half the truth eventually and that should be enough to stop pointing fingers and making a whipping boy out of Bond, Clemens, Palmiero etc. It was pervasive and an integral part of the game. I'd bet my life on it. Of course I'll be dead anyways after the dust has cleared in twenty to thirty years.

[Ennder]

If any NBA player in the world did steroids it was Jordan, that is a no brainer IMO~

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

Yawn. In other news, the sky is blue. Can we all just move past the steroids thing? If this were an NFL player it would be on the back page and nobody would care.

[JimH5]

Michael Phelps is delighted with the timing of this story.

 

As much as I would like the steroid stuff to go away, I also want to know the truth. So if someone is being a hypocrite about their performance and legacy, then I want to know.

 

Congrats to Selena Roberts for breaking this story--groundbreaking stuff for women sports reporters.

[endaround]

Except you'll never know thw truth. Its just coming out now how prevalent steroid use was in football in the 1960s, and thats in a sport where steroid use is ignored for the most part.

[Invader3K]

I think this is one of those things where people need to be reminded that steroids weren't even illegal in the US until about 1990.

[JimH5]

I think this is one of those things where people need to be reminded that steroids weren't even illegal in the US until about 1990.

I'm not sure where you're going with this. . .

Are you suggesting that A-Rod and others who took steroids after 1990 should be treated lightly? Should we not be concerned that they broke the law?

[Invader3K]

No, I was referencing the comments about supposed steroid use in the NFL in the '60s and stuff.

[TheCrew07]

I'm not sure why people think that football gets a free pass for it's issues? Steroids were in an issue in football long before baseball, the difference was that a high profile death and other happenings forced football to address the issue decades before baseball did. The players union in football doesn't carry near the clout that they do in baseball thus the testing policy has been largely effective. Obviously players will still cheat, but testing in football actually names the players in public, not only for roids but any banned substance. This was not the case initially with MLB. Steroid and drug use was a hot topic for a long time in relation to the NFL but over the last 20 years the talk has gone from illegal drug use in NFL to the thugish behavior of the players, hardly a week goes by without a player running a foul of the law.

 

Steroids are still a very serious issue at the high school and college level as testing programs are very expensive and schools are having a hard enough time supporting all of the sports programs the way it is. It's been talked about, but I doubt anything gets done on the testing front unless the funding comes from an external source.

 

It's somewhat disheartening that football and baseball continued to be compared against one another here in a disparaging manner. Other than being professional sports, there are very few similarities between the sports at all, and those who don't care for the NFL seem to have a little brother complex about the sport. I thoroughly enjoy MLB, NFL, college basketball/football, I'm not going to trash one for the others. I'm also a casual NHL and college hockey fan meaning that I follow what's happening but don't watch many games anymore. All sports have their issues college and pro, but to deny the obvious issues in MLB is a disservice to the truth. Baseball has some glaring issues that have needed to be addressed for some time, but change comes very slowly in baseball as evidence by them being the last league to implement any sort of meaningful testing procedure. Drugs have been prevalent in baseball going back to the 60s as well, I don't see the difference between roids and speed if they are both being used to give players an edge. Drug use continues to be news in baseball because of how it was handled and the biggest names in the sport in the last decade have been accused and/or caught, but few have owned up to it publicly. Farve is the last icon in football that I recall off the top of my head to be involved with drugs and it was his addiction to pain killers, but it wasn't a story for long because he owned up to it and the media moved on.

 

Drug use will be a major story line in MLB until the players from this era are accountable for their actions, the high profile and guilty players have only made the situation worse by lying about it and refusing to be held accountable. The tragedy to me is a guy like Bonds... it isn't that he cheated to break the home run record, it's that he was a hall famer without the roids, it seems he just wanted the attention he thought he was due so got invovled with PEDS to accomplish his goal, and now refuses to be held accountable for his actions. Would thete still be a media circus around him if he'd just have come clean initially? I think it would have blown over long ago in his case...

[JimH5]

Got it. . .I was looking for an opening to take a high and mighty posture. . .

 

Alas, denied.

[BrewCrewForever]

Why is everybody so confident that Griffey and Thomas never used any performance enhancing drugs? How can you possibly have any idea? Until just a few hours ago, many of you would have said the same thing about Rodriguez.

 

For a while now, I've just been presuming that few players, if any, were completely clean throughout their careers. I've just accepted it as being the norm during that era, and moved on.

Was I surprised about A-Rod? Yeah, a little. But I wasn't shocked. I would be SHOCKED if Griffey or Thomas tested positive for many of the reasons already stated.

[Ennder]

The two players that I think would be the biggest shock to me for steroids would be Griffey and Ripken. Thomas wouldn't really surprise me at all to be honest.

[PKBadger]

I'm not sure why people think that football gets a free pass for it's issues?

Probably because Shawne Merriman tested positive and was somehow still elected to the Pro Bowl in the same year. Can you imagine the same scenario playing out in MLB?

[logan82]

Why would Ripken be a surprise? Steroids are supposed to speed up recovery. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out he used. Nobody would surprise me.