Exclusive- DR. Rock Editorial - BARRY BONDS

...( Thanks Dr. RocK)

OK, so now Barry Bonds is finally indicted. If he perjured himself its hard to deny that he committed a crime. It's hard to believe, but he could go to jail for this. But the bigger story is the use of steroids in sports. I really don't care if he or other athletes used steroids. There are a couple of things to consider for you baseball purists.

1. If Bonds used steroids, and so many other players used steroids, i.e. Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Brady Anderson, Jay Gibbons, Rafael Palmiero, etc. the list goes on and on, isn't the playing field level? Do you really have an advantage if everybody is using?

2. What can you conclude about the players who used steroids and did not become superstars? I'm talking about the minor leaguers and marginal players who got caught. These folks didn't get bigger, stronger, better. Heck, most didn't even make it to the major leagues.

3. If Barry Bonds' home run record deserves and asterisk next to it because Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Babe Ruth didn't use steroids, don't most records broken and set in modern times deserve an asterisk next to it? Ruth, Aaron, Frank Robinson, etc didn't work out year round either. They couldn't afford to. They had to get offseason jobs to support their families. In addition, the benfits of weight training and year round workouts were known or well accepted in the past. I wonder how many home runs Willie Mays would have hit if he hit the weight room regularly like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and most modern day major leaguers. The most Ruth did was 12 oz curls. Besides, maybe Ruth and other players used steroids. How do we really know if they used steroids or not? After all, not many people hit 660 home runs.

4. Bonds has never flunked a drug test.

5. Look at the difference between the head size of a young Barry Bonds and an older one, and a young Roger Clemens, and an older one. In fact look at the difference in the size of the head of your own father when he was 22, and now (if he is 50 or over).

6. Steroid use was not against baseball rules or even illegal, when Bonds and McGwire were accused of using them.

7. Should taking steroids really be a crime? Who is the victim here? It's certainly not like robbing a bank or murdering someone.

8. Steroids do not improve hand-eye coordination. Anyone who has played baseball knows that it takes a lot more than strength to hit a baseball 400 feet. If that were not true, then a lot more steroid users would be jacking up 40-50 home runs per year.

Rafael Palmiero's swing is what allowed him to hit 500 home runs. Besides, did he even look like a steroid user? At least Bonds is buff. If you use steroids and you don't work out, you get zero benefit, ask any bodybuilder.
I would like to think that my federal government has more important things to do with its time and my tax dollars than to get involved in a sport. How about hunger, education, war, the environment, genocide in Darfur. It reminds me of the witch hunt for Bill Clinton. The man got a blowjob, and people wanted to crucify him. I'm not advocating lying under oath or cheating on your wife, but lets be real, and lets remember the things that are really important.