Reggie on Steroids

[NJYANKEE]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1756472

Sorry, I'm not sure how to link the article. Reggie essentially said that he's suspicious of all of the home runs that have been hit recently and specifically mentioned Bonds. He also said that the Players Association should allow testing.

Now, I know it's best to take anything Reggie says with a grain of salt, but for some reason a lot of what he said rings true to me in a common sense kind of way. In 60 + years the home run record moved exactly 1 place on 1 occasion by 1 player. Yet in the past 5 years or so it's gone up by 12, been exceeded by 3 different players (and some on multiple occasions)?

Just seems fishy

[Crash Course]

Reggie, I think, at times suffers from the Joe Namath disease. I saw him interviewed (on YES) after the A-Rod "welcome to the Yankees" press conference, and, while he did not ask anyone to kiss him, he seemed to be having a really good time. I wonder if these quotes came at a time when he was feeling a little groovy?

[KCBOOMER]

Reggie is really echoing the fans line. Might also be a little miffed/jealous that the numbers being generated today are way over what went on in his day.

[bqtrain]

Now, I know it's best to take anything Reggie says with a grain of salt, but for some reason a lot of what he said rings true to me in a common sense kind of way. In 60 + years the home run record moved exactly 1 place on 1 occasion by 1 player. Yet in the past 5 years or so it's gone up by 12, been exceeded by 3 different players (and some on multiple occasions)?

Just seems fishy

In the beginning of the 1980s, America went through a "fitness revolution." Basically, phyical fitness was being stressed for everyone regardless of their profession or sex. Because of this, the amount of money being put into the research of fitness increased exponentially. What we've seen ever since then is that our athletes are in much better condition. I think most people don't realize that baseball players were generally not encouraged to lift weights before 1980. If you've ever lifted weights for an extended period of time, you should understand what an enormous difference weight lifting has on overall fitness. If you go into a gym now, you will find a whole bunch of people who work normal jobs who are in better physical condition than baseball players from the 70s and prior years. To ignore this change is well, just plain ignorant. Also, when you look at league home run totals from 1984 to 2003, they've increased from 3258 to 5207. It isn't just the top home run hitters that are increasing their totals, it's every player in the league. Since the average player is now much stronger and hitting more home runs, doesn't it logically follow that the best home run hitters from this era would eventually break the home run record? Had Babe Ruth and company been privy to the scientific advancements that have occured in physical fitness, they would have easily hit more than 61 home runs. They lived in a different era and thats the main difference. I'm not trying to say that steroids have played no part in the amount of home runs being hit but all of the evidence suggests that the effect of steroids on muscle mass is pretty minimal when proper doses are taken, like an average of 4 pounds of muscle mass and it could be argued that this is due to placebo. When you take unsafe amounts of steroids, the effects are larger but the negative side effects are much larger. So, I guess you could believe that every player in baseball since the 80s was taking unsafe amounts of steroids or you could believe that every player in baseball is in much better physical condition because of scientific achievements in fitness. Another point I ought to bring up is that the size of contracts has increased exponentially with TV revenue, meaning that the amount of money the average athlete spends on physical fitness is much larger than before. I think one of the main things driving the steroid controversy is that older fans feel threatened that the accomplishments of the players they grew up with seem diminished (exactly what Reggie Jackson is afraid of in regard to his own accomplishments). The fact of the matter is that hitting home runs isn't what makes a good offensive player. If all you see when you see a good offensive player is the number of home runs they've hit, you don't understand baseball.

[NJYANKEE]

Might also be a little miffed/jealous that the numbers being generated today are way over what went on in his day.

I have no doubt that this is a big factor, we all know Reggie is his own biggest fan.

However that doesn't mean that it might not have some truth. But to stick to the thread topic, I just find it interesting to hear a HOFer actually come out on the record and say what a lot of people are thinking. I don't remember hearing any other all time great comment on this yet - but that might have something to do with the gag order :D

[Crash Course]

I dunno bqtrain. Jimmie Foxx never lifted weights, as far as we know. Lou Gehrig too. But, those guys had bodies like people who worked out a lot - because of the ways they lived their lives. Reggie, actually, was someone who worked out - - a ton. In his day, he was considered as having a muscular body. Yet, Foxx, Gehrig and Reggie never hit the HR frequencies that Bonds has reached. There could be something there.

[sweaver]

We have also come through a historically high period for home runs. There were a lot of reasons for that, and steroids may be one reason, but only one. You also have to count the squeezed strike zone, smaller parks, etc.

[bqtrain]

I dunno bqtrain. Jimmie Foxx never lifted weights, as far as we know. Lou Gehrig too. But, those guys had bodies like people who worked out a lot - because of the ways they lived their lives. Reggie, actually, was someone who worked out - - a ton. In his day, he was considered as having a muscular body. Yet, Foxx, Gehrig and Reggie never hit the HR frequencies that Bonds has reached. There could be something there.

Actually, Jimmy Foxx did lift weights and probably was one of the first baseball players to do this even though people didn't believe this was good for his playing. However, if you compared the bodies of past athletes which were in great condition for their day to the modern athlete, there really is no comparison. While there is no statistics regarding muscle mass/body fat ratios between eras that i'm aware of, i'm sure the ratio for the modern athlete is far superior to that of the people in their era, even for the athletes in the best condition of their day. I mean, to compare the fitness of Foxx, Gehrig or Reggie to Barry Bonds, A-Rod, Sosa, or Pujols, there really is no comparison. They just did not have the information regarding nutrition and exercise programs that we have now. Even though Reggie Jackson's exercise program may have been great for his day, exercise and nutrition programs today are so far superior. Look at a guy like David Boston in the NFL who was able to gain like 20 pounds of muscle without losing any speed. His trainer lives in his house, he does ridiculous workouts everyday and he takes tons of vitamins and supplements. These are resources that people 20 years ago did not have. 20 years ago, you did not have athletes living with trained professionals in nutrition. Also, if you look at Barry Bonds home run / PA ratio you'll find that ever since he started working out hard core with Greg Anderson in 1998 it started to increase after pretty much plateauing for a few years. If you really want to understand the changes in baseball and the changes in every sport over the past 20 years, baseball is not the only sport undergoing changes because of physical fitness, you need to understand the changes in personal fitness over the past 20 years. The only reason I have a cursory understanding of it is because I took a class a year ago and the fitness boom of the 80s was one of the topics. Also, ever since I've gotten to college I've just generally been more interested in physical fitness. I just get the feeling that people really don't grasp how advanced we've come in terms of physical fitness and the effect this has had on all of sport.

[SmedIndy]

But remember the strike zone was called differently - there were more ashtrays to play in - and it was a different game in the 70's. It sounded like Ty Cobb accusing Babe Ruth of juicing...