Bonds’ indictment finally comes

Barry Bonds was finally indicted this past week on perjury charges. If convicted, Bonds could spend up to 30 years in jail.

Okay, time for me to get blasted again. I still am not convinced that Bonds knowingly took steroids. Hopefully, this trial will give the world some hard evidence that he did. It better, or else the perjury charges are going to fall faster than Lloyd Carr’s approval rating in Ann Arbor. All it is going to take is a small seed of reasonable doubt to get Bonds off too. Don’t believe me? OJ Simpson was found not guilty of much more serious crimes, and got off scotch free in the criminal trial, all thanks to reasonable doubt.

Maybe Bonds did take steroids. But, there is still a big elephant in the room. He has never, I repeat, NEVER tested positive for any steroid, stimulant, etc. Many other players have. Why is Bonds a scapegoat? Why not pick on players that have tested positive for banned substances. It makes no sense.

Regardless, I am eagerly awaiting the trial, much like I am awaiting the Michael Vick trial. Two great sports trials in the next year or so. Yay.

And anyways, Bonds will probably get stuck with a couple hundred hours of community service. That’s what most celebrities get. And we all know the problems with celebs in prison. Paris Hilton anyone?

Steroid (witch?)hunt in baseball

***Edit: Since writing this article in the afternoon, Byrd has admitted to using HGH for a medical condition. His explanation does NOT change my views of the subject.***

Sometimes I wonder how legit steroid allegations are.

In game four of this year’s ALCS, Cleveland Indians pitcher Paul Byrd went 5 innings, giving up only 2 runs. His strong performance was key in securing the Cleveland victory.

Less than a week later, Byrd has been accused of buying human growth hormone (HGH).

I do not condone steroid use, period. However, I find all these accusations a little fishy.

Sure, it’s pretty hard to deny that Barry Bonds took steroids. I mean, he even says he never knowingly took steroids, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t take them unknowingly. But what really gets me about the Byrd accusations is that they come only after he has been placed into the spotlight.

Why release such information only now? It’s obvious whoever released it wanted a story. And, of course, all this information comes from an unidentified source. Hmm, even things that have supposed good sources can turn out to be false. Why should we believe this one?

And this isn’t the first time this has happened either. Just over a month ago, Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel was accused of purchasing HGH as well. It just so happens that this occurred less than a week after he homered twice in a game. Why is that a big achievement you ask? Because Ankiel was a pitcher, and this season was his first since coming back up from the minor leagues.

I just think it’s rather ironic that all these steroid allegations come out following the success of a player. It seems like it would be very easy to fake these accusations just for the sake of news. Hopefully, the results of the Mitchell Investigation will sort all of this nonsense out. Until then, I will be taking everything with a grain of salt.

What will the ‘next’ thing be?

Gatorade has just announced that golf god Tiger Woods will have his own sports drink by early next year. “Gatorade Tiger”, as it will be called, will come in three different flavors picked by Woods himself.

What other endorsements might we see? I understand that Tiger is a very marketable figure, but naming a drink after him? I think that’s going a little far. What’s stopping companies from coming up with these products:

Michael Vick Dog Treats – Your dog is guaranteed to like them, or else.

Online Poker sponsored by Tim Donaghy – Well at least it’s not an NBA game.

Barry Bonds’ 3-Step Workout for Athletes – Step 1: Cream, Step 2: Clear, Step 3: Repeat

Video Cameras endorsed by Bill Belichick – I can see it now, “This camera is the only one that I’d use to cheat!”

For those of you who haven’t noticed, we now have a new domain name: http://www.speakgood.net . Thanks for reading!

Steroids "effect" on home run totals

With Barry Bonds blasting his record setting 756^th home run this season (the ball, by the way, is headed to Cooperstown with an asterisk on it), his supposed steroid use has been brought more and more into the public eye. And baseball’s recent foray into investigating the use of performance enhancers throughout the MLB has called into question the achievements of several big name players.

The recent increase in home run production is often attributed to these performance enhancers. But, if you examine statistics from the past 60 or so years, the numbers tell a different story.

If you compare the top home run totals in each league from 1940 to 2007, the numbers seem to prove steroids have had little effect on home run production. In that time span, 5850 home runs were hit by league leaders (multiple league leaders were not included). If you do the math, that works out to an average of 43 home runs a year.

Let’s assume that the steroid era began in 1986 (Jose Canseco’s first full season), so we’ll remove the numbers from ’86 and beyond. Evaluating and comparing these totals against the ones from our first calculations should tell us how much of an impact steroids have had on home runs.

From 1940 to 1985, 3724 home runs were hit by league leaders (again, multiple league leaders were not included), which equates to an average of about 40.5 home runs per season.

In essence, home run production has increased a mere 2.5 home runs on average since 1940. 2.5 home runs do not justify the argument that steroids bloated home run totals. Other factors, however, do account for this small jump.

For one, players are in much better condition today than back in the 40’s and even the 80’s. Though Babe Ruth’s career took place before the 40’s, his lack of conditioning is well known. Who knows how many home runs he could have hit if he was in top shape like today’s athletes. They spend hours conditioning to get stronger and faster. At one point, weightlifting was discouraged among baseball players, and it has now become common practice.

Hitting technique has also evolved since the 40’s. Today, people teach the rotational hitting approach, which basically involves dipping the back shoulder and having a slight upper cut. Barry Bonds, for example, employs this technique. Rotational hitting places an importance on the home run and numbers have risen accordingly. Before the rotational approach, people taught linear hitting, which results in more line drives and ground balls. Had the great hitters of the past used a rotational swing, it’s very likely that more home runs would have been hit.

Though it is often said that home run production has been extremely high in the past two decades, numbers say otherwise. A small increase in production is not the sole result of steroids, but one of better conditioning, technique, and other factors.