Steroids: Does Everybody Use Them?

Back in the day during the 70s and 80s when you saw a guy hit 40 home runs you thought he was the best thing since sliced bread. When Reggie Jackson hit 41 home runs in 1980, everyone in New York and around the world thought he was the best player in the league. When it came to the postseason, he was " Mr. October" because he used to destroy the opposition in the playoffs with his ability to use his hitting to change up a game. When you see a player hit 40+ home runs in today's league you have to speculate whether or not they are on some kind of drug or performance enhancer. After Mark McGuire hit 70 home runs at age 34 and 65 home runs at age 35, there was a little speculation but after Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs at age 36, when most players that age are struggling to hit 25 home runs. That set it all off.

At first it looked like it might just be 1 or 2 guys who tarnished baseball's once innocent reputation but before you knew it, everyone who was anyone in baseball started confessing their use of performance enhancers. There is Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, A-Rod and Roger Clemens. These are just a couple of the guys who admitted to using performance enhancers.There are a whole bunch more who are linked to them. The most obvious and most talked about is Barry Bonds. He was linked to steroids from the time he hit 73 home runs. Personally I feel that guys like Bonds and McGwire who dominated the league for years for them to have used steroids is like a slap in the face and I feel that they have disgraced the game.

Guys like Ken Griffey Jr. who have never used or been linked to steroids have been given a bad name because you have to second guess everyone even the good guys like Griffey. He's hit over 600 home runs in his career and if he hadn't been hampered by injury all through his career he probably would've had over 700 home runs and he'd probably be trying to break Barry Bonds home run record.

I don't think that everybody uses steroids but I feel that because of everyone who did and still does, everyone both good and bad, is a suspect. That's just how it is.