Mcgwire admits to steroid use during 1998 home run race

[burn_baby_burn]

This past year a new guy started working out at my gym (I go at 5:30 am so it is basically the same handful of people every day). He was ripped but not massive if you know what I mean, more of an athletic build than a body builder build. After a month or two I noticed that he seemed to be getting bigger but I thought it was in my head. Then I went away for a couple of weeks and when I came back this guy was massive. Huge everything and his neck was thick. He was squatting like 500lbs (8 - 45lb plates plus the bar), moving a tremendous amount of weight in his work outs. I have been going to the gym for a long time and I have never seen anybody pack on as much muscle in as short amount of time as this guy.

I saw this guy work out 5 days a week, not sure if he was going in the evening or not. After seeing that I find it hard to believe that steroids only allow you to work out more resulting in bigger gains. He was experiencing bigger gains because of the roids doing a similar routine as myself. His workout partner doing the exact same routine didn't show any significant gains in comparison.

[InstantDeath]

Ok seeing as how I am not an expert on this stuff – Im not trying to say that Im right or wrong or whatever – I maybe know a bit more than the average person, just because Im a big time baseball fan and, like everyone else, this whole steroids thing irks me and Ive done a lot of poking around about it (wouldn’t call it ‘research’).

But my two cents on the articles that troutman posted….

The ‘steroids-and-baseball’ site comes off like an apologist – rather – excuse maker for the steroid era in baseball. I genuinely understand where this sentiment comes from – its hard to accept that the sport you love has been ‘tainted’, depending on how you look at it, to the degree that it has been. He tries to argue that upper body strength has very little/nothing to do with power – this, to me is just asinine. Granted, much of the power comes from your legs – and all the torque and drive (which are required to hit the ball further) come from your legs. But whats left out of this article is bat speed. Having a jacked upper body – especially your lats, triceps, and upper back muscles – will most definitely help you get that bat around quicker. You get the bat around quicker, you make better swings, you hit the ball further – especially the fastball. And if you are able to connect more easily on a fastball, your HR numbers are going to jump. So his ‘ratio of upper to lower body strength’ is dubious, at best.

Think of it like this – a baseball swing is very similar to a golf swing. Why would Tiger want beefed up arms (through ‘alleged’ HGH use)? Because it increases his head speed on the club and allows him to use the power from his hips more effectively. Yes – the legs drive the power primarily. But to say that having upper body strength doesn’t translate into power is ridiculous. More from the golf comparison – go look at any of the top long drive guys – they all are jacked as hell.

Also – power increase aside – which there blatantly has been – despite his ‘adjusted power factor’ – (which makes absolutely NO sense, btw) – if you are able to play games that you normally wouldn’t because of an illegal substance getting you healthy, then you are going to get more HRs than normal.

This seems like common sense to me.

What also seems like common sense to me is just looking at the situation, without analyzing everything so deeply…….Just – what is your first instinct about the situation? Do you find it weird that Barry Bonds was just an unstoppable home run machine, and that it may have not been coincidence that he was linked to the Balco thing? Is it a little suspicious that his head looked like a god damn pumpkin? Is it a little suspicious that while his body seemed to be breaking down, making him a liability in the outfield, he actually increased his home run totals? And Sammy Sosa – who corked his bat – who was obviously on steroids…he hit 66 home runs. SIXTY SIX home runs. That is an IMMORTAL number in baseball - then all of the sudden the guy was a bum. He couldn’t hit, he couldn’t run, he couldn’t do much of anything.

I mean the list goes on and on – its all these guys, linked to steroids, who just put up these gaudy, insane numbers. Is that all coincidence? I mean, to me, its clear as day that it is not. And the numbers really should not count for anything.

Luckily, the writers who put guys into the hall of fame feel the same way, and none of these guys are making it. None of them. Except maybe ARod, because he admitted his usage of it during his career, and if he can prove he was clean while finishing up his last 8 years or whatever and grabs a couple more mvps, he can make it based on the merits of his ‘post-steroid’ career. This is beside the point though.

Bottom line here, is that I don’t see how you can possibly try to argue that steroids don’t increase power. Its pretty overwhelmingly obvious to me that they do – despite the pseudo science provided in that article.

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by InstantDeath

I mean the list goes on and on – its all these guys, linked to steroids, who just put up these gaudy, insane numbers. Is that all coincidence?

No it isn't a coincidence. When Cecil Fielder hit 51 home runs in 1990 it was a very big deal. First player to hit over 50 since 1977. Then within the decade we have players hitting over 60 with McGwire hitting 70? Its pretty easy to see what the difference maker was.

[RedHot25]

Originally Posted by Smell My Finger

apology means nothing the most telling answer to the question "did you use steriods for strength"?
"no i used them for health reasons"

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4849158

Dealer Contradicts Mark McGwire's Reason for Steriods
McGwire Wanted to be "Bigger"

A former trainer convicted of dealing steroids, who says he supplied Mark McGwire with steroids in the late 1980s, told ESPN on Thursday that the slugger's goal was to get "bigger, faster, stronger" to improve his performance on the field, contradicting recent statements by McGwire, who said he used the drugs to maintain his health.

...

When asked for his reaction to McGwire's claim that he only took steroids to stay healthy enough to play, Wenzlaff said: "I chuckled. If excelling and kicking ass on the field is the end result I guess that's a healthy, good feeling. But for health, there are other things you can take for health that are anabolic, but it wouldn't be that type of combination."

When asked about McGwire's goal for taking the array of steroids he recommended and provided to McGwire, Wenzlaff said, "As anybody -- bigger, faster, stronger."

He also said that he thinks the combination of drugs he provided for McGwire would help McGwire's hand-eye coordination.

...
The New York Daily News reported in March 2005 that, before 1990, Wenzlaff provided McGwire with the following drug recipe: ½ cc of testosterone cypionate every three days; one cc of testosterone enanthate per week; one-quarter cc of Equipoise and Winstrol V, every three days -- each to be injected into the buttocks.