well they will make you stronger, i'm not denying that.
i'm just saying that there are a lot of misconceptions about them.
i believe some of these guys, in the off season do three things.
eat a lot, workout heavy, and take roids, mostly testosterone.
(without just one of those three the effects will be very very little)
and they gain weioght and get bigger and stronger.
during the playing season they just can't do heavy workouts then go play baseball all night, it would mess up their game.
so theyre probably doing very little roids if any during the playing season, it would almost be pointless.
people think if you do a few cycles of roids you will become a monster.
yeah, you can, but only if you lift very heavy everyday and eat like a horse while doing heavy doses of them.
and for many, all the roids in the world won't change them, genetics are a big part of it
i used to be of the opinion, its not fair, ban them.
now i see it as just another tool available for atheltes to use, and acknowledge the fact that former players didn't have these advantages.
It's tough to argue that there aren't misconception, because there are a great deal of misconceptions.
That being said, the most beneficial way for a professional baseball player to utilize steroid would be to start in the off-season, coupled with an increase in an exercise program. But to not use them during the season would absolutely negate any benefit. That's exactly why you have to figure there is more to it.
Roughly 95% of the people who were caught were caught in season, and if you look at a typical MLB team schedule, you'd see why. First of all, MLB is the only major professional sport in the US that plays over 100 games per season, (162), and they do it in the shortest amount of time of any major sport (a little under 24 weeks). No other sport requires as much on a daily basis as baseball does, which at the professional level usually consists of:
1 - morning workouts, which are usually just players running early in the day
2 - 2-4 hours of Batting Practice, Fielding, and Baserunning practice
3 - post-game lifting if time allots, if not, it's usually done in the morning
4 - every 3rd day traveling to another city, usually at least 2 hour flight
5 - the estimate given last year was roughly 4 hours of sleep a night, on average
Steroids in the traditional sense are useless to a baseball player during the season, however they are
more valuable to a baseball player because of their tendency to lessen recovery time and lessen the impact of sleep deprivation, and fatigue in general. This is how the vast majority of baseball players used steroids, to recover faster.
You also have to realize that while genetics are certainly a foundation, they are by no means end all be all talent gauges. If that were the case, we'd see a much higher incidence of MLB family lines, however as it stands, that accounts for less than 5% of the players in MLB today. Genetics give you a start, but there is a great deal of scientific evidence that all concludes that steroids do indeed greatly enhance athletic ability, everything from strength to hand-eye coordination.
Bottom line: Steroids have a positive effect on athletic performance in the short to medium term.
