Steroids: What Does Hammer Think?
fred williamson takes on the steroid witch hunt
2007-11-26

I don't understand the big deal over Barry Bonds or baseball. The only people who like baseball are people who don't like football. Anybody who likes football hates baseball. Baseball is a sport with incidental contact. America likes contact. You don't need muscles to play baseball, so there's not much of a reason to build up muscle.

Athletes consider steroids because they supposedly give you a way to make yourself a bigger, faster, better performer. But, I wonder if steroids really do what they claim to do. Why don't they give Marion Jones credit for just being in shape?

I don't understand why Jones admitted to taking them: If you don't catch me, I didn't do it. Steroid use was never proven in Marion's case. Same thing with Barry Bonds. They did random testing, and they came up with nothing. This was purely guilt by association. Association with [pharmaceutica company] Balco.

Balco has admitted that they made "The Clear," and then they started naming names. Balco has that
list.

Besides, hand-eye coordination is the real skill in baseball. You know what muscle mass is? It's bulk. Know what it does? It slows down reflexes, cuts down on speed. But, you can't really talk about Barry Bonds and his athletic ability until you prove he took steroids. It took many years to break Hank Aaron's record. Does that mean that Hank Aaron took steroids? We need steroids to achieve what was done 20 years ago? No way.

Makes you wonder how back in the day,  guys did so well and set all those records. Challenges every record ever made, ever done. If it took 20 years to break it, what was that about? When I played there were pep pills, vitamin B shots -- all placebo. Athletes were accomplishing great feats long before steroids.

A lot of these sports writers seem to be pining away for some lost day of "pure" sports. Was sports ever pure? If there were any enhancements back then, there was no way to prove it. They just recently started doing drug testing. For the first time, they're doing drug testing in golf.

If steroids do what they claim to do, why not look at [Mark] McGuire? How come now we're narrowing it down to Barry Bonds?  Only because Balco is pulling names out of the phone book. Where is Balco getting these names from?

Nobody has come up positive. Marion Jones gave enough urine to kill 22 rabbits. Tested her, found nothing. Bonds was seeking supplements. He says he took "The Clear. " Jones says she took it. But, if it's not detectable, how can you prove it?

Marion Jones? There's something wrong with this story. The Olympics were in 2000. They have done everything to connect her, nothing was proven. What is the motivation on her part? They need to drug test her now, because she's on something to make her come out of the closet like
that. They don't have the right to take the medals away from the other girls. They haven't proven anything. It's just hearsay.

Is steroid use as predominant as they would have us believe? Depends on the sport. If it is rampant, you will probably find it more in sports that are individually motivated, like track. Not a team sport. In a team sport, you can always blame a blown touchdown on the guy next to you. If it happens too many times, you might start looking for help -- after all, that's your livelihood.

But sports like tennis, track, skiing -- you're probably more vulnerable.

Got comments for Hammer? Bring it. He will gladly set you straight?