Coffee's for closers...
by benmor78 on Apr 6, 2009 4:33 AM CDT
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PrintYou know what coffee is? It's not just the kickoff of one of the great movie scenes of all time. It's also a performance enhancer. And I don't mean, "wah wah, I get headaches and my vagina hurts if I don't get my coffee in the morning." I mean, it's a legitimate performance enhancer.
Exercise physiologists have studied caffeine’s effects in nearly every iteration: Does it help sprinters? Marathon runners? Cyclists? Rowers? Swimmers? Athletes whose sports involve stopping and starting like tennis players? The answers are yes and yes and yes and yes.
I've felt that the steroid controversy is ridiculous for some time. The furor about, say, HGH, even more so, considering the evidence suggesting HGH is "performance enhancing" is anecdotal at best, and the evidence that it's detrimental seems to be mounting.
But even if something is widely accepted as performance enhancing, like steroids, why should we care? Why are some things okay, and others not? Why was andro okay for a while but now it isn't?
The performance improvement in controlled laboratory settings can be 20 to 25 percent, Dr. Tarnopolsky said. But in the real world, including all comers, the improvement may average about 5 percent, still significant if you want to get your best time or even win a race.
It's stupid. It's the same blinkered, stupid thinking that goes into drug prohibition. Who gives a fig? Steroids or caffeine, why should we care? Baseball culture was apparently dominated by amphetamines for a significant amount of time, why is the current "steroid era" supposed to be some kind of dark time in baseball?
I hate this idea that athletes are supposed to be these mythical figures of purity. Jim Bouton said that if you gave a pitcher a pill and told him it would take five years off his life but he would win 20 games, he'd ask for a glass of water.
I say: take the steroids. Think it makes you a better ballplayer? Maybe it does. I don't care if you shrink your balls. Girlfriend put a hex on your glove? Maybe she did. Or maybe this whole thing is because sportswriters realize that sanctimony draws readers and politicians like to scowl indignantly into microphones during hearings on CSPAN.
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players whom steroids help:
those returning from injury
relief pitchers
its not like bonds went from alex sanchez (who was the first ever player busted) to babe ruth in 1 year because of steriods…
Scout: He was a first-round pick right? Got a huge bonus?
KG: Oh yeah.
Scout: Well, he spent a lot of it on milkshakes.
Bonds did go from someone
Who would hit 40 HRs to someone who could hit 70. And it shortened the recovery time from day to day which is significant for a man his age.
Bring on April 6th!
Yeah...
but my question is, so what?
"I know you're a bit dense but no, it doesn't. Obviously lying isn't a problem for me."
at what level does it become okay to juice?
minors? college? little league? i can just see the scouting report on a 18 year old dominican outfielder. “Strong arm, good range. Can hit for average. I think once we get him on an aggressive steroid program he could develop into a 80 homer, 180 rbi guy.”
If you're assuming
That steroids are legal, then I don’t see anything wrong with that.
If the guy doesn’t feel comfortable with it, he shouldn’t do it. If it’s a little kid, his parents should prevent him from doing that if it’s a problem to them. I have a hard time believing a little league coach could juice his kids without at least a couple parents finding out. And besides, there are a lot of substances which are legal for adults and illegal for children, and I don’t really why this couldn’t fit within that framework.
To me, the only things that should be regulated are those which, on balance, are more dangerous to others than to yourself (in the theoretical sense). So I really have no problem with regulations on alcohol because it’s pervasive, socially accepted, and causes a shit load of innocent deaths.
Yeah, we hear about a stray roid rage case every few years, but it seems to have a negligible impact upon society, and a devastating impact upon the individual.
And besides, to focus solely upon steroids is to miss the multitude of factors at work, including closer walls, better diets, better training, differences in the game, and just the random confluence of a handful of some of the greatest players ever playing in the same 20 year span.
by brettgardner on Apr 6, 2009 11:44 AM CDT up reply actions
i don't have a problem
with someone taking whatever drug they want if it is only hurting themselves. of course the assumption i’m making is that steroids have very significant health risks. i don’t think there have been long term double-blind studies on the effects of steroid use. but i would argue that if there were an open steroid use policy in the mlb, it would heavily influence players of all ages. it was all fine and dandy until Canseco shed the light on the widespread steroid use. now, at a minimum, they’ve got to at least appear to be a clean league.
At what level is it okay to do anything else potentially harmful to your body?
"I know you're a bit dense but no, it doesn't. Obviously lying isn't a problem for me."
You are thinking of HGH. And even then you're a little off. It helps recovery time, which is very important to those two category of players, but is also important to pretty much every other player, too.
Or at least that’s what I can figure.
I’m no expert, I just play one on this board.
The 40 Trumps All!!!
I love you, Marcus Lemon.
"I don’t have any respect for anybody on here. Everyone on here is a fucking asshole who thinks they’re god compared to everyone else." -iorange555.
Whenever Alex Sanchez comes up in the steroid/HGH debate
I always imagine him getting corticosteroids for rock bottom prices and him just wondering why it’s not making him stronger.
Your take on steroids is pretty myopic to me.
Plus, the caffeine story has already been broken on here, but your brother. What’s his name, Mumbly Joe… or whatever.
Don’t know why it needed to be brought up again.
But, okay.
The 40 Trumps All!!!
I love you, Marcus Lemon.
"I don’t have any respect for anybody on here. Everyone on here is a fucking asshole who thinks they’re god compared to everyone else." -iorange555.
Who reads anything Adam posts?
"I know you're a bit dense but no, it doesn't. Obviously lying isn't a problem for me."
Josey Wales,
thats who!! ha
In reference to this post. This has been addressed in NCAA baseball slightly. My soph yr we werent even allowed to drink energy drinks on the field. Now that doesnt mean guys didnt drink them at the field house and then walk down the field. Ive come to the conclusion that there will always be something out there that improves performance and ballplayers will find a way to utilize it. Apathy is permeating by being when it comes to this more and more.
Is that an NCAA rule...
or a school rule?
"I know you're a bit dense but no, it doesn't. Obviously lying isn't a problem for me."
I believe it
was an NCAA rule. The NCAA rules are actually fairly tight but they arent enforced well at all. I compare it to the speeding limit. Pretty much everyone speeds. Sometimes people are pulled over. Sometimes they are given tickets. However, many more ppl speed and get away with it than are caught. It would be impossible to pull over all the speeders.
they havent repealed the tobacco on field=forfit rule have they?
Scout: He was a first-round pick right? Got a huge bonus?
KG: Oh yeah.
Scout: Well, he spent a lot of it on milkshakes.
by knockoutking on Apr 6, 2009 11:20 AM CDT up reply actions
Energy drinks are awful.
They’re treated like supplements by the FDA, so there’s virtually no regulation. The overload of sugars and god knows what “energy enhancers” play around with your liver, kidneys, pancreas, and heart (and probably a couple of organs I’m forgetting).
I especially hated them late in games when I could see kids crashing or coming down from the high.
by NoNameOnCard on Apr 6, 2009 12:15 PM CDT up reply actions
Personally for me
I just want everybody to be on the same level, chemically that is.
Either nobody takes steroids, or everybody takes them. The grey area is the substances that are banned and then the substances that “help” but not enough to be considered a banned substance.
That's like saying...
everyone should use Barry Bonds’ body armor. Or everyone should use Mickey Tettleton’s batting stance.
"I know you're a bit dense but no, it doesn't. Obviously lying isn't a problem for me."
No
Those things do not effect the chemical balance in a humans body
by SaltyGoesYard on Apr 6, 2009 8:51 AM CDT up reply actions
So should we put all athletes on essentially the same diet?
"I know you're a bit dense but no, it doesn't. Obviously lying isn't a problem for me."
Which is why I stated there is a large grey area.
I’m not giving a solution, just a personal statement that I would prefer it be one way or the other which is impossible I know
by SaltyGoesYard on Apr 6, 2009 9:09 AM CDT up reply actions
Just the terms I chose to put it in I guess
Steroids, HGH. I’m not gonna pretend to know exactly what they do, and not just gonna say “Make you hit harder duhh!?!?”
I was just stating that they do effect every person on a cellular level that cannot be achieved from simply increasing muscle mass through hypertrophy or lifting weights.
Is there a legitimate correlation between increased muscle mass and improved statistical performance in baseball? I believe there is no proof of that at this time.
I was just simply stating that despite the evidence and proof at this time, I would rather have it all one way or all the other way. Not the steroid use itself, but the unknowning of who is using what is what sort of “taints” (I don’t even think the game is that tainted anyway if at all) the game a bit for me.
by SaltyGoesYard on Apr 6, 2009 9:51 AM CDT up reply actions
A-B-C...
…A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing, always be closing.
Rams plagued by fumbles as earthquakes rock Los Angeles. Film at eleven.
great title for the thread
but I don’t have much more to say on the issue.
today is opening day, and I know there is a little bullshit involved, but I still like to get caught up in the whole “purity” of the game ideal, if only for one day.
What is this, Horseville? Because I'm surrounded by naysayers.
but what's your latest take on the bullpen?
"He will not coddle them. Nolan Ryan doesn’t coddle." - Jeff Passan
Put that coffee down.
I'm Matt mutha-effing Bush, bitches, and mutha-eff East County.
"I'm as passionate and knowlegeable as any fan out there." Josey Wales
I've always been OK with players
using whatever they want to take.
I was hoping for the day we saw a 7’6" lefty that can bring it at 150 MPH.
"The idea that the Rangers are going to be a solid contender for a number of years is a fantasy." - Adam J. Morris
The more important question is....
which LSB posters use steroids for ‘posting enhancement?’
Obviously benmor78, but i also suspect spurdynasty, Chad Crudup, thedirkatron and brettgardener. But with the new season starting I feel it’s time to come clean….. tell the truth SaltyGoesYard, are you using?
i don't think caffeine boosts performance
day in and day out. i could see a starting pitcher get the most potential benefit, if he caffeinated only every fifth day. but still, it’s no comparison to steroids.
That's not what the article says.
"I know you're a bit dense but no, it doesn't. Obviously lying isn't a problem for me."
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