John, Don and I gathered to watch the next segment of the Ken Burns’ baseball documentary, ‘Tenth Inning’, which picked up in the early ‘90’s and focused on the steroid era. As it does with all baseball statisticians, this got the three of us to discussing the inflated power numbers this era generated and whether and how it affects the Hall of Fame. As is the cycling controversy regarding performance enhancing drugs, the question becomes how wide spread was their use. In baseball it must be remembered that, until the early 2000’s, there was no testing for PED’s and their use wasn’t banned. In other words, players using them, unlike the riders in the Tour de France, weren’t cheating. We discussed at great length how ALL power hitters in this era were likely using, but agreed that some of them would have achieved Hall of Fame numbers without steroids. Barry Bonds was already there when he is supposed to have began using, as an example. He would easily have been a first ballot (elected the first year he was eligible…five years after retiring) HOF’er, and rightfully so. Now, he will never get elected. There are half a dozen players that fill the same bill and I think it’s a shame that they’ll never get in. I suppose there could be a way of looking at their numbers and subtracting 20% of their production to account for the steroids, and if after that, their numbers are still good enough…put them in. It wasn’t their fault that baseball retrospectively condemned the use of performance enhancers. If they stopped using when they were outlawed by the league, they should not be penalized.
I
spent an hour on the bike and another hour shoveling, so I managed to burn some
calories before eating the spaghetti and garlic bread dinner. I did wash it down with a smoothie, at least.
Bike duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart
Rate: 120 bpm.Calories burned during workout: 850.
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