OTC: Bill James Says Steroids Taboo Too Shall Pass
“It is my opinion that, in time, the use of steroids or other Performance Enhancing Drugs will mean virtually nothing in the debate about who gets into the (Baseball) Hall of Fame and who does not.”
Bill James, noted baseball writer, www.billjamesonline.com
GH: James (a native of Holton, Kansas and a KU grad) is a well-respected baseball writer who is credited as the father of the baseball sabermetrics, the search for objective knowledge about baseball. Or put another way, the number geeks’ baseball bible on predicting which players will be productive and which will not. Read on for more of James’ head-snapping take on steroids.
“One of the characteristics of the steroid era was that we had several dozen players who continued to improve beyond the normal aging time frame, so that many of them had their best seasons past the age of 32. … But what does this mean? It means that steroids keep you young. You may not like to hear it stated that way, because steroids are evil,
wicked, mean and nasty and youth is a good thing, but…that’s what it means. Steroids help the athlete resist the effects of aging.”
Bill James, www. www.billjamesonline.com
GH: No different than that Noxema cream that June Cleaver slapped on her face each night to keep Ward from wandering.
“If you look into the future 40 or 50 years, I think it is quite likely that every citizen will
routinely take anti-aging pills every day. How, then, are those people of the future—who are taking steroids every day—going to look back on baseball players who used steroids? They’re going to look back on them as pioneers. They’re going to look back at it and say, ‘So what?’ ”
Bill James, www. www.billjamesonline.com
GH: “Time is the fire in which we burn.” A great line from Malcolm McDowell’s character, Dr. Tolian Soran, in a 1994 Star Trek, Generations movie. Time is an insatiable furnace. Gloves were once banned in baseball. Blacks were once taboo in baseball. Will the cloud that surrounds steroids dissipate as well?
“You can like it or you can dislike it, but your grandchildren are going to be steroid users. Therefore, they are very likely to be people who do not regard the use of steroids as a moral failing. They are more likely to regard the banning of steroids as a bizarre artifice of the past.”
Bill James, www. www.billjamesonline.com
GH: James will one day be looked back upon as the Babe Ruth of understanding baseball. I am guessing that Dayton Moore and his struggles to understand “defensive statistics” will not.
“Once we move away from the one extreme, in my view, we will begin to drift inevitably toward the other. I would liken this to attitudes about sexuality and television. At one point there was a firm consensus that there was no place for sex on TV. Married couples, on TV, slept in twin beds. The first departures from this firm position were small and insignificant… Once there was no longer a firm consensus at an extreme position, there was a fluid standard that moved inevitably toward more and more openness about sexuality.”
Bill James, www. www.billjamesonline.com
GH: I never understood why Darrin was sleeping in that little twin bed when he was married to that hot witch, Samantha – until we learned later from the tabloids that Darrin was more attracted to Durwoods than damsels.
“History will rally on the side of the steroid users in the same way that it has rallied on the side of Dick Allen, Joe Jackson, Orlando Cepeda, Hack Wilson and many others.
But with the steroid users, we are not talking about a single isolated ‘offender’, but about a large group of them, representing the bulk of the dominant players of
their generation.”
Bill James, www. www.billjamesonline.com
“The end of the day here is about the year 2040, perhaps 2050. It will come upon us in a flash. And, at the end of the day, Mark McGwire is going to be in the Hall of Fame, and Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa, and Rafael Palmeiro, and probably even Barry Bonds. I am not especially advocating this; I simply think that is the way it is.”
Bill James, www. www.billjamesonline.com
GH: Somebody get Jose Guillen a syringe and send him and his perforated backside back out to right field.
greghall24@yahoo.com and www.Twitter.com @ greghall24
July 28th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Wow. I have always liked and respected Bill James but who knew he could predict the future. I’m not saying he is wrong by any means, but to say the things he did with such certainty is certainly surprising. To not even consider the “other side” of the steroid argument (that they don’t necssarily lessen the effects of ageing, that they cause lots of other physical problems for the sake on healing muscle damage, etc.) and think that those issues might turn the tide against steroids is maybe a little irresponsible. Again, he may be correct and we may, because of research being done in the lab of pro sports today, come up with a true “fountain of youth,” but it strikes me as being every bit as likely that there will be a greater anti-PED backlash than we are seeing right now.
July 28th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Steroids are like cocaine…they make you feel like a new man the only problem is the new man wants to do some too. Steroids can’t keep you young forever and that’s a fact that no one can dispute. There are a wide variety of natural, herbal and synthetic supplements that have the same effect as steroids, just not as quickly, with far less long term health risk. In sports everybody looks for an edge, legal or otherwise. The profession has already been tainted and embarassed by man-children that can’t cope with reality on or off the field. I disagree that we’re going to sweep it all under the rug.
The better option to consider is that by 2040 sports will have been greatly diminished in our culture and nobody will give a shit. Read Megatrends 2000 by John Naisbitt for an interesting take on that point of view. Knowledge is POWER, not jacking a ball 500′ or a free throw line take off 720 double reverse slam.
July 28th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
FYI Greg-What’s worse is that both Darrin’s were that way and I always wondered about Larry. And of course Paul Lynde.
Very interesting take one in which I hadn’t considered. Anyone see the steroid movie I think it was called Bigger, Faster, Stronger?
July 28th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Here’s my take:
Yes, years from now, we will say “So what?”, but that doesn’t let Clemens, Sosa and A-Rod off the hook.
During the time these guys were juicing, SOCIETY saw these drugs as illegal, against the rules, and therefore CHEATING.
If in 20 years we decide that betting on sports is OK, does that absolve the actions of the 1919 Black Sox, or Pete Rose? NO. If baseball said it was OK to cork your bat, does that make Sammy Sosa’s bat less illegal? NO.
Because they KNEW they were cheating.
If these players were ADMITTING to steroid use and advocating their use, this might be different. Instead, guys like Bonds and Palmeiro used steroids and did everything they can to hide it, so they can’t really be considered “health pioneers”.
July 28th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Well said CM. Approached from another perspective, if everyone is on steroids, everyone’s stats improve and they’re all competing with each other on an even field within their own era.
The only problem is, the players aren’t doping then to compete with each other. They are doping to make themselves look better against historical numbers put up by players that didn’t cheat.
It’s ultimately a very sad statement of our views on sport, and it’s even sadder that one of the traditionlists the game has around today, James, failed to acknowledge that salient fact.
July 28th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Greg,
Ward Cleaver only “wondered” why he’s married to a greasy-faced old bag that wears pearls to bed, and if Miss Landers likes it doggy style.
July 28th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Uncle Dick,
I was born under a wandering star that can’t spell.
July 29th, 2009 at 5:01 am
Sports is entertainment. There’s no prohibition in surgically enhanced actors and actresses or studio processed music artists from winning awards, should their performances — which in some cases would not have existed without artificial means — merit them. If athletes want to encounter the risks associated with the use of steroids in order the advance their careers and improve the market value of themselves and their product, then does it make any sense to deny them the subjective honors they are accorded?
If that’s the case, then rather than denying them entrance to the Hall of Fame — which most steroid-using athletes would never attain with or without PEDs — then why not vacate the titles their teams won due in part to the advantage they gained from their player(s) PED use? Since there’s been no public outcry that this be done, one can only assume that the outrage against steroid use is limited to specific athletes/entertainers for other, subjective reasons.
July 29th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Would Tom Watson have been able to compete for the British Open Championship without the aid of an artificial hip. Is that a performance enhancer? Just asking. By the way–Larry Tate’s wife was pretty hot. And did you notice how much people drank on those shows?
July 29th, 2009 at 8:20 am
While I never questioned which team Larry Tate played for, I was also pretty sure Uncle Arthur (Paul Lynde) was a switch hitter.
Speaking of drinking shows, Mad Men does a great job of depicting the 1960s as a decade of daylight drunkeness. Every office meeting or encounter is highlighted with a trip to the liquor cabinet.
July 29th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Madmen is the best show on TV! If we could only revert back to the 60’s where women were objectified, drinking and smoking in the workplace was a norm, and everyone wore a nice suit and fedora.
Signed,
Don Draper
July 29th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Maybe James is going in this direction because his ‘04 Red Sox championship team was filled with steroid abusers? Just look at their roster from that year and tell me who wasn’t juicing
July 30th, 2009 at 1:35 am
James is correct about the negative hysteria that surrounds the term “steroids”. Doctors regularly prescribe anabolic steroids to patients suffering wasting syndrome from aids or certain other disease. Steroids in all likely hood did not kill Lyle Alzado,they do not shrink your penis and do not make otherwise sane person beat old ladies.Any chemical manipulation of the human body can have dangers. And some PEDs have much greater risk than others, for sure. But many of the indignities that people shout are just ridiculous. In the future it will be viewed as just another aspect of athletic training. Weight training,sports nutrition, sports psychology,physio-mechanics were all viewed with skepticism when first introduced. Twenty years ago most baseball guys wouldn’t lift weights because they thought it would limit agility! This is not to excuse the guys who broke the rules,rules are rules, it is to say those rules will be viewed as archaic in the not to distant future.
July 30th, 2009 at 10:11 am
WOW Tibor we disagree on this issue. Since part of my knowledge and back ground is professional wrestling (Stop the snickering)which has rampant storied use I think I can speak to some of these issues. Yes steroids cause penis shrinkage. By the way I hate that word. I mean doesn’t penis sound small when you say it. Hulk Hogan got out of testifing in a steroid case because it would of been revealed that due to his steroid usage he was now taking drugs to correct his penile shrinkage.
The Rock’s steroid usage caused bit*h t*ts. So he had to have surgery for their removal.
Talk to Superstar Billy Graham and ask him if he believes all of his physical problems have been the result of severe steroid usage.
So yes I believe their is a lot of evidence that shows steroids are not good for you.
Boy my memory is bad. I can’t even remember Larry’s wife. And they drank all the time because the men were desiring each other but were forced to be with these women.
July 30th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Lost and Damages are the best shows on TV.
July 30th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
duh that was suppose to be rampant STEROID use. Give me some smart pills.
July 30th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Administering large amounts of testosterone will cause the brain to shut down production in the testicles causing atrophy(decrease in size while not in use). Doctors regularly give testosterone to older men to help sexual function.On the other hand some other steroids(deca-durabolin) will cause chronic ED. But no, I repeat no steroids, cause penile tissue to disappear! And there are no drugs to make grow either. Gynecomastia may result from certain steroids taken in an irresponsible manor, but can easily be avoided. As with any chemicals or drugs that may be beneficial within a certain range they can become harmful if used improperly.
August 2nd, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Tibor. You are playing with semantics. Original quote. “They do not shrink your penis”. New quote “Causing atrophy decrease in size while not in use.” Ahh…no matter what term you use that is that is shrinkage. No one mentioned anything about penile issue disappearing. I concur that any drug can be misused. I guess where you and I disagree is you are of the belief that when it comes to sports relation in general most use steroids properly. I would not concur with that. I think those that use abuse.