irunfromclones: What idiot puts alcohol in the same category as a federally banned controlled substance?
Is he kidding? Wow, this one's a big fat hanging curveball of truth for me to whallop... :) Anyway, here's the straight dope, my friends:
18th amendment to the US Constitution:Prohibited the manufacturing, importing, and exporting of beverage alcoholRatified Jan 16th, 1919, in effect on Jan 16th 1920.Repealed by the 21st amendment, ratified and in effect on Dec 5, 1933.
Babe Ruth: Career with the New York Yankees- the most productive of his career- lasted from 1920 through 1934 seasons14 complete seasons of those 15 Yankee years, Babe Ruth was under the influence of a federally banned controlled substance.
The conclusion is thus unavoidable: Babe Ruth played the majority of his
tainted career under the influence of a
federally banned controlled substance; he repeatedly and brazenly consumed an illegal, federally banned controlled substance in well-documented prodigious quantities during the full seasons of 14 consecutive years of his 15 in New York. Consider further:
1.) During this period of using a federally banned controlled substance, Babe Ruth clubbed 649 total homeruns- 91% of his career total- including setting a new single season HR record 3 separate times in 8 years, and hitting 50+ homeruns an unprecedented 4 times! While using this federally banned controlled substance, Babe Ruth put up power numbers that no one in the game came close to matching. 2.) Of particular note: in 1934, the first season since 1919 in which Babe Ruth did not use a federally banned controlled substance, his performance dropped dramatically: in 1934, his first year of not using a federally banned controlled substance, he hit 35% fewer homeruns than he had in 1933, and an incredibly 46% less than he had in 1932. That, my friends, is an incriminating dropoff. 3.) The nail in the coffin: In 1935, just a little more than a year and a half since he stopped using a federally banned controlled substance, he retired from the game altogether, his once-legendary power completely gone as he could only muster a mere 13% of his career average in homeruns.
A sad, sad story of an athlete who clearly benefitted from the habitual use of a federally banned controlled substance throughout the peak years of his career, setting records left and right that could arguably be claimed as fraudulent, and achieved only when Babe Ruth was under the influence of a
federally banned controlled substance. And to think... children looked
up to him! Oh, the shame of it all... :(
On a side note ESPN is doing a 10 part series about Barry on Barry.
Hal, you totally win the prize. As I said the other day. Let's wipe the record book clean of all cheaters and suspected cheaters until we can absolutely prove that they didn't cheat.
Thanks Hal, thats some sobering information.
until we can absolutely prove that they didn't cheat. fenriq, while I am in support of wiping (or at least segregating) the years 1991- 2005 from the record bood, if you can discover a way to prove a negative then I will nevermore post on SpoFi...
elovrich, that's pretty much exactly my point.
The question is, how to wipe the records of only a few players from the books without affecting everyone. For instance, Joe Blow, a pitcher, in the year 2012, is about to become the all-time strikeout leader, but 52 of his strikouts were against Bonds, Sheffield, Giambi (fill-in whatever name you choose). Since all of the aforementioned players records were wiped from the record book, do you count these Ks or not? Or, Speedy Gonzalez, is about to set the all-time runs scored record, but HE hit in front of any of the erased players, who knocked him in with regularity from drug-induced HRs, do you erase these runs? The only way that I can see to do this even-handedly (not to be confused with fairly) is to determine a period of time, I use 1991-2006 because 1991 was the first mention of steroids specifically being banned by a Commisioner and this year will hopefully end this ridiculous era, and not include ANY results from this time period for ANY career records. My apologies beforehand to Jimmy Rollins, and I wish him luck in breaking the consecutive-game hitting streak. Which brings up another question that is sure to get some play here on SpoFi over the next few weeks; Does a consecutive-game run extend over the break between two seasons.....you read it here first....(My thought is yes, it will count)
Forget changing records. It's a Solomon solution. If you want to do anything then decided records are set by era. Let Bonds own the Seroids Era. I like how SABR addressed this issue:
Of course there is no asterisk next to Maris's name, and there won't be one next to the accomplishments of any of the accused players. This is not to say that many people won't make mental adjustments to these records and determine to their own satisfaction just how valid they are. However, while everyone is entitled to his own set of opinions, everyone is not entitled to his own set of facts. A record is a record is a record. It is not our role to decide the purity of the conditions under which those records were achieved. We are not moralists. Our role as SABR's Baseball Records Committee is strictly to make the numbers as accurate as we can.
