The Missed Lesson of Steroids in Baseball

[Gene61]

Now that Football season is over, some of us who aren't into B-ball start thinking of Baseball season. This year, being a newbie lifter, I started thinking about how it is "common knowledge" that baseball players shouldn't lift. I've tried to explain what utter nonsence this is to my buddies, but get booed down. Then it occurred to me that if Mark McGuire, Jose Canceco and Barry Bonds rescued their careers and went on to set records by taking steroids, there is only one thing the steroids did: it helped them get big and strong. But, of course, a player can get big and strong without steroids: just lift, and the earlier in their career the better! If there is one thing the steroids scandal did, it was prove that engaging in strength training is good for a baseball player's career.

Most everyone missed it.

[Mark Rippetoe]

This is usually missed by athletes in all sports that rely on steroids. All of them.

[MattJ.D.]

what amazing fucking logic this is...so simple yet it reveals so much

[Karl Schudt]

I was listening to sports radio, and heard about the exciting plan to get a White Sox pitcher to hold up better through the long season: "aerobic training."

How in the hell is aerobic training going to prevent a dead arm? The kid should lift weights and eat. It's like they've never heard of Terry Forster or Fernando Valenzuela.

It's nearly as bad as when I heard Joakim Noah's trainer likes Crossfit. No wonder the kid is injured all the time.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Apparently, strength and conditioning as a science and a profession is still in its infancy.

[tertius]

I thought the lesson of "Steroids in Baseball" was that Congress loves to find ways to look busy and get a chance to bloviate to the press without having to do anything that involves actual governing.

But yeah, that strength training will make baseball players better at their sport is a good takeaway too.

[LimieJosh]

It isn't "common knowledge" that baseball players should not lift. If what you mean is your conversations with your friends are impacted by them holding this opinion then the issue is simply that they have a stupid opinion and one that is at odds with what actually happens. Baseball players typically appreciate the value of strength and so spend time strength training and that is an attitude that predates the appreciation that the long ball era was steroid enhanced.


value strength and so typically

[David Lee]

Apparently, strength and conditioning as a science and a profession is still in its infancy.

In professional sports, yes. To the general public, it's in utero.

[sbhikes]

Are you guys serious? Pro baseball players don't lift? I do not follow any spectator sports so I honestly did not know this.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I thought the lesson of "Steroids in Baseball" was that Congress loves to find ways to look busy and get a chance to bloviate to the press without having to do anything that involves actual governing.

The image of that pompous cocksucker John McCain holding forth about a subject he knows much less than absolutely nothing about will be forever burned into my memory.