Jump to content

Scott Gray (CT) Commentary - Brady Anderson the Steroids Poster Child


Jagwar

Recommended Posts

I heard this sports commentary driving to work this morning on Connecticut WTIC 1080. I just about tried to strangle Scott Gray through the airwaves.

http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2013/08/09/sports-commentary-8913-the-poster-boy/

The pressure under which Anderson entered his first major league season was unfair. Unlike Yaz, he did buckle, and he was shipped to the Orioles, who held the same high expectations and felt they?d come to fruition once Anderson was out from under the intense media scrutiny in Boston. This time when Anderson succomed to the pressure, and the way he responded, would mark the beginning of a dark era in Major League Baseball, which has yet to get out from under the cloud. In 1996 Anderson lived up to his advance billing by hitting 50 home runs. There was only one group of people on the planet that didn?t smell a rat.
Baseball historians, the ones who still care about the integrity of the game, now designate 1996 as the beginning of the ?steroid era?, and Brady Anderson as the poster boy of the dawn of it all.

:angryfire:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 95
  • Created
  • Last Reply
Do baseball historians REALLY designate that, because I think that's horse hockey. Canseco founded the 40/40 club in 88. And if you ask me Canseco is the poster child.

I posted this in the comment section

So... you have proof I assume that Brady Anderson used steroids, right? Because hitting 50 HR in a single season, and never doing it again, is slam dunk positive evidence. And if steroids were responsible for his 50 HR season, did he just decide he wasn't going to use them anymore for the rest of his career?

Hey Scott... by all means, tell us which "baseball historians" have ever gone on record saying that Anderson was the poster child of the steroids era?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1971-1978 - Tom House

House said that he used steroids during his eight-year Major League career, though he wasn't specific about which years. House estimated that "six or seven pitchers on every staff were fiddling with steroids or hGH" while he was playing. Tom House also says that steroids were rampant in the 1960's. This comment represents the earliest date that steroids were implicated in baseball. While this time-frame seems reasonable, House was still in the minor leagues at that time.

http://thesteroidera.blogspot.com/2006/08/earliest-accounts-of-steroids-and-hgh.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1971-1978 - Tom House

House said that he used steroids during his eight-year Major League career, though he wasn't specific about which years. House estimated that "six or seven pitchers on every staff were fiddling with steroids or hGH" while he was playing. Tom House also says that steroids were rampant in the 1960's. This comment represents the earliest date that steroids were implicated in baseball. While this time-frame seems reasonable, House was still in the minor leagues at that time.

http://thesteroidera.blogspot.com/2006/08/earliest-accounts-of-steroids-and-hgh.html

Steroids swept through the SWC football programs (and presumably other conferences as well) during the early-mid '70s. It makes no sense to assume that baseball was somehow magically immune to the allure of increased strength and endurance virtually overnight - the calling card of steroids at the time.

That being said, it would nice if a few more people stepped forward to corroborate House's claims as to the widespread use of steroids during that era.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1971-1978 - Tom House

House said that he used steroids during his eight-year Major League career, though he wasn't specific about which years. House estimated that "six or seven pitchers on every staff were fiddling with steroids or hGH" while he was playing. Tom House also says that steroids were rampant in the 1960's. This comment represents the earliest date that steroids were implicated in baseball. While this time-frame seems reasonable, House was still in the minor leagues at that time.

http://thesteroidera.blogspot.com/2006/08/earliest-accounts-of-steroids-and-hgh.html

Total BS. Human growth hormone wasn't even produced in sufficient quantities to sell until 1985. It's chemical structure wasn't even quantified until 1971. Total garbage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Steroids swept through the SWC football programs (and presumably other conferences as well) during the early-mid '70s. It makes no sense to assume that baseball was somehow magically immune to the allure of increased strength and endurance virtually overnight - the calling card of steroids at the time.

That being said, it would nice if a few more people stepped forward to corroborate House's claims as to the widespread use of steroids during that era.

House would have needed a time machine to use HGH in the 1970's. either he was misquoted, he's a liar, or just plain confused. The HGH claims are unequivocally not possible. HGH was incredibly difficult to isolate in any quantity until in cell production was developed in the mid 80's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.




  • Posts

    • Thanks for the detailed explanation of all of the issues.  Sounds like a mess.
    • Yeah the amenities are pretty outdated at the yard and they seem to do nothing year over year to improve them. The touchscreens have been banged on to death to the point they barely function, so you can't accurately fill out your order at the kiosks, and they don't have a way for the people behind the counter to ring you up at many of the food places. The sound is low to non-existent in certain sections of the club level, like around 218. Seems like there should be speakers that reach there but they might have been damaged by rain, etc. and they are too lazy to fix them. If you go to a game that's even slightly busy, you will wait forever to get into the bathroom, and the sink will be an absolute mess with no soap or paper towels. It's even worse on the club level where they have one sink that's right by the door. Nearby businesses don't care, either. The Hilton parking garage reeks of decay, pot and human waste. They don't turn on the air circulation fans, even if cars are waiting for an hour and a half to exit from P3, filling up the air with carbon monoxide. They only let you enter the stadium with one 20 oz bottle of water. It's so expensive to buy a drink or water in the stadium, but with all the salty food, 20 oz of water isn't enough, especially on a hot day. Vegetarian food options are poor to none, other than things like chips, fries, hot pretzels and the occasional pizza. Vida Taco is better, but at an inconvenient location for many seats. The doors on the club level are not accessible. They're anti-accessible. Big, heavy doors you have to go through to get to/from the escalators, and big, heavy doors to get to your seats, none of them automatic (or even with the option to be automatic with a button press). Makes it hard to carry food out to your seats even if not handicapped. The furniture in the lounges on the club level seem designed to allow as few people as possible to sit down. Not great when we have so many rain delays during the season. Should put more, smaller chairs in and allow more of the club level ticket holders to have a seat while waiting for thunderstorms to pass. They keep a lot of the entrance/exit gates closed except for playoff/sellout games, which means people have to slowly "mooooo" all the way down Eutaw St to get to parking. They are too cheap to staff all the gates, so they make people exit by the warehouse, even though it would be a lot more convenient for many fans to open all the gates. Taking Light Rail would be super convenient, except that if there's at least 20k fans in attendance, it's common to have to wait 90-120 minutes to be able to board a non-full train heading toward Glen Burnie. A few trains might come by, but they are already full, or fill up fast when folks walk up to the Convention Center stop to pre-empt the folks trying to board at Camden Station. None of the garages in the area are set up to require pre-payment on entry (reservation, or give them your card / digital payment at the entrance till). If they were, emptying out the garage would be very quick, as they wouldn't need to ticket anyone on the way out: if you can't get in without paying, you can always just leave without having to stop and scan your phone or put a ticket in the machine. They shut down the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Station in 2015 because the Maryland Stadium Authority was too greedy. That place was a fun distraction if you were in the area when a game wasn't about to start, like if you show up super early on Opening Day or a playoff day. Superbook's restaurant on Eutaw is a huge downgrade from Dempsey's in terms of menu and service quality. Dempsey's used to be well-staffed, you could reserve a table online, and they had all kinds of great selection for every diet. Superbook seems like just another bar serving the same swill that the rest of the park serves, with extremely minimal and low-quality food. For that matter, most of the food at the stadium is very low quality these days. A lot of things we used to love are made to a lower standard now if they are served at all. These are gripes about the stadium and the area that haven't changed my entire adult life. Going to an O's game requires one to tolerate many small inconveniences and several major inconveniences, any number of which could easily be fixed by the relevant authorities if they gave a damn about the people who pay to come see the team play. You would think a mid-market team would be able to afford to invest in the fan experience. You would think the city and partnering organizations like garages, the Stadium Authority and MTA would at least try to do their part to make the experience enjoyable and free of kinks. You would think they would put some thought into handling the "growing pains" of the fanbase due to recent renewed interest after the dark years. Instead, all we get is the same indifference and the same annoyances year in and year out. The whole area is overdue for a revamp. Not sure if $600 mil will get it done, but at least it's a start. Hopefully they can start to patch up some of the many holes in the fan experience. If you're not going to invest in Burnes, at least make it so paying customers have an easier, more enjoyable time getting to/from the stadium and having some food while we're there.
    • Elias has only been in rebuild mode with the O's so there's not much to speculate on there.  Houston, where he spent his formative years, doesn't seem to like to be on the hook for more than a couple of big long-term contracts at any given time.  I can see that as being Elias' choice as well, albeit with a lower overall cost - Houston runs a big payroll.  But it's all guesswork.  I really don't know. If Elias takes the 2025 payroll to $150 million it will creep up to $200 million or so by 2028 just from keeping the core together.  That's where I start to wonder about sustainability due to market size, economic forces, etc., etc., etc... If it were up to me, I would add a couple of free agents this offseason even if the contracts were longer than ideal and be conservative about extensions elsewhere until the prospects establish themselves a little better.  I think there's a competitive opportunity that the team is already into that's worth exploiting. I think ownership is very happy to have Elias on board and they're not inclined to force him to do anything.  I also think Rubenstein's demonstrated business prowess is great enough to assume that he has had plenty enough time to come to a mutual understanding with Elias as to goals.
    • We need a RH O’hearn…in addition to Westburg. At least 3 batters that will push up the pitch count and cause damage in the top 5 of the lineup.
    • Boy,  that Jackson Merrill is a good young player that is playing his best ball down the season stretch and in the playoffs.   He's only 21.  I guess some young guys are able to play up to the pressure.   Who could have guessed that?
    • I’m aware.   You are arguing something im Not.
    • What agreement? The agreement you are talking about happened as a result of the move.  The MASN agreement would not have existed if Angelos had gone to court to block the move.
  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...