Quote:
Originally Posted by lencombs
Greg Maddux now emerges as the greatest pitcher of the last 20 years, clean and dominant, went half a year without walking a batter, Cy Young trophys on his bookshelf. How do you sim a year with Maddux and Clemens in the same roster set?
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And we assume Greg Maddux is clean just because no one has named him?
I agree, I don't think Greg Maddux used steroids or HGH or anything else... but hte cloud still has to hang over him as well as any other player since the mid 70s. Maddux is an exceptional pitcher, but he's almost never missed a start and still pitching at age 41. THe cloud is there, if tomorrow Dave Justice (who was named as a user in the report, but does deny it) decides to say that in fact he actually did do it and in fact he personally injected Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine..... will your post tomorrow say that Randy Johnson is now the greatest pitcher in the last 20 years? How bout if Luis Gonzalez (who I believe has been said to have used at one point by someone) then comes out and says he did use and saw a syringe of steroids in Johnson's locker on Tuseday May 21 whatever year.... now we go down to the next guy.
At this point, that's all the evidence we have on Clemens, someone says they injected him with steroids. It's not even as good a proof as the report has on others (like Tejada, I believe there's a copy of a check from Tejada in the report), and even that's not 100% since the check doesn't have a note on it that says "purchasing of steroids (or HGH)" and initialed.
I don't live with my head in the sand. It's entirely possible Clemens used, it's not for me to judge because no ones going to lay the evidence out in front of me.
We know Bonds used steroids, he admits to using a product... the guy the product came from admits it was steroids... do we absolutely know that Bonds KNEW he took steroids, I don't believe we know that for a fact. Do I think so? Yes I do... but the proof of his taking is far far different than the proof we currently have of the accusation against Clemens. Until it's proven, I'll have to give him the benefit of the doubt.
McGuire and Sosa are sort of the same. With McGuire we know he took Andro... do we know anything more than that he took something he could acquire over the counter at the corner drug store? We don't know that for a fact, we have another "he said" thing going on.
Right now what we have is a cloud of suspicion over every single player that played from at least 1980-2007. We have guys who have been named and we have guys who haven't (maybe haven't been YET). Until it can and is actually proved (or at least a whole lot more evidence than a "he said"), the accusation holds just a little above my statement that Maddux might have used... or Ripken, or Henderson, or Brett, or Yount, or Griffey, or Eckstein, or any other player since 1980...
You just have to do what Baseball will have to do, count it as the steroid era and go on about your business.