Matt Olson and shohei are both pretty big. I saw ohtani in person and he’s pretty big. Mike trout is one of the thicker players I’ve seen, like a white bo Jackson.
I really appreciate your effort on these videos but your argument is so strange that I'm starting to think that this is some kind of performance art. To argue that steroids were not a contributing factor in the HR spike along with changes to the ball--is just patently wrong. Why else would so many guys (including the main guys who were breaking the HR records) have been taking steroids (and myriad PEDs)? If they don't help, why are they against the rules? Why have anti-doping regimes across all sports? Why would Lance Armstrong literally dope the F out of himself and then have someone else's clean blood replace his own? While there are certainly steroid myths, that their use is beneficial/advantageous in baseball and other sports is just not one of them--indeed, that position just blinkers all reality. Taking nothing away from your argument about changes to the ball, which is certainly true as well, it seems silly to argue steroids didn't and don't help guys hit home runs (or throw harder or do anything else where increased muscle mass is beneficial). I guess I don't understand the point of these videos--you seem to be arguing that despite knowing for a fact that a bunch of these guys were juicing and getting yoked--steroids had no effect on anything--and that's either silly or gaslighting.
Haha, "performance art" is quite high praise but I do mean what I say.... I'll try to quickly answer your questions one by one: 1) "Why else would so many guys... have been taking steroids?" Well why did people used to commit human sacrifices to change the weather? People do all kinds of stupid things under the mistaken impression that they will help. And the conventional wisdom is STILL that PEDs help baseball players, so players, especially desperate players, continue to use them, even though there's no real evidence that they work. 2) "If they don't help, why are they against the rules?" Because steroids are illegal and bad for you and, as mentioned, people incorrectly believe they might help so there is pressure on players to use them otherwise. 3/4) "Why have anti-doping regimes across all sports? Why would Lance Armstrong literally dope the F out of himself and then have someone else's clean blood replace his own?" I can't comment on other sports, or other forms of doping/cheating. I haven't looked into that, nor do I particularly care about cycling. My concern is specifically about steroids and baseball, where the hysteria is clearly misplaced if you look at the facts. To answer your general concerns: You keep saying that it's SO OBVIOUS steroids help players, but where on Earth is the actual evidence of that effect? Steroid users, as a whole, did not hit more HRs or play longer or better than non-steroid users. The leaguewide changes are attributable to the ball. The fact that a few great players used PEDs is just correlation, and more than counterbalanced by the many, many more PED-users who did not have impressive careers. These steroid myths are just a version of normal drug panic, where the effects of some poorly understand substance are exaggerated to almost mythical effects.
That is total BS. You believe anything someone tells you becasue you want it to be true. You beleive this about Ruth just becasue some idiot writer says this in a book he wrote? Just like how sports writers spread the lie that said Ty Cobb was a terrible violent racist. Come on. There is absolutely no evidence Ruth did this just like there is no evidence Ty Cobb was this terrible racist person like dishonest attention seeking writers will tell you. You probably watch msnbc and cnn and believe the russia collusion hoax.
Dude at one point you've got a guy denying the science Mac has a lot of advantages over the average person He's also got good genetics I know a family of 4 brothers that were all jacked The one that didn't lift looked far better than the average weight lifter. It happens. But it's rare And full disclosure...i did steroids Not to hit homeruns but i was a ballplayer in high school When i picked up the bat at age 21 i noticed 2 things My reflexes were a lot slower from lack of practice And the ball flew off my bat to the opposite field. I was hitting bombs and it was easy
Steroids aren't the only reason guys got big, but add up all the types of drugs taken for performance like steroids, peptides and stimulants I guarantee more are on than not. Sure, you've got your Frank Thomas' that are the top 1% genetically when it comes to size, but that's the exception not the rule. Any career where your physical performance dictates your success dudes are going to do whatever they can to set the conditions in their favor. For instance, I was an infantryman, probably 60% of the guys in my unit were on some form of performance enhancing drugs. Including a former professional ball player who enlisted after washing out the league. It's completely normalized, just not to the average person. Size is only one piece of this too, lots of juicy characters out there you'd never guess by looking at them. Training methods did change during this time period, but to discount the pharmacological component is naive.
One name to look at the 90s steroid era users for a fact BRADY ANDERSON… he used Myoplex…. 😂ok to be honest you can say what you want that all substances like hgh, test, roids.. oh these guys today are 100% clean bc they’re leaner.. just like technology, the doctors and players will always be one step ahead
Players in the 70's or earlier were not overlooked because they were too big or heavy. That is ridiculous. What about Frank Howard, Dave Kingman, Greg Luzinski, Dave Parker, Dave Winfield, and many others. If a young player could hit, he was scouted and drafted reguardless of size. Yes overall players have gradually gotten bigger and stronger over the years on the whole. However you clearly underestimate how big and strong playes of the past were. Players like Hank Aaron, Dick Allen, Mickey Mantle, Harmon Keillerbrew, Lee May, Willie McCovey, Frank Robinson, Willie Stargell, Reggie Jackson, Orlando Cepeda, Boog Powell, Eddie Mathews, Rocky Colavito, and many others.
Almost all the players you mentioned -- Hank Aaron, Dick Allen, Mickey Mantle, Harmon Killebrew, Lee May, Willie McCovey, Frank Robinson, Willie Stargell, Eddie Mathews, and Rocky Colavito --- had listed weights of under 200 pounds, so if I am underestimating their size, then so were they. Perhaps they WERE downplaying their own size, but as I say in the video, the fact that players had an incentive to underestimate their weight in previous eras -- whereas now players clearly exaggerate their size -- shows how size in hitters was not valued the same way prior to the steroid era. The fact that you can name a few outliers like Frank Howard or Dave Kingman (who each had glaring strikeout issues often attributed directly to their size) does not invalidate the overall trend.
@@undrafted7968 Listed weight? Really? The listed weight on bubble gum cards back then or now on baseball reference was their published weight when they were drafted out of high school at 17, 18 years of age and it never changed, there was no yearly weight updates. Everyone I listed was big and well over 200 lbs. Do you really think McCovey at 6'-4" was under 200 lbs.? Stargell? Robinson? All these guys were big dudes for any era. Your comment that teams did not draft big players like the do now is not correct. Athletes back then just were not as big overall. And what does the fact the Kingman and Howard struck out a lot have to do with the discussion? The truth is roids made a huge difference with players performance.
@@Rayburn58 Did you actually watch the video? If you did, you might notice that I specifically mention that listed weights are not very reliable. However: A) they are all we have to go on, unless you happen to have conducted Willie McCovey's physical. You can't assess someone's weight by watching them on TV, or remembering what they looked like when they played 50 years ago. B) If McCovey DID weigh more than 200 lbs, then why was his listed weight lower? Because players had incentives to underestimate their weight, since being big was not valued highly! If you read books about baseball in the 1970s and prior, or contemporary news reports, players are constantly scolded for being overweight or too big. I brought up Kingman/Howard's strikeouts because both players were frequently invoked as examples of why being "too big" was a problem for baseball players -- it supposedly made your swing too long and left you vulnerable to strikeouts. Nowadays, players frequently OVERestimate their own weight, because they WANT to be seen as big, because the perception of how size affects a hitter HAS indeed changed.
Yeah definitely, if you look at pictures of him and Yasiel Puig together they look almost Identical in size and Puig is listed at 240. So Trout might actually be more than 235.
Flat out improved Scientific Weighting and Conditioning coupled with outstanding Nutrition makes the physiques stunning today! It’s a 24x7x365 process from 8-10 years old till retirement. Also peptide supplements and MRPs galore make lean body weight much easier to obtain!
One of my favorite posts was on r/steroids where a guy ran a cycle without weight training. He basically just puffed up and then the moment that his cycle was over he basically deflated. Steroids assist in recovery from weight training it’s not, as you say, Popeyes spinach,
The biggest influence was money. Players didn't have to work during the off-season once they started making much more money. They were able to hire personal trainers and diet specialists. The money continued to escalate and the prospect of longer contracts made it more important for players to take greater care of their bodies. The old trend of power hitters making more money than singles hitters tipped the scale further towards building strong bodies.
"The Sultan of 'Swat', the Colossus of 'Clout', the King of 'Crash'...the Baaammmm-bean-Oh! (Bambino)", Babe Ruth, didnt get "paunchy until after 1925. Look at pics of him when he PITCHED for the Red Sox, and in the "Polo Grounds" years (1920 to 1922) with the Yankees...he was a SPECIMEN!
@@undrafted7968 because you make me disagree with you so much, even with sosa getting pinched after his great years (maybe he was trying to recapture his 60+ hr years!?) Did u see sammy sosa in front of congress??? When he could no longer speak english?? Steroids give baseball players more power, period dot... my college baseball teammates that juiced got so much more powerful, you must know this, hence you are such a troll!
@@jamest8967 1) If you watch the video, I explicitly posit that Sosa was using steroids to recapture his 60HR magic... I'm not trying to say Sosa is innocent or that he never used drugs. My point is that they didn't work... 2) I'm not sure how to respond to "Steroids give baseball players more power, period dot.." I've made a bunch of videos laying out the actual evidence, and all you've got is a Just So story. It kind of sounds like nothing will actually convince you to change your mind, so who's the real troll here?
The offense explosion which started in the 90's was not the result of steroids but juiced baseballs (which started in 1994 and variations of juiced balls to the present day) an incredible smaller strike zone and the advent of maple bats in the mid 90's.
I always laugh when someone defends a steroid player by saying " Steroids don't help them hit a baseball"..... They are MLB players- they don't NEED help hitting the baseball.... ! but, it DOES help the routine fly ball go out of the yard.......
Did you watch the video? At no point do I say "steroids don't help them hit a baseball" and if you watched the other videos in the channel you'll see they do NOT actually help routine fly balls go out of the yard.
@@jsd795 Great point. The fact that a lot of people use a drug must prove it's effective. Now I'm off to take some herbal supplements and over-the-counter cold medicine...
" upper body strength and muscle mass are only a small part of what it takes to hit home runs ... " Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman ... Can you please explain what it takes, then ? ? Then why aren't women in MLB ? ? ?
There are definitely things to what you're saying but also some significant gray area. Strength and size are not required to be correlated but still are most of the time. Highschool coaches will tell you that your two options to throw and swing harder are to lift weights or to get fat because both of them will cause you to gain muscle that you can put behind it. This is a process that takes a while typically. Its not right to bust down someones achievements if they've worked hard and done it on the level. However when you see someone in one off season put on 25lbs of muscle, unless they're recovering from a broken limb tthat kept from from being in shape at all hat's highly unusual. You cant "look" at someone and confirm steroid use. I do think you can look at someone- who has been lifting weights at a professional athlete's normal rate- and tell that they're likely not on steroids however. Which brings me to my conspiracy theory- I absolutely think Rafael Palmiero did not do steroids. Go look at images from him in his rookie year to his later years. His body really doesnt change like someone who experienced an elevated level of testosterone. I have to take it for a medically concerned reason and even at a non-abusive level it will make you start to get some muscle growth if you exercise at all. His stats didnt experience a sudden power bump, he slowly gained on the curve. What about that positive steroid test? That is concerning. His sample could have been tampered with, but who would do that? If only he had a powerful enemy with a lot of friends in the games' top offices that he wronged at some point in his past....maybe by sleeping with their wife? Hm no that'd be crazy... They'd have to have some weird name like "fruitpeel gravelmound" or something. I just dont feel like he fits the profile in any way, to the point that if he was taking steroids, he was doing it to not gain any advantages from it at all which is just weird. Idk i'd like to know more about it though.
People forget the true power of steroids as a baseball player. Big Mac said it best when he finally admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. Baseball is a long season and the body can breakdown, but with steroids your body can handle the stress and regain strength at a faster pace.
Yeah right. Palmiero was an obvious juicer. From age 21-27 he averaged 1 HR every 34.42 at bats. Suddenly during the steroid era from 1993-2003 age 28-38 he avereaged 1 HR every 14.51 at bats. Players don't suddenly become great home hitters comparable to Mike Schmidt at age 28. Give me a break, of course palmiero was a cheater.
@Rayburn58 Ken Griffey Jr. hit 87HR in his first 4 seasons until 1993 when the juiced balls were introduced and he jumped up to 43HR. Mark McGwire hit 153 HR in his first 4 seasons btw '87-90. The juiced balls clearly benefited Junior as much as anybody.
