1994 - Strike shortened season in which Homeruns were immense at the all star break. Not a good year for ball.
1995 - Good year, expanded the playoffs, you telling me Albert Belle (2nd in MVP voting for the World Series bound Indians) didn't jack himself up on roids? Sure that's speculation, but we know he corked his bat. That's a fact, ask Jason Grimsley
1996 - Yankees beat the Braves. We know Leyritz and Pettite (the ace) were on steroids.
1997 - Marlins defeat the Indians in the year of the single greatest example of purchasing a team in order to win, in history. We know Sheffield, arguably the team's best slugger, was roided up.
1998 - Yankees dominate baseball with 114 wins, defeat the Padres in the World Series. However, the record books were shattered by McGwire and Sosa, both were so filled up on Steroids and Sosa, at least, was a bat corker. If the phrase, "slippery slope" can be show in real life, this is the year where the whole league competely slipped, and the slope basically is at 90 degrees.
1999 - Yanks win again, Clemens and Pettite are on the roster for the #1 team. McGwire continues his cheating ways by hitting 65 and continuing to rewrite the record books.
2000 - Yanks win, same cheaters on their roster. Sosa leads the majors in HR's, while juiced.
2001 - Barry Bonds hits 73, completely and utterly juiced out of his brain.
2002 - ARod sets the stage this time in Texas, belting 57 to Sosa's 50. Both utterly tanked out on Steroids. Bonds, however, makes the World Series and is walked roughly 875 times this season because nobody can pitch to him because he's a fake baseball player.
2003 - ARod continues to lead the majors in homeruns, shall I add an asterisk? Lowell hit 32 HR's to lead the Marlins to a victory in the World Series. No proof here, but 32 HR's feels like a lot to me.
2004 - The Red Sox era begins with Manny and Ortiz, arguably one of the best hitting duos in the last 50 years, both on steroids. The single greatest playoff comeback, orchestrated primarily by Papi, is a sham and a fraud. Manny also leads the AL in Homers, and Adrian Beltre manages to have, by far, his greatest season ever hitting 47 homers. I am sure he just hit weight room.
2005 - Arod leads the AL in homers yet again, surprise (x2). I look at this White Sox roster and I start to think, this may have actually been legit. Baseball 1, Nick 47.
By 2006, things started to normalize a bit with testing, policies, checking etc...the great hopes that are left for baseball since 1994 are as follows:
Ken Griffey
Frank Thomas
Cal Ripken
Al Pujols
Greg Maddux
Pedro Martinez
Ryan Howard
Prince Fielder
Chipper Jones
In my opinion, those are the only people baseball has left to hang their hats on. The entire era, 1993 to 2006 or so, should be completely stricken from all record books. Sorry guys.
4 comments:
It's amazing now to think about Canseco getting caught with steroids in the 80's and it was really not a big deal. That was the huge turning point. People point to 1998 as THE YEAR, but it had obviously been going on before that.
Beyond that, though, I don't think Beltre limited his steroid use to just the one year. Maybe he did to get the big contract, but that doesn't seem too believable. Also, I don't think the White Sox were clean. Konerko and Thome seem like they could be good candidates.
What about Jeter? Is he on the naughty or nice list? I don't keep up with this.
Jeter is on the nice list, now and forever.
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