Jeff Kent tries lamely to justify the possible prevalence of steroids in today’s game:
�Babe Ruth didn�t do steroids?� Kent was quoted as saying. �How do you know? … People are saying Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth � how do you know those guys didn�t do steroids? So all of a sudden, you�ve got guys doing steroids now in the 20th century, 21st century? Come on.
�Keep going backward. Pete Rose? Who knows? … How do we know those guys were clean? Did they test those guys?�
Um, has Kent ever seen a picture of Ruth in the 30s or Pete Rose in the 70s? Maybe there was somebody out there experimenting with the stuff, but it’s a well-known fact you can document just by looking at photographs that before the late 80s it was largely believed (with a few exceptions like Honus Wagner and Stan Musial) that strength training was bad for ballplayers. I doubt much of anybody took steroids in baseball before around 1987-88 or so, when you began to see the first signs of guys lifting weights.
Kent is a moron. Sounds like he is attempting to justify his past use of steroids by smearing the reputation of players no longer alive to defend themselves.
Ruth did use illegal substances. However, it did not improve his performance. Prohibition against alcohol was in effect for the 1920’s and I think it is safe to say the Babe had a beer or two which probably added to his weight (carbs). 🙂
This makes me think of the famous (to Sox fans only perhaps?) of Yaz in the locker room during the champagne celebration at the end of the Impossible Dream season.
How should I put it?…He looks like me without a shirt on…
Helo