I am absolutely maddened by the failure of so many to understand the impact of the Barry Bonds steroid use.  I have heard, even on otherwise well-informed sports talk shows, the comment that taking steroids did not make it possible for Bonds to hit the ball.  If anything the fact that Bonds could hit makes the use of the juice even more heinous in terms of its effect.  Steroids in the short-term allow for muscles to recover from injury faster than normal.  For the purpose of understanding what this means you have to be aware that the term injury does not refer to pulled muscles and damaged tendons.  It refers to the type of injury that makes your muscles sore after failing to work out for too long.  It refers to the cellular level of bruising that occurs from repeated and strenuous exercise like hitting and running flat-out after a ball in deep left and throwing a hard strike to second to get the runner.  Those efforts cause injury to the muscle.  They bruise the muscle and that is why you tire and ache.  The injury is cumulative and causes not only short-term aches and pain but a longer harder to shake fatigue in the muscle.  The fact that Bonds had exquisite hand-eye coordination in the first place makes the use of steroids even more effective for him than for most any other player in the game.  He is one of the few whose ability to maintain his timing over a long season without suffering the normal slowing of the hands and resultant failure to make easy clean contact would make a huge difference.  He would be able to avoid the weaknesses and slumps that other players who were not cheating must face in the marathon that is a major league baseball season.  He was able to avoid the same kind of slumping and weakness that he himself faced for the years he did not cheat.  In point of fact the steroid use does make it possible for him to hit the ball.  It is the most fundamental of cheats.  He was a ringer.  Game after game and night after night he was the guy who was a step fresher and stronger than the competition could reasonably be expected to be as they had played 50 or 100 games without benefit of unnatural recovery provided by use of illegal designer drugs.

The second frustrating thing that seems to be missed by the talking heads is the fact that the increased strength gained during off-season workouts was not on display in only the monster home runs into the depths of McCovey Cove. It was also in play on the 20 to 25 warning track fly ball outs from previous years that crept over the wall by 6 or 8 or 10 feet.  It was in use on the 15 or 18 foul pop ups that were outs over 600 at bats in previous years that flew out of play to become another hittable pitch.  It was on display with the 15 or 20 or so ground balls that bounced too high or got into the hole too quickly to turn into ground outs and then became another base hit.  The only negative would be a couple of “Texasleaguers” that made it to the outfielder and a couple of balls that were turned into double plays because of how quickly they got to the fielder instead of slow rollers.  Bonds never hit the ball weakly and after ‘roids he was able to take advantage of not 50 feet of more power but rather 15 feet of power on fly ball after fly ball and still keep the 2 feet you would normally lose on the fastball by August.  Baseball is game of delicate balance played in mathematically precise dimensions.  Freakish consistency makes the game robotic.  Freakish consistency turns the game into a video game.  Freakish consistency makes baseball into a game that only people who think fantasy leagues are more than a math exercise can stand to watch.