Blog by Speedbag2000 Back in the 1990’s early 2000’s I saw the Oakland A's take on the baseball world.  I watched as the Bash Brothers Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire bashed their way to three straight ALCS and one world title.  Not only did they hit homerun’s over the fence 390ft, these balls were being crushed 500ft out of the park!

 

I loved watching the size of these players, not only were they good, they were near the best home run hitters ever in the sport.  Not just McGwire, many baseball players were hitting 45, 50, 60 homeruns during the steroid era when just a decade before 30 homeruns was considered a super star.  It was great for the sport, for the fans and for the owners pocketbooks….until the huge bombshell was dropped.  Canseco came out to say...read on for more

 

many of the players were juiced and these drugs could turn a normal “good” player into an all time “great” baseball star.  There were those that said no way do baseball players want to be big and it was not beneficial.  But one after another, Giambi, Clemens, Tejada, Palmiero, and even the best player Alex Rodriguez would be accused of roids.

 

Is boxing now what baseball was in the 1990’s?  Are boxers juicing themselves to get an edge?  There are those that say “boxers don’t want to be juiced because its not beneficial.”  Just look at what the juice did for the home run.  It turned a lazy fly ball into a 500 foot projectile, ripping the cover off the ball.  It is no accident McGwire was found with Andro in his locker that the next year it was banned by baseball and deemed illegal.  The darling of the sport, all-America pro Mark McGwire was dragged into congress, pled the 5th amendment and quietly retired.  Today, he has come out to admit he did use roids. 

"I used steroids during my playing career and I apologize. I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again. I used them on occasion throughout the '90s, including during the 1998 season…." 

There are those that say Manny Pacquiao is just like Floyd Mayweather, both weighed the same 106 lbs at the same age. 

 

There is a huge difference in that Pacquiao is hitting balls 500 feet out of the park while Mayweather is hitting singles, doubles and triples.  Pacquiao is crushing men that would normally have a huge advantage in size.  We all praised Pacquiao for his feat and called him the greatest fighter of this era.  Lets be 100% clear as I am not saying Manny Pacquiao is on steriods.  But is it ok to ask for a blood test, not just for Mayweather or Pacquiao, but for All fighters?  PED's nearly destroyed baseball, the all-American game, we do not need the same for boxing.

US Boxing commissions only test urine.  Its 2010, its time boxing get with the times.  Commissions state they test urine but that is not enough these days as promoters, commissions, don’t want to do extra tests, spend more cash and run extra paperwork.  Just like baseball owners, they only care about the bottom dollar and seeing fans in the seats.

 

Sports fans however have been fooled once before by baseball and its cast of characters. Tony La Russa, McGwire's baseball coach, vehemently supported him but it turns out he was wrong and simply didn't know what McGwire was doing.  Could Pacquiao's trainers also be wrong?  As a huge fight fan, I certainly hope not.

 

Its up to boxing fans to speak out and demand the sport be tested clean like they did for cycling, baseball and the Olympics.  Drugs are not only unfair for the sport, they can kill in boxing.

We were all fooled once before by baseball, its time not to be fooled again.

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