[Stardust]

^ I completely agree with you about Hank Aaron, BUT... I'm not quite letting the guy's of the 60'sthrough the 80's off the hook. It's a fact that amphetamines (uppers, Speed) was used regularly by players of that era. Pete Rose said that it was so rampant that Candy Jars of them were in the dugouts (both home and away) and players freely imbibed in the illegal narcotic. Though I admit that Steroids and Speed are different, they certainly both had impacts on the game.

Steroids certainly allowed a guy like Brady Anderson who did not hit more than 10 home runs in a season to come out one season and pop 40. That certainly was an example that it could help a mediocre player excel at something they couldn't do otherwise. But for a guy like Barry Bonds, sterpids did not help him hit Home Runs, he already could do that. What Steroids did was allow him to stay healthy during a period of time that his body was breaking down. Steroids allowed Bonds to play full seasons instead of being on the DL.

So, why would Amphetamines be lumped with steroids? Same reason. Uppers put guys on the field by giving them an artificial stimulant that would have kept them off the field otherwise. It was an artificial source, just like steroids; it was illegal, just like steroids; and it put guys on the field in more games than they would have played otherwise, just like steroids. We will call the 90's-00's as the steroid era, but the amphetamine era artificially infalted numbers for guys who played through pain and exhaustion too. If you say guys cheated with steroids, then the cheated by taking uppers too.