Althlete's-Old vs New

[gypsyman]

Just a thought. Read where Barry Bonds trial for lying to a jury about steriod use, is now getting under way. I'm not going to judge, as that's for the jury to decide.
My thought is, did you ever wonder how the althlete's of old, might have played, had they had steroids back then? Ted Williams,Babe Ruth,Lou Gerig,Mantle, any of the old timers, as I refer to them. With the records they had set so many decade's ago, no steroids or supplements to help them out. As a matter of fact, most of the time, they were out boozing the night before, and were playing with hangovers. Some were, some were not.(I believe DiMaggio and Williams took pretty good care of themselves) And what about the football players.Johnny U.,Butkis,the 4 Horseman,Starr,etc. Think of what records they might have set with chemicals? I'm truelly glad they didn't, as this tells me of what they were made of. How many records would be different if so many hadn't served in the military, in the prime of their playing careers. How things have changed!! gypsyman

[Brett]

Agreed.  Also many of the old records are being broken thanks not only to performance enhancing substances but also with the help of much longer playing seasons than what the 'old timers' had in which to accomplish their feats.   How can you really compare something like home runs in a season or yards rushing in a season from a few decades ago and today when today's seasons are a dozen or more games longer than those back then?   

[Conan The Librarian]

The athletes have better training and skills now, but the games are boring. A football game is an hour of play, but they are four hours long when televised. I have no patience for that kind of interference with a game, and I'm always surprised that NFL is the most popular sport in the nation. There must be reasons other than sport for the game's popularity.

Likewise with the Olympics. I love the games above all other games, but the way its shown on TV is just too boring to watch.

[dukkillr]

You know what I hate?  I hate it when those damn kids walk on my grass!  Bah Humbug!

[XD40SC]

You know what I hate?  I hate it when those damn kids walk on my grass!  Bah Humbug!

I hope your not one of the persons who won't give them their ball back.

[DDZ]

gypsyman, that is right. Most of the old time baseball players did drink beer and smoke cigarettes. DiMaggio did smoke cigarettes, and drink some. He was an outstanding baseball player though. I just read an article about him in SI. I doubt his consecutive game hitting streak will ever be broken. Also the only player to be selected as an All Star every year he played. I would love to see what he could do in today's game. That is with no steroids of coarse.

[XD40SC]

Micky Mantle and Billy Martin were also known to  use mind altering drinks.It's amazing those guys were able to see the ball, let alone hit it. Of course it may be easier if you have 3 balls coming at you..

[gypsyman]

Hit the ojne in the middle right!! ;Dgypsyman

[SHOOTALL]

keep in mind testing came into play after most of the old timmers were done  just saying . Remember the fathers of our country used pot in some cases.

One must always remenber the two most shocking truths they learn- your parents did what you do and your kids will do what you did in many cases.

[Spirithawk]

You know what I hate?  I hate it when those damn kids walk on my grass!  Bah Humbug!

I hope your not one of the persons who won't give them their ball back.

I use their ball for target practice! 

[TheCoachZed]

I think the majority of sports have become much much faster, partly due to steroids and drugs, but also due to a lot of training; I don't really think you can compare the athletes in some sports to the players of years ago. With regards to ice hockey, a guy like Bobby Hull or Gordie Howe would probably not stand out as much now, since most players are at the physical levels that only the most hard-core were 50 years ago. They had a lot of skill and talent, but they were also playing against goalies with pathetic equipment. I don't follow football, baseball, or basketball, but I assume those sports are much the same. I'd love to see a game of older all-stars play against today's players, but I think the results would be much different than most of us would want.

Now when you come to entertainment value - I'm sure almost any pro sport was much more fun to watch before it became all about sponsorships and overpaid crybabies. I don't know how you guys stomach the NFL, MLB, and NBA down there. The NHL is bad enough. I'm more and more becoming a fan of the Canadian Football League - sure, the players aren't as big or skilled as the NFL, but the majority of them are making not a whole ton of money - and it shows in their attitudes. Very few of them are in the same sort of gang, guns, and drug trouble their NFL counterparts get into.

[Spirithawk]

I'll be the first to admit that sports to me means hunting, shooting or fishing. However the one thing that really irks me about todays athletes, and has turned me off to baseball, basketball and football, is their all too often total lack of sportmanship. They are far from being someone I'd want a child to look at as a hero or to try and imulate. What they do in their private lives should somewhat remain private, as long as not breaking the law, but their public images are shamefull and that's putting it mildly. I'm far from a prude but they need to realise that children watch them too, not just adults, and children strive to imitate what they see. Many has been the time that I'd have loved to have been able to reach out and give one a serious attitude adjustment!

[MGMorden]

You know what I hate?  I hate it when those damn kids walk on my grass!  Bah Humbug!

Indeed - there does appear to be some cane-waving going on here .

All in all though, while I can understand the complaint about season-lengths in regards to season-long records, in reality, not all athletes today are on any sort of performance enhancing drug, and I'd wager that many of yesteryear were on them too - they just didn't test as frequently back then.

It's simply a factor of time that most records will be broken given enough time.  "What one man can do another can do" - if a man set the original then given enough time it's likely that some man will come along that can do it just a little bit better.

I think part of this is related just to being acclimated to a particular set of players.  I saw some research a while back that showed that for the vast majority of people, they always felt that music was at its best during the time when they were teenagers, and that music had all gone down hill since then.  Didn't matter what age group, or what particular period their teens happened to cover - most always felt that THEIR teenage years was when the best music was played with all the newer stuff paling in comparison.

This isn't music, but I think it's the same attitude.

[hillbill]

I'll be the first to admit that sports to me means hunting, shooting or fishing. However the one thing that really irks me about todays athletes, and has turned me off to baseball, basketball and football, is their all too often total lack of sportmanship. They are far from being someone I'd want a child to look at as a hero or to try and imulate. What they do in their private lives should somewhat remain private, as long as not breaking the law, but their public images are shamefull and that's putting it mildly. I'm far from a prude but they need to realise that children watch them too, not just adults, and children strive to imitate what they see. Many has been the time that I'd have loved to have been able to reach out and give one a serious attitude adjustment!

im not a big sports fan as in football and such but id have to say that of our old heroes had the same problems as todays atheletes. boozeing, drugs, womanizing,etc. but the fact is the media had more honor and stayed totally out of their personal lives.the same with political figures also.now we hear about every single aspect of a sports heroes life.it just was not that way in the old days.the media kept it clean and only reported on what they did at their job.they knew kids were listening and looking up to these guys and they plain and simple kept it clean.the plain fact is that atheletes are people just like us and they have the same temptations and probs.now the media just doesnt care.

[Old Fart]

About the only sport I watch much of anymore is college football.
It seems like records fall every year in that sport.
Of course over the last 5-10 years even it has become longer.
But for all it matters I really just enjoy watching the games.
I quit watching pro sports because of how they had become anti-roll models.
Unfortunately some of the college kids are starting to mimis this behavior.
Anyway back on topic I think the basic athelete has changed a lot over the years.
Just look at the average college lineman these days.
Talk about a wall of flesh.

[blind ear]

X GAMES for me. ear

[Ron T.]

I used to be a total NFL fan, but things began to change more and more... especially during the past 10 or so years.  I've  noticed a considerable increase in players getting arrested for being involved in assaults and mayhem because  teams are hiring and tolerating players who are just plain "thugs" and paying them millions of dollars to play football.  Pro football has become a game where millionaires are playing for billionaires and the game is suffering and growing boring.

As a result, I find I am starting to prefer watching college football rather than the pro's.  I am to the point where I frankly don't care if the players DO go on strike and the games aren't played during this year's NFL season.  I'll just watch the college kids play!  Their games tend to be more interesting anyway.

The players of all the different sports are bigger, stronger and faster than the players of old.  It's small wonder so many of the records are being broken.  Unfortunately, some players (but hopefully not "all") resort to using strength-enhancing drugs to further increase their performance and by doing so, they set new records which should NOT be allowed to stand if it is found that the player in question was found to be using drugs.  Part of the problem is that there has been a moral breakdown as the years have passed and SOME of these younger players will do anything to win or set records including using drugs to enhance their performance.  This is an indication of the more laxed moral attitudes of some of today's "jocks".

Drugs plus the added strength and size of today's atheletes will cause records to fall, but no record should be given to any individual where drugs were used to help increase the performance which resulted in the breaking of records.

Jus' my 2’... 

Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

[slim rem 7]

 i enjoy watching the best at a sport compete..but i have to really have nothing else to do
to get me to watch 5 minute commercials then 5 min of competition..i guess its free ,and i do have a mute button..
 i guess secretariat would be my favorite athlete ,if i had to pick one ive seen in my lifetime..
 i think the horse that ran second to him was just very unlucky,,as secretariate had finally broken his heart by the time the belmont came along..if he had raced in another year ,we might have one more triple crown winner..jmo..yall have a good day.slim