Balco vs Blacksox

[Lathum]

Which has the biggest potential to damage the sport?

[Cap Ologist]

I'd have to say Balco simply because I can't see how you could make two great baseball movies based on that.

[Lathum]

lol

[ISiddiqui]

Most people think players are doped up in every sport anyway. I don't think there was the same belief in throwing games in the 1910s.

[sooner333]

Well, I think Blacksox does, because if everyone started getting kickbacks for losing, the game would go to hell.

If everyone takes steroids, then you just get bigger, stronger players with some different effects.

[clintl]

There's not even a remote comparison. The Black Sox was about intentionally losing games. The only reason Balco is big news is that baseball is about 15-20 years behind other sports with respect to players using steroids, and leagues dealing with the problem. But what is going on in baseball is no worse than what was going on in college football and the NFL 20 years ago (and is probably still going on, despite the rules and testing).

[Axxon]

Most people think players are doped up in every sport anyway. I don't think there was the same belief in throwing games in the 1910s.

Actually there was and it was a problem. The Black Sox didn't just happen out of the blue. They were just the camel that broke the straws back. Hal Chase, who was part of the Black Sox scandal, had been throwing games or suspected of it for years.

Other "stars" had accusations thrown at them too. The Black Sox were another story. They were throwing the World Series and that was too much so baseball decided to "clean house" and judge Landis was brought in as baseball's first commisioner and he was very strict.

Now, I agree that this was a bigger scandal than the Balco thing but it wasn't that shocking really to the people in the 1910's. Just like the steroids thing, they knew it was happening but it was being largely ignored.

[Axxon]

Dola -

doing a google on Prince Hal and I found the following typo. :)


Chase was eventually barred for life from playing major league bestial but his name still surfaced again about a year later when he was implicated in the Black Sox scandal.
:eek:

hxxp://www.thedeadballera.com/BadBoneChase.html

[mckerney]

An interesting article by Victor Conte on ESPN.com

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=1937513

[sachmo71]

Personally, I don't care if players juice themselves or not. Purity in sports is a bit of a joke now, anyway, so why make an issue about the purity of the physical side?

[Ksyrup]

Black Sox was much bigger. That was questioning the core of the competition in the game itself. As Rob Neyer's article posted in the Bonds thread suggests, with steroids, the games are still intact, it's just the numbers that might have to be interpreted differently given the circumstances.

In some respects, it's like looking at the dead ball era, or the 1960's, and realizing that a 3.00 ERA didn't quite look the same, in context, as it does today.

[KWhit]

But guys, baseball is all about the numbers. You know immediately what I'm talking about when you see:

3000
61
.400
755

It's part of what makes the game unique. To have the single season HR record stand for 37 years and then have it broken by two guys in the same season is a joke to me. Oh yeah, and the hallowed 60 HR mark was broken 6 times in a span of 4 years (1998-2001) after happening just twice in the entire history of baseball up until then.

[KWhit]

Dola-

Black Sox was still bigger, but I don't think many people view the steroids issue as a big enough problem, IMO.

[Radii]

An interesting article by Victor Conte on ESPN.com

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=1937513

This is a really interesting read. Thanks for the link.

I think it shows how little the Olympics mean to us these days that you have all these world class Olympic names being dropped and so few people care about that, they just want the baseball players.