On July 23/24, Victor Conte appeared on JT the Brick's radio show on FOX Sports and claimed that about 50% of all professional athletes are still, today, using performance-enhancing drugs.
On Sports Illustrated's SI Wire on their website, Conte now claims that half of baseball still uses performance-enhancing drugs.
Conte made the claim on Jim Rome's new Showtime show that half of the players in baseball have used PEDs in the last year, according to SI Wire.
So my baseball-historian friend and I took a look at some statistics, as of Wednesday night August 14, and saw some interesting things which make one wonder whether or not Conte (or the head of the MLBPA) is telling the truth.
First, there are only 12 players, as of August 14, who have 25 or more home runs in a season. Several of them play in hitter-friendly ballparks!
There are only five players with over 27.
In 2002, for the full season, the 10th-highest total in the major leagues was 39. The six years previous, it was 40 or more. In 1998, when McLiar drugged his way to 70, #10 was Andres Galarraga with 44!
This year, there may only be five players in the league that reach 35, unless the September pitching causes more home runs.
That would take us back to before the strike.
And that's why there is a case to be made for the MLBPA union head's statement (which I do not believe coming from the MLBPA union head, as I said, otherwise the MLBPA would (and should have anyway!!) have told A-Roid to go screw himself!) that the majority of players are clean and sick of the steroids.
Another piece of evidence in the MLBPA head's favor is batting averages.
10th place in the National League, as of the moment, is an adjusted .309.
10th place in the American League? .300 !
That's right. Only 10 batters in the Designated Hitter league have reached a .300 plateau that used to be a pretty good season.
So the jury is still out on Conte's claims. Would it shock anybody in the least if he was right? Probably not.
But the jury is certainly out.
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