How do historic Braves feel about PEDs?
With the news of Ryan Braun‘s suspension and more coming, let’s take a look at current and future Braves Hall of Famers and their views on steroids/PEDs as we enter into Hall of Fame weekend.
Hank Aaron has been very outspoken against PEDs. He has been more than willing to admit that many players used “Greenies” in his era, which are now considered a PED, but he has claimed that these are much different from modern PEDs and their effect on the body.
"…if a player is elected who’s known to have used steroids, then I think there ought to be an asterisk or something mentioned on the plaque that he used steroids"
Future Hall of Fame left hander Tom Glavine has stated his opinion on the issue numerous times, but this is perhaps his strongest when discussing Alex Rodriguez:
"There comes a time for everybody in life — I don’t care where you are or what you do — that you have choices to make, and sometimes people make bad choices. If you make a bad choice, then that’s your responsibility to deal with the consequences of that bad choice, and certainly Alex is having to deal with that"
John Smoltz is very quotable on the issue, first at the end of his career, and then more recently:
"I hope they clean it up. I really do. I hope it gets back to the greatest game on earth. And I’m confident it will. Unfortunately you have to go through stuff like this; speculation, hear say, legitimate stuff. Sooner or later there will be enough wake up calls."
"…I think the greatest tragedy in sports is when you give a false tag or an accusation you cannot get back. That’s what we’ve got to make sure – that kids understand this isn’t the way in sports."
Chipper Jones, he of a recent Twitter war over someone calling him a steroid user, says he considered steroids at one point in his career, but even he can be fooled by someone like Braun:
"You see peers doing it. You see contemporaries on other teams doing it and putting up numbers. But at that point in my career, while I didn’t have kids yet, and I thought, I don’t want to jeopardize their lives (because of people’s reactions) one day."
"I feel like I know Ryan pretty well—he would’ve been one of the guys who never would’ve considered to have done it. If he went to the lengths that he did to clear his name, I believe him. I just don’t know how someone could be so negligent. If he did (use a banned substance), he got lucky. If he didn’t, he was rightly vindicated."
Hall of Fame weekend 2014 should include Greg Maddux and Glavine along with fellow outspoken anti-steroid slugger Frank Thomas. Hopefully, we can all enjoy a celebration of the game in 2014 rather than the weekend of discussing PEDs that is coming for HOF weekend 2013.