' roids or not? juan gonzalez edition

juan gonzalez was one of my favorite players growing up. he won 2 mvp awards and drove in the 27th most runs in history in 1998 with 157. for his career he hit 434 HR to go with a .295 average and over 1400 RBI. he also averaged 42 HR for every 162 games played. no too shabby.

case for: well canseco pointed a finger at juan. his HR numbers were huge during the steroid era, and they dropped off the face of the earth when testing began. essentially, his career ended with testing. now, in all fairness, injuries played a big role in his demise never playing more than 140 games after 2001. but injuries could also point to a history of using PEDs. steroids have been linked to making users more suspect to ligament and tendon injuries. also, hgh is thought to allow quicker healing from injuries. he won his second mvp award in 1998, the same year the NL MVP was also likely using them.

case against: he did hit 46 homers in 1992, the year before canseco became his teammate so its not like his power numbers came out of nowhere. injuries provide a perfectly reasonable explanation for his decline. it could be just a coincidence that it happened at the start of testing. a quick google search of "juan gonzalez charity" reveals that he does sell autographs for charity.

do you have anything to add? is juan gone guilty or not?

is this really possible?

so i bet you collect a specific player. its ok to admit it, most people do. i'd be willing to bet that over the course of the last year, you've spent at least $12.50 on one of that player's cards. it might have been a jersey patch or a low serial numbered autograph. chances are, if your player is a prospect, he won't even make it to the show.

now let's look at what you could have spent your money on. here is a beautiful game used jersey card of a hall of famer. i'm speaking about none other than teddy ballgame. this williams card sold recently for $12.50. that was the actual price too as the seller was offering free shipping. i'm kicking myself for not bidding on this one. I got caught up at work, and by the time i made it home, it was over.