Insidethewrapper,
1) Supposedly there are some steroids that do help with vision. I think it is some sort of steroid given to horses.
2) Even if they don't help your vision they DO help prolong a career. Look at baseball players BEFORE the Steroid Era and what you will find is that most of them have a similar arc; they put up their best stats when they were in their late 20's, had their performance drop some over the next few years and then started to really tail off after the age of 35. Now look at the Steroid Era.
Like Keith Olbermann said in his blog article (which was posted earlier). In the Steroid Era you had big guys hitting Home Runs MUCH farther than they had before. You had smaller middle infield - typo players hitting more Home Runs than they ever had and also hitting opposite field Home Runs where they had hardly ever done that. Most telling of all, you had guys over the age or 35 putting up better stats than they had at the age of 25. That just does not happen in normal baseball.
Johhny Bench and Yogi Berra were retired by the age of 35. Jimmie Foxx was pretty much done by the age of 32. Yet there Barry Bonds was putting up numbers NO ONE had ever put up before.
If you look at the research, baseball players' peaks usually come between the ages of 26 to 29. This is because their bodies have matured and they have played enough games that their experience helps them. After the age of 30, most mens metabolism starts to slow down (so gaining weight is easier and losing it is harder). A little later in their 30's, the testosterone production starts to fall. So these things added to the fact that reflexes also start to slow accounts for why baseball players stats drop over time as they get older.
Then there are cases like Barry Bonds.
During Bonds first 11 years in MLB, he had a high of 46 Home Runs and had hit 40+ Home Runs in three different seasons. During what most player's peak years would be (26 - 29) Bonds hit 25, 34, 46 and 37 Home Runs, respectively. Notice that the 46 Home Runs were his high to that point of his career and came in his age 28 season.
Now look what happens later.
Ages 30 -34, Bonds hits 33, 42, 40, 37 and 34 Home Runs, respectively.
Ages 35 - 39, Bonds hits 49, 73, 46, 45 and 45.
So, he hti at or above his career high in HR's every year while ALSO getting fewer pitches to hit (because pitchers were walking him so much).
This isn't to even mention the increase in the actual size of his head and feet. I don't know how old you are but I am in my mid - 40's and the size of my head and feet hasn't increased since I was a teenager. Yet a guy on the Giants said that Bonds hat and shoe size increased in his later years. Years when MOST people's bones have already matured and fused together so that growth CAN"T happen.
Finally, people say that there weren't rules against steroids before 2004. WRONG. Google Fay Vincent and steroids and see what you come up with. There are a couple of interesting articles, one of which talks about Bud Selig when he was the owner of the Brewers.
David
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