Should we look down on everyone who has been linked to steroids so much?

He’s a baseball purist. He’s anything but the type of person who would take drugs. In fact, he took two Advil in his life and it scared him. It’s even a little esoteric. That gives you an idea of ​​how we wouldn’t imagine that this guy could take a load off his pussy to have big muscles, big tanks, lots of money and a fastball 100 miles away. ‘hour.

But when we talk to him about steroids, this guy is far from condemning everyone who cheated. On the contrary.

I am talking here about Michel Laplante, former player, manager and current president of the Quebec Capitales.

Those who know him know what a phenomenon he is, both in personality and athleticism. It’s insulting. He started his professional baseball career a few years after he started playing on a real field.

He could have had a career in tennis, too. He probably would have gone to the Olympics in volleyball. He can play par when he wants in golf.

And he obviously never took any steroids.

And yet, it is not for lack of opportunities. He played in professional baseball from 1992 to 2005. It was the boom period for these substances.

Michel Laplante was very strong. But he got injured a few times. His fastball lacked a little velocity. Steroids make you throw harder, but they also help you get less exhausted, and therefore less injured.

Who knows what career Michel Laplante would have had on steroids?

The Bonds case

I called Michel Laplante to talk to him about the Barry Bonds case which has just come back into the news.

Bonds will be inducted into the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame this August. It was just announced. I didn’t say Cooperstown. There, he fled like the plague.

But in recent days, the debate has resumed: should Bonds be inducted into Cooperstown (the baseball Hall of Fame) regardless?

Barry Bonds is the most polarizing player in baseball history along with Ty Cobb.

He was hateful, individualistic and weird. For example, he once fought with one of his teammates in San Francisco. He once withdrew from his players’ association union because he believed he could get more marketing money by doing so.*

So he couldn’t be part of video games. He was the first player to do that in 30 years.

And obviously, Bonds is associated with steroids.

But he never officially tested positive for using banned products. Instead, he was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with steroids.

The charges, however, never led to a conviction.

His personal trainer, Greg Anderson, was sent to prison after refusing to testify about steroids and his client Barry Bonds.

Bonds weighed 185 pounds at the start of his career. He weighed 43 pounds more, 18 years later.

Gain weight and no belly

For a dad who works as a civil servant, it can happen between the ages of 18 and 36. For a major league player who doesn’t have a belly, it raises questions.

But Barry Bonds, incidentally, was also the best.

And what’s completely crazy is that if you take his career before his name was linked to steroids, which is up until age 33, he would still be worthy of being in the Hall of Fame.

But after age 33, he hit nearly 400 more home runs, making him the long-ball king in baseball history. He no longer ran, but he hit hard in the bat (see chart opposite).

For Michel Laplante, Barry Bonds is simply the best hitter of all time. Those who took steroids had an advantage. But there were so many of them, according to him.

“I played in those years and I saw it. It’s not true that 10% of players took steroids during this period. When we talk about 50%, we are probably, yes, in a figure that looks like that.”

Michel Laplante is categorical. It is anti-steroids. “But where is the line regarding all the players who played during those years to decide if they will be admitted to the Hall of Fame? Some played on cocaine. Did it help them?”

The Capitals president laments that Barry Bonds could be disadvantaged by his hateful character. Which clashes with the stars of today or yesterday like Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani or Mickey Mantle.

Hateful or not, it shouldn’t change anything

They are athletes who have helped baseball, unlike Bonds. But that should not alter the extent of the impact that the hitter has had on the history of baseball, according to Michel Laplante.

“We must not mix things up. There were 700 major league baseball players in his day and it wasn’t just 72 who cheated. There are probably 350 of them. We won’t start playing police about what each person took by saying: but yes, he was nice, but not the other.

Michel Laplante often had to ask himself whether he should follow the others and try.

“I thought it would be cheating myself. And then for the rest of my life I was going to meet people who were going to tell me how good I was and how hard I threw and I couldn’t live with that.”

He admits that it cursed him to see others transform even though he worked as hard as them. He judged cheaters.

Easy to judge

Until he took the time to discuss it openly with some players.

“I talked to players from the Dominican Republic. Some of them told me that in their family, no one went to school. No one could have shoes. These guys told me that it was normal if I didn’t take any. That I had a good family.”

“But their goal was for their brothers and sisters to be able to go to school one day, with shoes. I realized that I had been making a judgment, all these years, without putting myself in their shoes.”

“I stopped judging everyone. I spent two minutes, as they say. I haven’t experienced that myself.”

*Source: ESPN.com, Darren Rovell

Same player, two careers

Barry Bonds Statistics

From 22 to 33 years old

• 1742 matches
• 374 circuits
• 1094 product points
• 417 stolen goals

From 34 to 42 years old

• 1244 matches
• 388 circuits
• 902 points produced
• 97 stolen goals