OT: SI Article 2003

This isn't much, but I was just reading through some old stuff and found an old article/poll that SI did where they had players vote on different categories of their fellow MLB'ers. This was in 2003, and looking back on it, that was really the last peak of the steriods. Remember, this was players voting about other players and issues. Its a small sample size, but it's ironic to see these numbers.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/news/2003/07/01/survey/

Look at that. Almost half of major leaguers thought the weak drug testing system was fine and another 23 percent are on the same lines. Thats 63 percent of major league ball players were fine with the system or wanted a weaker system. Also, look at that footnotes at the bottom. Pitchers were more in favor of harder testing than hitters(big surprise). It looks like pitchers knew these guys were on steroids(and the ones that voted no to harder testing were probably on something themselves) and were trying to say something through these numbers. More on the footnotes, the next two bullet points are very good reads as well. Players who were just entering in the league, to me it looks like they realized they were outmatched by these beefed up players and wanted to make it fair play without going on PED's themselves. The last footnote, is kind of interesting. Those making the money it looks like they fell 50/50 with god gifted talent, and PED's. If you look back to 2003's top paid players most of them, not all mentioned in the public but are under suspicion, were on PED's. Heres the list. 

Year / Top 25 players

2003

Rank Player Salary Team 1       Rodriguez, Alex $ 22,000,000                           Texas Rangers 2       Ramirez, Manny $ 20,000,000                           Boston Red Sox 3       Delgado, Carlos $ 18,700,000                           Toronto Blue Jays 4       Vaughn, Mo $ 17,166,667                           New York Mets 5       Sosa, Sammy $ 16,000,000                           Chicago Cubs 6       Brown, Kevin J. $ 15,714,286                           Los Angeles Dodgers 7       Green, Shawn $ 15,666,667                           Los Angeles Dodgers 8       Jeter, Derek $ 15,600,000                           New York Yankees 9       Piazza, Mike $ 15,571,429                           New York Mets 10       Bonds, Barry $ 15,500,000                           San Francisco Giants 11       Martinez, Pedro J. $ 15,500,000                           Boston Red Sox 12       Johnson, Randy $ 15,000,000                           Arizona Diamondbacks 13       Maddux, Greg $ 14,750,000                           Atlanta Braves 14       Hampton, Mike $ 13,625,000                           Atlanta Braves 15       Jones, Chipper $ 13,333,333                           Atlanta Braves 16       Bagwell, Jeff $ 13,000,000                           Houston Astros 17       Belle, Albert $ 13,000,000                           Baltimore Orioles 18       Gonzalez, Juan $ 13,000,000                           Texas Rangers 19       Mondesi, Raul $ 13,000,000                           New York Yankees 20       Park, Chan Ho $ 13,000,000                           Texas Rangers 21       Walker, Larry $ 12,666,667                           Colorado Rockies 22       Griffey Jr., Ken $ 12,500,000                           Cincinnati Reds 23       Dreifort, Darren $ 12,400,000                           Los Angeles Dodgers 24       Williams, Bernie $ 12,357,143                           New York Yankees 25       Burnitz, Jeromy $ 12,166,667                           New York Mets

http://content.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/salaries/top25.aspx?year=2003

Now, like I said before, not all of those guys have been caught for PED's. This is my own judgment here, but I see at least 17 players that either I know they took PED's, or I could make a huge argument that they did, remember I said in my own opinion. 

I know it was off topic, but it's interesting to me that a lot of people were so oblivious to what was going on, mostly in part that it really brought baseball back after the strike, and the MLB's front office exec's weren't hollering either because they saw how popular baseball became during those years. Now that baseball is back, they now know they have to get it back to a fair playing field. Anyways, hopefully you guys find it interesting too. Oh, and the "Devil Rays" had the best players club house!