Unfortunately or not, it's hard to know what was real during that era. Jeff Bagwell was my favorite player and he likely used steroids, HGH and other PEDs.

no way vladdy cheated. period.
theres nothing ever linking him to it, not even someone bitter try to flame his name.

I just implied it wouldn't surprise me but like I said we know for sure that A-Rod did.

but jeter didnt, griffey didnt, vladdy didnt. they all played the game the right way. got hurt like players usually do, and didnt recover insanely and immediately put up crazy numbers like those cheaters.
yes im putting vladdy in with them, because vladdy wowed us all like they did (but in his own way) and didnt last as long as they did cuz of injuries. he was just amazing to watch in his own right.

whats crazy about vladdy, he didnt put up like crazy ass numbers early in his career to stable out his end numbers. he was so legit his whole career, even when the power wasnt full there.
he hit .318/.379/.553 over his career, his highest BA for a season was .345, and lowest was .290. he hit in between those numbers his whole career to make his average a legit average. he didnt hit like crazy numbers to boost it them bomb out like some ppl.
he hit .300/25 hrs for 12 straight season, i think there was only 1 other player on earth who did that?

he was just a good hitter, legit, played the game right. just a good player to watch. during the steroid era, who never did anything wrong.

and never wore batting gloves like a real man

oh yea this too.
and never struck out more than 100 times in a season.

edit: absolute CANNON for an arm.
one game i remember against baltimore, he caught a sac fly on the warning track and threw the tying run out from a dead planted stance (flat footed) at home in the bottom of the 9th to end the game.
i remember this cuz napoli got hurt cuz the guy slid into his shins. it was in 2007, i know this cuz this is what i found from wiki

"The second half of the season was injury-marred for Napoli, as he suffered a sprained ankle on a game-winning play at the plate during the final game before the All-Star break, causing him to miss 12 games. "

This post was edited by FLCKennedy on May 1 2014 01:45am

still not as good as mannys catch high fiving the fan and throwing the guy out

This is totally random but here's some food for thought this morning...

Richard Hidalgo in 2000 with the Astros: Hit .314 with 44 HRs, 122 RBIs, .636 slugging % and 1.027 OPS

Carl Everett in 2001 with the Red Sox: Hit .300 with 34 HRs, 108 RBIs, .587 slugging % and .960 OPS

Darin Erstad in 2000 with the Angels: Hit .355 with 25 HRs, 100 RBIs, .541 slugging % and .950 OPS

Luis Gonzalez in 2001 with the Diamondbacks: Hit .325 with 57 HRs, 142 RBIs, .688 slugging % and 1.117 OPS

All four guys were not particularly known as great power hitters but during that era they each put together some sensational years. I'd like to believe all four players were clean and legitimate. They have certainly never been linked to cheating or using performance-enhancing drugs - well okay, maybe Everett was because his name was included in that old Congress list -- but all I'm saying is the game back then was totally different. Nobody knows for sure who accomplished what legitimately and who did it through some form of cheating because almost any ballplayer, even guys who weren't even big body types, seemed to hit like a superstar back then.

Jeff Bagwell, just like Vladimir Guerrero, had a pretty awesome career and is very worthy of the Hall of Fame but he keeps missing out on the last two ballots. Neither player has been linked to cheating. It doesn't mean they didn't do it. How do we know for sure? It's all opinion anyways but the game was different back during those times. That's all I was trying to say.

that is over rulled by manny missing aybars popup then rolling 3 times backwards for the ball then allowing aybar to get a triple out of it... holy shit that was pure comedy. lemme find that clip plz.