Asterisk: Home Runs, Steroids, and the Rush to Judgment

by David Ezra, Mike Schmidt (Foreword)

Baseball is facing a crisis as it is riddled with accusations of steroid and drug abuse, testing, and debates about whether or not records will need to include an asterisk. In attorney David Ezra's new book Asterisk , he explores the public trials of the baseball community and debates questions such as Are accusations of steroid use justified? Or do today's well-trained players, whose teams play in newly constructed ballparks, shatter records because the game has changed?

Genres: Baseball, Sports

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author seems to set out to prove that there isn’t enough solid evidence the say whether or not Barry Bonds used steroids and that steroid use resulted in new home run records. After reading this I’ve come to a couple conclusions. 1) Barry Bonds absolutely used steroids to some level. 2) Barry Bonds was the beneficiary of timely rule changes, better equipment, exercise regiments, and general updates to the game of baseball that ultimately took a very very good and talented player and made him look superhuman.

There’s still a question of whether Bonds took enough steroids to affect his play; maybe he tried it and didn’t like it or stopped… that’s absolutely possible. But he for sure took steroids.

Ezra also mentions the character and integrity requirements for the hall of fame citing that worse people have been inducted without question. Barry Bonds seems like he was a generally terrible person during his playing days - this shouldn’t be ignored, it should have more (and equal weight) for all players. With that said, I’d be all for pulling Ty Cobb and other horrible individuals from the hall of fame; it would give induction a lot more meaning and maybe even force some better behavior from players who stand as role models for kids.

[Miles Shiver · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not particularly good. It was interesting to see a different viewpoint and the author did an ok job of debunking each piece of evidence on its own. Would have been convincing if only one piece of evidence applied to Bonds. However, the combination of all of them was overwhelming on his argument.

[Graeme · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a big fan of Major League Baseball, this was an interesting look into the Steroid Era that was prevalent in baseball in the late 20th century. Using a statistics and logic based approach, David Ezra dives into the attitude of athletes who used performance enhancing drugs, more specifically human growth hormone (HGH) and anabolic steroids. A few chapters of the story dive directly into the case of Barry Bonds, a player who during his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates from the mid 1980's to early 1990's, was known more for his natural speed than his power swing, despite showing the ability to hit the ball hard. However, after leaving Pittsburgh to play for the San Francisco Giants, the athleticism diminished and Bonds became the most prolific home run hitter of all time by the end of his career. That part happened shortly after his change in teams when many people inside and outside of baseball began accusing Bonds of using steroids and cheating the game of baseball. He wasn't the only performance enhancing drug user, as Ezra also talks about other prominent baseball players such as Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Rafael Palmeiro, but it was Bonds' trial for his alleged use of steroids that is one of the main focuses of this book. Ezra does a good job researching the topic and giving in-depth information about all the trials and controversies happening in baseball during the Steroid Era. If you want to know more about performance enhancing drugs in general, but also how they cause controversy in the sports world, this is a good book. It is not too long and gives a lot of unknown information that did not come out during media coverage.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a GREAT book. It does not sugar-coat Bonds instead it challenges the beliefs/charges. It gives very clear and obvious flaws to the “evidence” and “belief” that Bonds cheated. We will not know if he cheated until he admits it. The trial will not bear out whether he actually cheated. Read this book and open your eyes to the possibility that we witnessed one of the most amazing athletes that every played the hardest game every invented. Under no circumstances should any man, woman or child be “convicted” just because they are the biggest jerks on the planet. Ted fell into that category and he was not nearly as revered as he should have been. Unfortunately, once the bell has been rung…it cannot be UNrung.

[Mazola1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did Barry Bonds use steroids? The author's thesis is that the evidence is weak, his talent was immense, and he worked harder than any other baseball player ever, but that he is such a complete jerk that people think he took steroids because they hate him. The author explains away all the cited evidence and while this is interesting, if you already have an opinion, it probably won't change your mind. And that shoul make you wonder about the nature of evidence, convictionand the process of making up your mind.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book makes a convincing well-rounded argument that evidence does not support the popular belief that Barry Bonds was a user of performance-enhancing illegal drugs. It also argues with handfuls of amusing anecdotes that Bonds is a huge jerk.

This book was enjoyable to me for its statistical comparison of Bonds' performance to other major leaguers and for its stories of Bonds interaction skills. Discussion of the characters involved with BALCO was kinda boring.

[John Richards]

Interesting view of Barry Bonds and his use or non-use of Steroids.