February 3, 2012

Wezen-Ball

Friday Fun - Popeye and PEDs

by Larry Granillo

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On a Friday afternoon when all the "baseball talk" around the web has been decidedly not about baseball, how about a little fun?

They say the PED problem in baseball is a recent issue in baseball, with most experts placing it's emergence to somewhere around Jose Canseco's career. Well, as this 1937 video shows you, it's been around for far longer than that.

Evidence that Popeye's spinach-abuse was rampant and gave him an unfair advantage:

• The drug is on an open shelf in his locker for all to see.
• Popeye brings the substance onto the playing field without reservations.
• Upon seeing it fall to the ground, Bluto immediately realizes his good fortune and takes a hit of it.
• Bluto's performance while on the green stuff is remarkable, throwing lightning pitches and burning holes in bats, not to mention launching grand slams.
• Popeye is terrible on the mound without his dose and immediately tries to remedy that by shooting up. The placebo spinach does not work.
• When Popeye finally manages to grow another batch (showing remarkable skill at cultivating the herb, I might add), his performance becomes ungodly, racing between the mound and the plate, pushing the grandstands back, hitting 21 home runs with 21 swings... He also lashes out at Bluto, assaulting him and knocking him out of the stadium.

Terrible.

It's all there and, yet, baseball writers demonize today's players without a shred of evidence. It's shameful.

And, hey, if you don't buy that, then check out Bluto's mitt and his catcher giving signs! That's hysterical.