Seattle Mariners: Junior is MLB’s G.O.A.T.
As we later found out from Jose Canseco, steroids crept into MLB in a huge way. According to him, 85 percent of the league was juicing. Many of the biggest names in the game were named in a congressional hearing, such as Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Pudge Rodriguez, and others.
But what was the motivating reason why these All-Star players would feel the need to pump up their numbers even more? My theory is it might have been those players trying to “keep up” with Junior. Here was this Kid that hit .300+ with power, speed, defense and rapidly becoming the face of Major League Baseball. At the time, Barry Bonds was the second-best player in the game, and even he felt the need to juice.
Junior had it all; he had his own video game, candy bars, lunch boxes, Wheaties boxes, his own Swingman shoes, etc. His face was everywhere on billboards and tv, with appearances on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and The Simpsons. He even “ran” for President of the United States in a Nike campaign. Who didn’t want to be Junior in the 1990s?
I believe his overwhelming popularity put pressure on the other stars of the game to figure out ways to keep up with Junior. And for this reason, among others, I think it is a separation maker for him to stand out from the other greats.
Next: Page 3 – G.O.A.T. resume