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Sports Then and Now



Best of the Decade: Steroids Rule The Baseball World 3

Posted on December 29, 2009 by Dean Hybl
St. Louis Cardinals Albert Pujols breaks record

Albert Pujols was the toast of the league during the last decade.

The most prevalent storyline in Major League Baseball during the decade wasn’t a player or even a team. Instead, the subject of steroids dominated the decade. There were so many of the best players of the era linked to performance enhancing drugs that no player was above scrutiny.

For that reason, selecting the best players of the decade is a very difficult challenge. Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds posted statistical seasons that rank among the best of all time, yet Rodriguez has admitted to using a PED and Bonds is under federal indictment for supposedly lying about his use of drugs.

Because I have no true idea which players actually have used PEDs, I chose not to make potential use a major factor in selecting this list. Instead, it was a secondary factor in where a couple of the players on this list were ultimately placed.

Who Was The Best Major League Baseball Player Of The Decade?

  • Albert Pujols (47%, 14 Votes)
  • Ichiro Suzuki (13%, 4 Votes)
  • Derek Jeter (10%, 3 Votes)
  • Randy Johnson (7%, 2 Votes)
  • Barry Bonds (7%, 2 Votes)
  • Chipper Jones (7%, 2 Votes)
  • Roy Halladay (7%, 2 Votes)
  • Ryan Howard (3%, 1 Votes)
  • Manny Ramirez (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Mariano Rivera (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Alex Rodriguez (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 30

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Below is my top 10 list of the best Major League Baseball players of the decade:
Read the rest of this entry →

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