posted
What the heck does this mean. It was just on in a superbowl commercial. It's about not taking steroids so you won't "become an asterisk" I assume it's something like your name will say John Doe*
*(not playing because he is on steroids)
Yeah. I'm a bit confused though, because the actual meaning was unclear.
Posts: 655 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
It's a reference to placing asterisks besides a player's name in the record books if they test positive for performance enhancing drugs.
It's never actually been done, to my knowledge (although track is the closest to having done it). People are always talking about it with respect to Barry Bonds.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I took it as a reference to the homerun ball that Barry Bonds hit that was purchase by some rich guy. He had an online vote and people wanted an asterisk branded into the baseball before it was given to the hall of fame.
posted
At my school an asterisk next to your name is used to represent high honors. Maybe they dislike the idea of getting stuck in college sports and never making it to the "big leagues" therefore promoting steroids.
Yes, that must be it.
Posts: 549 | Registered: Feb 2008
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quote:Originally posted by El JT de Spang: It's a reference to placing asterisks besides a player's name in the record books if they test positive for performance enhancing drugs.
It's never actually been done, to my knowledge (although track is the closest to having done it). People are always talking about it with respect to Barry Bonds.
Sort of... It comes up any time a record is broken in a controversial manner. The earliest instance I know of comes from when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's single season home run record. Since the season had expanded from 154 games to 162, there was a bit of a controversy over the record. No record book ever actually did put an asterisk next to the record, but there was talk about it. Wikipedia credits sportswriter Dick Young with popularizing the idea.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
It's a pretty common reference in sports. It's become part of the lingo. An asterisk next to a thing denotes that it is of questionable legitimacy, even though technically it's on the books.
People used to talk about, for example, the San Antonio Spurs NBA championship in 99 as being an asterisk championship, due to the lockout.
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Seems like there was an episode of "King of the Hill" where Peggy and Hank are demanding that an asterisk be put next to some Arlen High kid's "record-breaking" amount of touchdowns.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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