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Steroids
Monday, January 07, 2008
By , 08:10 PM
I don’t normally like to get involved in these speculative discussions/issues, but after listening to the tape of the Clemens/McNamee phone conversation, there is little doubt in my mind that Clemens is a lying sack of ****. There is also little doubt in my mind that he is also dumb as a brick.
So, is it just me, or is Clemens essentially saying on the phone, “I can’t believe you ratted me out,” and, “I just want you to tell the truth (wink, wink)?” You call a guy up and tape him with the expressed purpose of proving your innocence to the world, and you never say something like, “We all know that you never injected me with steroids or HGH. Why did you lie and say that you did?” It is unfathomable that ANYONE would not say that in that conversation IF they were telling the truth and if their intention was to prove that to the world. Unfathomable as in there is a 99% chance that Clemens is a liar and has weaved a tangled web. I only hope for his sake that no one can prove that HE is lying, which is probably the case. The first rule of defense is that if you know or are pretty sure that your adversary cannot prove their allegations, is to deny them to the hilt, even if they are true. That appears to be what Clemens is doing. I say that there is little doubt in my mind that Clemens is stupid (and his lawyer is borderline incompetent) because to think that that tape recording is going to HELP his cause is preposterous. That tape recording was the biggest joke (sad is more like it) that I have ever heard.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Trying to bust a slump? No worries, it’s only women. Voting in drug abusers and addicts into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? We need someone in there. Wife-beaters already in, or eventually in, various hall of fames? They all deserve redemption. A presidential candidate admitting to past cocaine use? Presidents abusing alcohol? What’s a little vino among friends. But, gosh-darn it, if I am an old white guy, and I have my Harlequin fascination with baseball, then I expect my baseball players to be virgin with cocaine, steroids, and hGH. Let them abuse all other vices, including amphetamines, alcohol and women which you probably term as “harmless vices.. but drugs is a dirty business”.
Live in the real world, baseball writers. You want to make baseball as romantic as you want. Fine. But, don’t try to impose your fantasy into the world’s reality. If an athlete is going to abuse something, I’d rather he do it to himself. It’s not my fault you give the number 61 such romantic properties.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Really? I mean, really? Of the 90 players, 33 improved their “statistical performance” in the first year following PED, and 46 improved in at least one of the two years. Stop the presses! Given TWO chances at improving your performance, 50% did so. This means that 50% had a worse performance in BOTH of the following two years (compared to the 15% who had a better performance in both of of the following two years). They should change the name to PDD, changing enhancing to declining.
In all seriousness, I applaud the research and effort. But, the conclusions and headline are totally at odds with the researchers’ own data.
Let’s listen. He also addresses corticosteroids as it related to Sandy Koufax. Last year, I brought up Sandy issue as it related to Kirk Gibson. I was going to write this to Will, but I’ll post it here, and hopefully Will will see it too:
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Tuesday, December 18, 2007
One version, anyway:
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Here’s the Summary of Congressional Hearings:
Mr. Kutz began by summarizing the results of a study done… particularly on the circumstances surrounding the death of 10 separate youth in 10 different ... programs
My bad. It’s not athletes and steroids, but youths in private residential treatment programs ("boot camps"). But, they did have congressional hearings.
Line up the wife-beating, child-abusing, criminal athletes on the left. Condemn those guys before you start on guys on the right sullying your idea of a perfect game and hallowed numbers.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Courtesy of baseball analyst and lawyerKeith Scherer.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Will Carroll had an interesting blog entry on the detectability of a set of drugs. But he curiously did not cite his source because “I don’t want to make it any easier for this type of information to be found.” In fact, he made it incredibly easy for me to find it, as you can see right here. Go to google and put in this:
how to pass a drug test F1 F2 F4 F5
And you’ll see a whole set of sites, each seemingly with the same list. Thanks for the public service Will!
What I found interesting is that they roll the dice for “random” drug testing, by match the roll of the die to the last digit in your social security number. Obviously, guys with a last digit of 7 are going to be tested far more (or at least far earlier) than anyone else, on average. I think there is a limit to the number of random drug tests per player, so rolling a 7 one week likely precludes a 7 from rolling a second time. A nice game of craps.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
This is disappointing to read from someone in charge:
“Discipline for wrongdoing is important, but it is also important to create an environment so players can feel free to honestly and completely cooperate with this important investigation.”
Unless he’s creating an environment of immunity from baseball prosecution (and keeping his statement confidential so that admitting to having committed an illegal act isn’t going to bring the real prosecutors after him), what the heck is Selig talking about? What environment? Talk or else we’ll suspend you for whatever we think we can get away with?
John Zeigler once suspended Borje Salming for an entire season for having admitted that he used cocaine several years prior:
Published: September 5, 1986
The National Hockey League has suspended Borje Salming, a Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman, for eight regular-season games and fined $500 because he used cocaine several years ago, the league announced yesterday.
John Ziegler, National Hockey League president, said the penalty was the ‘’the very minimum.’’ Salming, who is 35 years old and a 13-year veteran of the team, was quoted in a Toronto newspaper in May as saying that he used cocaine ‘’five, six years ago, but not since and I feel good about saying no.’’ The league suspended him for the entire season, then commuted the suspension.
Here’s the list of NHL players. The basic rule is: don’t ask, don’t tell. Pro leagues care about its image first, and the players last. There’s nothing wrong with that, since the players care about themselves first. But, don’t be a hypocrite and say otherwise. Leagues and players will do anything to ensure that they maximize their revenues.
Except for someone like Dominik Hasek, who told the Redwings a few years ago to stop paying him, since he was injured. And Pavol Demitra who would have had a sizeable bonus kick in if he scored one more goal. As it turns out, he had an empty net, and instead of shooting, passed the puck to his teammate. That act of generosity cost him something like 500,000$ a year, for two years. The Blues *wanted* him to score since they had an insurance policy against the bonus. It would not have cost them an extra cent. Why did he do that? Because he passed the puck to a teammate who had a 300,000$ bonus on the line. The shot was deflected, and both players got nothing.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
I’ve long said that when it comes to performance enhancing druges (PED):
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Friday, March 23, 2007
Tim talks about the double-standard that MLB faces with regards to drugs.
Ken Fidlin ponders a what-if, which I’ll paraphrase for baseball purposes:
Suspend reality for a moment while we paint a grim, fictional picture. It is the day after the final game of the World Series and the Yankees, America’s most decorated franchise, have won their 25th title, double the total of any other team in MLB. There is, however, little joy in New York, or any other city in America for that matter.
The team general manager has resigned, embroiled in a game-fixing scandal that appears to involve league referees and administration officials. The scandal already has claimed the MLB commissioner, who was forced to resign in disgrace the week previous. Former President George W Bush has been appointed “extraordinary commissioner” to sift through the allegations and clean up the mess. The entire Yankees board of directors has resigned and shares of the publicly-traded company are sinking faster than the Titanic.
Meanwhile, the Yankees’ highest paid player is under investigation as part of a massive gambling and game-fixing scandal from two years previous. The star is accused of betting on games in which he was playing. In all, dozens are under investigation for various roles in the scandal, and that may just be the tip of the iceberg. If the allegations are proven against the Yankees GM, it is very likely that the World Series victory will be nullified and the team banished from the league.
With that horrifying, fictitious scenario fixed firmly in your brain, we welcome you to the wonderful world of Italian soccer. And this is no fantasy. It’s real and it’s happening, almost on the eve of the 2006 World Cup.
European soccer can weather its gambling scandal. The NBA, NHL, and NFL would be able to weather any drug scandal that will come its way. If I were to tell you that rock stars dabble in drugs, you’d hardly be surprised. The surprise would be that they didn’t. And the truth is that teenagers are far more influenced by musicians than athletes. Parents know this because they’ve lived it.
We’ve all come to accept that everything in our world is tainted, and we’ve gotta live with it. But, not baseball. Baseball is above it all, a pure and beautiful game that MLB has the privilege to control. A right that it must abdicate if they don’t keep it pure and beautiful. That’s the bullshit that Field of Dreamers believe.
Baseball is baseball, and MLB is MLB, and MLB is Eurpoean Soccer, NHL, NFL, and Rock Stars. When you are watching MLB, you are not watching baseball, that pure and beautiful game. You are watching an event, like any other event performed by the best money (and other things) can buy. And all the sellers (the performers) and all the middle-men (management) and all the buyers (you) are complicit.
Live with reality.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Fabulous article by Michael Dorf. After the jump, I’ll highlight some interesting parts, but I recommend reading the whole thing. Also a good article from Wall Street Journal.
(Hat tip: Bob Timmerman)
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Friday, September 01, 2006
In 1997
Still, Bonds doesn’t realistically believe Maris’ record will fall.
“Not unless you make it mandatory for a starting pitcher go eight innings,” he said. “Baseball has changed.”
http://www.journaliststoolbox.com/clips5.html
(Hat tip: USS Mariner)
Always fascinating to me that one of the reasons Bonds is allegedly to have said he started his drug program is to keep up with the Joneses (McGwire, Sosa). That is, if there were no other guys who usurped Bonds’ glamour, of his rightful place as the unquestioned greatest nonpitcher of his generation, it’s possible he would not have started with his drug program. Then again, we all have decisions to make and to take responsibility for.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Steroid grandfather still physically and mentally muscular
He said that while Barry Bonds is made the personification of a cheater, others are given free rides. By way of example he points to one of the most famous home runs in baseball history. It was struck in the 1988 World Series by Kirk Gibson of the Dodgers, who received a cortisone shot before the game.
“Another steroid,” Clapp said.
Jonathan Cluett, M.D.
Cortisone is a type of steroid that is produced naturally by a gland in your body called the adrenal gland....Cortisone is a powerful anti-inflammatory medication.
Ban on cortisone a giant headache, May 2005.
Eight Olympic sports ... pleading for the removal of glucocorticosteroids - commonly called cortisone - from WADA’s list of banned drugs.
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