An unforgettable day in baseball

slimvictor

slimvictor

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"Darkness cannot be dissipated with more darkness.
Days like this don't come along very often in sports.

Historic. Unforgettable. Career-altering. Sport-altering.

A powerful statement on the times, on one hand. An incomprehensible circus, generated by one wayward loose cannon intent on setting an all-time baseball record for lawyer bills, on the other hand.

That was the scene Monday on Biogenesis Day in baseball. There has never been a day quite like it. Not in this sport. Not in any sport.

Think about it. Think about what just happened here.

A dozen players were just suspended on the same day for performance-enhancing drug use -- and not one of them failed a drug test.

A dozen players were presented with the overpowering evidence compiled during the most extensive, most expensive drug investigation in the history of sports -- and all 12 of them decided this was not a fight worth fighting. The facts were too overwhelming, too unbeatable.

So all 12 of them turned in their right-to-appeal cards and began serving their time, amid apologies, statements of contrition, expressions of regret.

And if only that had been all that happened on this day, what a powerful day this would have been.

If only the P.T. A-Rod Circus hadn't pulled into town.

If only our memory of this day, 10 or 20 or 50 years from now, was not going to be the surreal scene in Chicago, where Alex Rodriguez went back to playing baseball -- on the very same day he got clobbered with the biggest drug suspension in history.

Who could have written this script? Not Francis Ford Coppola. Only A-Rod.

A good day for baseball

But we'll get back to him in a moment. Before we let A-Rod-palooza take over this entire conversation, it's time for one other important announcement:

Other than him, this was NOT a bad day for baseball.

No, sir. It was a good day, an important day, a day that may just rewrite the history of drugs in sports -- and not merely this sport.

It was a day, after all, when Bud Selig and his sport sent a message that no other professional sport has had the fortitude to send:

So you thought you could beat the test-tube police force, huh? You thought you were taking stuff we couldn't test for or detect, huh? You thought you were bigger, better, smarter than the system? Well, guess again. If you think that down the road, you just might find yourself sailing on the same sinking ship as Ryan Braun and Nelson Cruz and Alex Rodriguez. So good luck to ya.

I swapped text messages Monday with Skip Schumaker of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Brad Ziegler of the Arizona Diamondbacks, two of the most outspoken players in baseball on this issue. I wasn't sure myself if they would see this as a good day or a bad day.

But they both wrote back immediately: Good day. Really good day.

A "step in the right direction," Schumaker said. A day that would make players realize they "can still get caught without having a positive test."

Ditto, said Ziegler. This, he said, was a day that "will hopefully deter a lot of players down the road."

cont at
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9...-make-truly-historic-day-baseball-history-mlb
 
Performance enhancing drugs have been a part of sport for a long time, I don't think it will change any time soon.

In Australia, there's almost an entire AFL football team who were allegedly being injected with unapproved substances for a good portion of the season. They were at the top of the ladder with very few losses, then all of a sudden, some rumours suggest they were tipped off by the head of the league that they were being investigated by ASADA, the teams' form rapidly dropped off and they ended up losing their last 6 or 7 games, not even making the finals.

If there is an edge to be had without getting caught, I'm sure professional athletes will take advantage of it. At the top level, the difference between the best and the worst is so miniscule that in my opinion, it will always be that way.

I don't necessarily think it's a good thing, but I also don't think it's the devil that the media makes it out to be. We want our athletes to do some pretty fucking incredible things, week in and week out. They provided entertainment, and that's it. Do you ban steroids from wrestlers? In fact, do they even test them? What's the difference?
 
^ I pretty much agree with this post for the most part.

I think steroids in sports are a very hard issue, on one hand I don't really see what is wrong with it if one is willing to put up with the health consequences. The problem with this mentality is it would likely create a situation in professional sports where only those willing to damage their bodies through substance abuse would make it, and obviously that isn't fair. It is a hard line to draw though, because is it any fairer that probably a significant proportion of those who do well in sports currently are doping and never being caught, and get to be held up as these great role models and championed in society over their competitors who competed fairly. Atleast approving it to some extent would put it on the radar.

Quite a few years ago I used to be a fitness fanatic and I used to know a few guys who I would workout with or otherwise associate with who would juice. I been offered it multiple times, but at the time (and now for the record) I always felt that taking steroids is cheating yourself, it is pretty cliche I know, but my feeling has always been that exercise is about self improvement, and it doesn't matter exactly HOW much you improve each week what matters is that you are improving continually and that you earn those results yourself. However, I do recognise this philosophy doesn't have much application in a competetive setting.

What I do disagree with is the way that society demonises the shit out of any athletes that are caught doping, like they are scum of the earth or something. Look at the pressure that the sporting organisations, the fans and presumably the coaches and team mates put on professional athletes and tell me that in the same position doping wouldn't cross your mind. I mean, most of these athletes earn absolute top dollar, that is a lot to lose and with all the ways around drug tests these days it could very feasibly be seen as less risky to dope in a sport where it is prevalent than it would be to not dope and risk performing quite poorly in relation to their competitors. If people were honest with themselves I think they would acknowledge a very significant percentage of people, if not a majority, would consider doping with that much money and prestige on the line.

I know there is a wide variety of performance enhancing drugs and I don't know a great deal about them. I have read and been told that anabolic steroids don't actually make people stronger, but give their body the ability to recover quicker. These people still have to work out more often and harder than people who aren't doping and in that sense it isn't as much of a cheat as is made out. Obviously it still is cheating because those not using the 'roids don't have the ability to perform the extra workouts. I used to box and do other martial arts and I can say from experience that use of various stimulants never gave me any boost in performance that I could tell, and often the opposite. For the record I would like to say I never used these stimulants as a performance enhancer so much as happened to have a bit of speed or whatever some days before going to the boxing gym and tried a few different stimulants before backyard sparring with my mates. Everytime I would take a stimulant and fight (methamphetamine and methylphenidate are the two I recall specifically) I seemed to come out much more aggressive but I would burn out and gas quickly and overall my performance would drop, my increased aggression also reduced my inclination to think about my strategy so my performance suffered in this sense as well. One time I had a pretty intense roll (bjj sparring session) with a friend of mine who has ADD after snorting a few of his ritalin tablets and I honestly think it was the closest I have ever come to a heart attack in my life (and I mean it was close!) and I was only like 18 years old at the time, maybe younger.
 
The sport is nearly unwatchable now. Stadiums almost everywhere are empty; nobody's going to the games. I hope you all are happy.
 
completely agree with this column (by the 2 Live Crew guy)

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2013-08-08/news/mlb-suspensions-peds/

Legalize Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Pro Sports

by Luther Campbell

Miami native Alex Rodriguez is getting a raw deal from Major League Baseball. Since Miami New Times broke the mind-blowing story of Biogenesis, a now-defunct anti-aging clinic in Coral Gables that supplied human growth hormone, testosterone, and anabolic steroids to Rodriguez and scores of other players, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and his minions want to make examples of them.

Two weeks ago, Selig slapped Milwaukee Brewer Ryan Braun, a former Miami Hurricane, with a 65-game suspension. This week, Selig suspended A-Rod for the rest of this season and the entire 2014 season. Twelve other players got 50-game bans. To nail the players, MLB cut a sweetheart deal with Biogenesis owner Tony Bosch to rat them out. This just proves the crackdown is a pointless exercise in hypocrisy. Who goes after the drug dealer to get to his buyers? It's usually the other way around.

Rodriguez and the players targeted by MLB are being tried in a kangaroo court. They are being presumed guilty because of the embarrassing media coverage.

I really don't see the crime here. Everybody going after A-Rod for using PEDs is a hypocrite. In every major sport, there are numerous PED pushers like Bosch making sure celebrity athletes continue to perform at a high level to justify their multimillion-dollar contracts. It's not about chasing records or making sure they get into the Hall of Fame. These players are under enormous pressure to keep earning their extravagant paychecks. Teams and league officials punish players only when it hits the media, but they know PEDs help protect their investment.

Using PEDs is no different from a Miami Heat team doctor sticking a cortisone shot into Dwyane Wade's knee before the fourth quarter so he can get back on the court. Isn't that the very definition of a PED? What about players who are taking over-the-counter supplements and pills to lose weight?

We're living in a time when everyone is concerned with prolonging their youth and enhancing their bodies. These athletes are being told they can't use substances that you and I can use legally for our health. By banning some PEDs in professional sports, officials are just creating a black market where pushers like Bosch can make millions of dollars.
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didnt know uncle luke was a writer other than "somebody say heeeey we want some puuusssaaaay!"

lol

there has to be a level playing field, either they all do it or none of them do it kind of thing, but with this there are probably so many ppl (and with good reason) would say fuck juicing. I worked at a gym for a while and saw first hand how crazy some ppl would get from it, and also the practically unknown stuff ppl would be injecting. this one trainer had a bottle, dont know what it was or what it was supposed to be, but it just had a bull on it and chinese lettering. being a former IV user of smack injecting unknown drugs is the norm, but there are sooo many diff stypes of steroids and with dope you more or less know what you have, just not what it may be cut with. also dope doesnt make you go bald grow tits get bacne destroy your lives and shrink your balls...that is with out taking tamixofen or whatever its called..the estrogen blocker drug.
 
If they had two leagues, one with full use of all PEDs (including steroids and HGH) and one without (except for cortisone, caffeine, and all the many legal ones now),
which one would you watch?
I think, after a few decades, the one without certain drugs would begin to be seen as some bizarre cult with a purity fetish.
They would likely be 10 or 20% slower and weaker, kinda like the difference between the AAA minor leagues and the majors now.
Those with PEDs would also come back faster from injuries.
Really, it would be no competition.

If they just decided to allow all PEDs in MLB now, I would feel a little sorry for those who didn't want to take any.
It's not really fair, is it?
Just as those who don't want to take cortisone now for health reasons are discriminated against.
And, should we ban cortisone because some athletes might be worried about its "side effects", and won't take it, and it wouldn't be fair to them to allow other athletes to take it?
I think not.
Isn't that part of excelling?
You can choose whether to take the cortisone or not.
You should be able to choose to take HGH, or not, as well.
If it is worth it to you to hurt your body X amount for purpose Y, you should have the right to do so.


"I'm the one that's gonna have to die, when it's time for me to die.
So let me live my life, the way I want to." Jimi Hendrix

23536 said:
The sport is nearly unwatchable now. Stadiums almost everywhere are empty; nobody's going to the games. I hope you all are happy.
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Really? I still enjoy it, though I never have time to watch a whole game except for maybe a world series game.
Are you saying that, because people can't use PEDs, they are unskilled?
Cause, personally, I watch Cabrera or Trout or Clayton or Puig and I get a thrill out of it.
 
Where would the line be drawn if PED's were allowed?
Would players be allowed to use experimental drugs and undergo experimental procedures that not all players have access to?

Would only certain classes of drugs be allowed?

Would teams be able to invest in researching their own proprietary drugs?

I don't really watch sports at all but i find the debate quite fascinating.
 
slimvictor said:
Really? I still enjoy it, though I never have time to watch a whole game except for maybe a world series game.
Are you saying that, because people can't use PEDs, they are unskilled?
Cause, personally, I watch Cabrera or Trout or Clayton or Puig and I get a thrill out of it.
Click to expand...

I still go to games, but it's very hard to sit through a game in which your team trails for the entire game and manages to crank out only 3 hits and 5 base runners. It seems like the pitchers are too powerful, and it seems like this is not the baseball I grew up watching.

Mind you, I was introduced to baseball during the height of the PED era.

It also doesn't help that beers are $8 at the park.
 
LuGoJ said:
Where would the line be drawn if PED's were allowed?
Click to expand...

PEDs are allowed now, and have always been used and allowed.
Pud Galvin used testosterone (from dogs and guinea pigs) in the 1880s to enhance his performance.
According to The Baseball Hall of Shame's Warped Record Book, Babe Ruth injected himself with sheep testosterone.
According to writer Zev Chafets, Mickey Mantle lost the home run race to Roger Maris in 1961 because he got a botched injection of steroids, amphetamines, and other drugs.
Hank Aaron said in his autobiography that he tried amphetamines once in order to improve his hitting that day.
wikisource
Caffeine has been used and permitted since the earliest history of baseball.

Where "the line" is drawn depends entirely on media attention, public outrage, and the social context of the time.
 
slimvictor said:
PEDs are allowed now, and have always been used and allowed.
Pud Galvin used testosterone (from dogs and guinea pigs) in the 1880s to enhance his performance.
According to The Baseball Hall of Shame's Warped Record Book, Babe Ruth injected himself with sheep testosterone.
According to writer Zev Chafets, Mickey Mantle lost the home run race to Roger Maris in 1961 because he got a botched injection of steroids, amphetamines, and other drugs.
Hank Aaron said in his autobiography that he tried amphetamines once in order to improve his hitting that day.
wikisource
Caffeine has been used and permitted since the earliest history of baseball.

Where "the line" is drawn depends entirely on media attention, public outrage, and the social context of the time.
Click to expand...

I should have specified, some PED's are. PED's as a whole are not. I was wondering more about the specific situations i raised anyhow.

Honestly though, i can't see any "line" being respected by players. When people are fighting for millions of dollars they will do whatever it takes to get their money.
 
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They're still basically legal in professional boxing. Look how many fighters fail a test and then three months later are back in the ring. I think Andre Berto failed one within the last year and he still managed to fight. There was another black guy who fought a few weeks ago, be failed a test last January or February with the highest test ratio the Nevada gaming commission had found, something like 33:1.
 
wats funny is the cept braun and arod i dont think any of these guys tested positive, only caught because somehow word came of the biogenesis clinic
 
!_MDMA_! said:
wats funny is the cept braun and arod i dont think any of these guys tested positive, only caught because somehow word came of the biogenesis clinic
Click to expand...

Neither of those guys have tested positive either. A-Rod certainly hasn't, and Braun's positive sample had an incomplete chain of custody. Braun's sample was also by far the most positive sample ever, and that is perhaps evidence that it was tampered with.
 
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