Steroids

[prough91]

I know everyone is probably sick to death of hearing about steroids by now, but I was thinking today about it and I think I have a solution to the steroid problem.

Let everyone do them.

Every team in every sport could have a doctor that would over see the administration of the steroids for that team. I did a little research on the internet tonight about steroids and it isn't the steroids themselves that screw up the players so much as the abuse of steroids. A player will start bulking up and think "well, if this amount helps me, doubling it will double the results", when they start thinking along these lines, that's when they start hurting themselves. Most players realize that they need to take extremely good care of their bodies and if they were monitored and educated on steroids, I think it would be better than just letting them take it into their own hands.

I know there are people who are going to be going on about maintaining the purity of sports, but as long as their has been sports, I'm sure people have been looking for a leg up. I read a story one time about a famous baseball player, I think Babe Ruth but I can't remember for sure, that would drink a ton of coffee before each game because he thought it gave him a competitive advantage. Obviously, drinking all that coffee didn't help him, but he was looking for some kind of drug, in this case caffeine, that would help him perform better physically. We can all look back on the "Glory Days" of any sport and wish sports nowadays were like that, but the fact is simple, Players in the "Glory Days" didn't take steroids because they weren't available. Period.

Now, bash away.

[Canada]

Bottom line... Unless you hurt somebody, (or steal) then I don't see how there is a crime.

If you become violent, or steal, as a result of drug use, then you are a criminal. If you don't hurt anyone, or steal from anyone, then who the **** is the complainant?

For the record, I will gladly grant that the effects of steroids played a part in Benoits tirade. But, the drugs didn't hurt anyone, Chris Benoit did.

You can use any example of how drugs hurt someone, but they didn't. The fact is that whoever put the drugs into the "victims" system hurt them.

I totally agree with you, however most drugs/drug users do become violent and or steal as a result of the drugs they are using. I personally am glad that the laws are set to protect those of us who choose not to use drugs as opposed to protecting those who do. And for the record the drugs are usually not forced into people. People make a choice.

[timsatt1]

Bottom line... Unless you hurt somebody, (or steal) then I don't see how there is a crime.

If you become violent, or steal, as a result of drug use, then you are a criminal. If you don't hurt anyone, or steal from anyone, then who the **** is the complainant?

For the record, I will gladly grant that the effects of steroids played a part in Benoits tirade. But, the drugs didn't hurt anyone, Chris Benoit did.

You can use any example of how drugs hurt someone, but they didn't. The fact is that whoever put the drugs into the "victims" system hurt them.

hoorah! yeah, i totally agree. there are too many "victims" out there. Anymore, before we try a murderer, we have to make sure that he was mentaly stable enough to know what he was doing when he murdered so and so. Our system is screwed up.

[rbedgood]

I disagree with the "elite athletes" comment. I don't think Barry Bonds touches the record without steriods.

I don't thinkk Barry Bonds touches the HR record without steroids, but I do think he becomes the first and only 600-600 guy without steroids. Steroids slowed him down, and in many ways may have caused some of the joint problems that he had. The irony is that to true baseball fans 600-600 would've been much more impressive than the 762 HRs that he hit.

BTW he finished with 514 stolen bases...and averaged 25+ per year until 1999 when he went on steroids...it cost him at least 10-15 SBs a year for the last 9 years of his career.

[hermhater]

I don't thinkk Barry Bonds touches the HR record without steroids, but I do think he becomes the first and only 600-600 guy without steroids. Steroids slowed him down, and in many ways may have caused some of the joint problems that he had. The irony is that to true baseball fans 600-600 would've been much more impressive than the 762 HRs that he hit.

BTW he finished with 514 stolen bases...and averaged 25+ per year until 1999 when he went on steroids...it cost him at least 10-15 SBs a year for the last 9 years of his career.

I saw something on ESPN today, about some guy who is going to release a report, about a 20 month investigation of the players who have used steroids, tomorrow...

Much fodder for you baseball fanatics!

[chief31]

I saw something on ESPN today, about some guy who is going to release a report, about a 20 month investigation of the players who have used steroids, tomorrow...

Much fodder for you baseball fanatics!

I believe it to be more "white-wash"

[Guru]

I believe it to be more "white-wash"

Jose Canseco will probably write another book about it.

[chief31]

Jose Canseco will probably write another book about it.

This list that they are suppose to release will have fewer names in it than Joses book had.

[Guru]

This list that they are suppose to release will have fewer names in it than Joses book had.

Which is exactly why he will have another one published.

[hermhater]

Here ya go guys, discuss away...


Mitchell Report released
Findings concern use of performance-enhancing drugs in MLB
By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com



• View the complete Mitchell Report (PDF)
• Complete Mitchell Report coverage


NEW YORK -- The findings of former Sen. George Mitchell's report concerning use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball were released Thursday. Several high-profile, superstar-caliber players were among those named in the Mitchell Report, the product of a 21-month, multimillion dollar investigation that could shape decisions, prompt punitive actions against active players, and usher in the next era of the sport.
Free agent Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte of the New York Yankees, Miguel Tejada of the Houston Astros, Eric Gagne of the Milwaukee Brewers and Paul Lo Duca of the Washington Nationals were among the most prominent former and current All-Stars to be mentioned in the lengthy report, which spans 311 pages, plus multiple exhibits, including evidence of signed checks, handwritten notes and shipping receipts.
The players listed in the paragraph above are by no means the only players listed in the report, but in MLB.com's first, quick review of the document, those names stood out for their notoriety. Our coverage will continue minute-by-minute through the course of the proceedings and for the foreseeable future thereafter, but the entire report is available for viewing here at MLB.com in PDF format. It will be presented in a searchable, clickable version as soon as the 311 pages of content can be converted appropriately.
Several of the names mentioned in the Mitchell Report have been connected to performance-enhancing drug use in the past. In recent years, Barry Bonds, Kevin Brown, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa and the late Ken Caminiti, among others, have all been linked to reports or have admitted their own steroid use.
Erroneous reports earlier circulated in broadcast media prior to Mitchell's release featured a high percentage of inaccuracies.
A considerable number of names also appeared in the report in contextual stories detailing the actions of other players. Multiple players were invited to meet with Mitchell's probe as he gathered facts but declined. Mitchell said that each player mentioned in the report was offered a fair opportunity to refute the allegations.
Mitchell released his findings at a 2 p.m. ET news conference held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York. Commissioner Bud Selig was expected to react to the report during a 4:30 p.m. ET news conference blocks away at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. MLB.com will carry both conferences live.
While the report detailed drug use in baseball by naming those accused, the report also contained 19 separate recommendations for the sport to move forward from this point, proceeding after a culture of steroids and performance enhancement grew exponentially in the late 1990s.
Mitchell said that evidence has been found that steroid use among MLB players has declined since the institution of a random testing arrangement in 2002, but that use of human growth hormone has risen, because a urine test for HGH is not readily available. Five to seven percent of Major Leaguers tested positive during an anonymous, random survey of testing during the 2003 season, a figure that Mitchell declared to be representative of a larger problem.
Mitchell's report named both Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association in assigning blame, charging leadership -- from the Commissioner to club owners and general managers -- for allowing the issue to proliferate.
One of the keys to Mitchell's investigation seems to have been the willingness earlier this year of Kirk Radomski, a bat boy, equipment manager and clubhouse attendant for the New York Mets from 1985-95, to provide Mitchell with players' names as part of his plea bargain with the federal government in the case against the Bay Area Co-Operative Laboratory.
Radomski pleaded guilty to providing players with performance-enhancing drugs during that period, and an entire section of the Mitchell Report largely circled around Radomski's testimony. Brian McNamee, a trainer who worked closely with Clemens, Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, provided extensive context as well.


McNamee told Mitchell that he provided Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone in the late 1990s, but said he had no knowledge of Clemens' actions after 2001; McNamee also said that he injected Pettitte on two to four occasions with human growth hormone.
A national investigation by an Albany, N.Y., district attorney unearthed the names of nine former or current players involved with procuring performance-enhancing drugs, either through southern U.S. clinics or pharmacies doing business via the Internet.
Seven of them -- Rick Ankiel of the Cardinals, Gary Matthews Jr. of the Angels, Jerry Hairston Jr. of the Rangers, Jay Gibbons of the Orioles, Paul Byrd of the Indians, Troy Glaus of the Blue Jays, Scott Schoeneweis of the Mets and Jose Guillen, who just signed as a free agent with the Royals, were interviewed by the Commissioner's Office. Of those players, only Matthews Jr. was not named in the Mitchell Report.
Names of nine former or current Major Leaguers had already surfaced from that previous investigation and Selig suspended two of those players -- Guillen and Gibbons -- for 15 days each for the start of the 2008 season. Several media reports detailed that both players had obtained human growth hormone in 2005, after baseball had banned the drug.
Those suspensions may provide a road map for how the Commissioner will deal with other players named in Mitchell's report; the union has filed a grievance against Guillen's suspension and it will be heard by an arbitrator early next year. Due to insufficient evidence, no disciplinary action was taken against Ankiel, Matthews Jr., Glaus and Schoeneweis. Results of the Byrd and Hairston reviews have not yet been made public.
Mitchell, a former federal prosecutor, is a director of the Boston Red Sox, and was chairman of The Walt Disney Co., the parent of ESPN, at the time Selig established the committee on March 30, 2006, charging it with leaving "no stone unturned" in its quest to determine what happened in baseball's so-called steroid era.
The report was delivered with the backdrop of Bonds having just pleaded not guilty last week in a San Francisco federal court on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice.
Bonds' plea related to his own use of performance-enhancing drugs in testimony he gave four years ago before a grand jury investigating BALCO for money laundering and illegally selling performance-enhancing drugs without prescriptions.
Selig appointed Mitchell after he read the book "Game of Shadows," which documented the BALCO investigation, and in which Bonds, Giambi and Sheffield were subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury under grants of immunity.
Giambi later became the only known Major League player to speak with Mitchell, meeting in July after being threatened with a possible suspension by Selig after implying past steroid use in a USA Today report earlier in the season, telling the newspaper that he had been wrong for doing "that stuff." Giambi's statements followed up a bizarre years-old scenario in which he had apologized but was unable to specifically say what he was apologizing for.
While Mitchell's committee has never had subpoena power, he and his group of investigators have spent months and millions of dollars conducting interviews from the clubhouse to the front office as trainers, strength coaches, former players, general managers, managers and team presidents all spent time answering queries.
Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.



http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...=.jsp&c_id=mlb

[hermhater]

I'll give a dollar to anyone who reads all 409 pages of the .pdf file!!!