Sammy Sosa and the Maddening Coverage of PED Use
I’ve been on a working trip through SoCal for the past few days, so haven’t had a chance to weigh in on recent events. But the latest round of media outrage over the latest MLB superstar to get busted (Sammy Sosa) set me off on a Twitter binge today.
In a nutshell: No love lost for The War On Drugs, whether in sports or anywhere else. Plus the self-righteousness and hypocrisy of those who tut-tut baseball players for using is going to make my head explode. I’m honestly concerned I’ll throw my laptop on the ground in disgust if I rehash all this stuff, so I’ll just refer you to the past few updates on my Twitter feed, which includes back-and-forth exchanges with New York Daily News writer/guy-who-gets-it Jesse Spector, and others.
Just can’t get worked up at over Sosa or anyone taking PEDs. MLB policies enabled it. I’d take Substance X if it made me umm…write gooder.
Even setting rules is tricky. Is TJ a PE surgery? Saito’s procedure?
Sanctity of MLB numbers = more BS. Babe Ruth played vs. best white players that scout-less teams could find near the ballpark.
Baseball constantly evolves, with hitters always looking to gain an edge, pitchers the same. Won’t ever stop. Fine by me.
Dumb enough to get caught–or famous enough to get outed. When lesser names are outed, there’s 1/1000000th the media outrage.
Don’t even get me started on NFL vs MLB PED hypocrisy. 40 HR = unnatural. But no worries on 300-lb lineman who runs a 4.5 40.
Don’t be too sure about Ray Guy. Even Sauerbrun juiced (punters are fair game). Even wonder about Waterboys.
Tags: Adam Sandler, Babe Ruth, End the War On Drugs!, MLB, NFL, PEDs, Self-righteousness
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18 June 2009 at 1:19 pm
I’ m glad you mentioned the Saito procedure. I wrote about it in April and wondered the same thing.
18 June 2009 at 1:24 pm
Good post. And it’s not that I disapprove of Saito’s procedure. Just that I think people speaking in absolutes about the topic (and 99.9% of the time, it’s with excessive indignation) have no f’ing clue about the science involved.
Personally I’d love to see a real study done, half players using (pick your PED), other half placebos. Of course that’ll never happen. Which is why I’m reluctant to parse how much substance X helped Player X…never mind all the other nonsense that goes into this debate.
18 June 2009 at 4:00 pm
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