Baseball joins cycling in the doping hall of shame

vermooten
vermooten Posts: 2,697
edited December 2007 in Pro race
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/sport ... ref=slogin

Front page of the New York Times, this is big. Baseball's top guys juiced up on steroids, named and shamed. Sad in some ways (kind of) but I reckon this is possibly extremely significant - it could open the doors for more sports to come clean. Like football.
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Comments

  • ut_och_cykla
    ut_och_cykla Posts: 1,594
    Don't hold your breath. :cry:
  • Massimo
    Massimo Posts: 318
    This is nothing new for baseball. It's just that in the UK we don't hearbout it. I get the impression that many of the 'top' guys use striods but because thereis sooooo much money in it (unlike cycling) authorities just look the other way.
    Crash 'n Burn, Peel 'n Chew
    FCN: 2
  • skavanagh.bikeradar
    skavanagh.bikeradar Posts: 1,097
    Perhaps they do look the other way. They certainly do in sports like Football and Golf for example. Gary Player had a moan last year that if dope controls were introduced in Golf it would catch a lot of the players out and was dismissed by everyone involved.
  • Radsman
    Radsman Posts: 122
    perhaps cycling should learn a thing or to and appoint an investigator to look into the doping culture in depth. The handling of the Puerto affair is a total joke.

    unfortunately, no one really controls cycling and thus who would have the power to put in place such an investigator.
  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    It's well within the remit of the UCI to do something about it, but they chose not to - particularly as they seem more intent in tryng to divert revenue from race organisers for their own nefarious means rather than getting on with the real issues of governing the sport. Puerto has nothing to do with the cycling authorities - more to do with the powers-that-be exerting undue influence on the Spanish judiciary to shelve the investigation as it might influence their vested interests in sports like football, tennis and F1.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • Captain Fagor
    Captain Fagor Posts: 739
    Judging by the debauched faces of the baseball players you see at the forefront of the crowd in the UFC events, I'd say there was quite a lot of recreational white powder being consumed as well.
  • gavintc
    gavintc Posts: 3,009
    Baseball has been full of drugs for many years. In N America it is well known about.
  • hommelbier
    hommelbier Posts: 1,556
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.j ... dru113.xml

    Interesting - but doping doesn't really happen in football - does it?
  • GeorgeShaw
    GeorgeShaw Posts: 764
    The link doesn't work. But on doping in football, it's been suspected for a while - weren't Juventus caught a few years ago - but while there is random testing, it's not treated seriously inside the game. Remember Rio Ferdinand avoiding a random test a year or so ago?
  • drenkrom
    drenkrom Posts: 1,062
    Yes, doping has been exposed in baseball. It has been for last few years, while this investigation went along. Don't expect the fans to revolt and put their weight behind anti-doping, as they have in cycling, though. The fight against doping hinges on the basic principle that sport is about valor and courage, determination and hard work. That does not apply to baseball fans at all. They see their sport as entertainment, not as a physical achievement of any sort. It's not "the sport of baseball", it's "the game of baseball". This is America we're talking about. Doping is not wrong as long as it doesn't impede an American from winning. Americans don't dope, they either get framed by the evil Euros or "make mistakes".

    This point of view has been exposed to me in complete seriousness by many Americans.
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    Saying it's an American thing is a bit misguided.

    If someone accused the England football team of doping I bet the majority of the fans would think it was made up. And if it was proved then they'd say something like "football is a game of skill so drugs don't help"

    Until the big mass interest sports are exposed as rife with drugs, I don't think we'll get a sensible debate.
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • dave_1
    dave_1 Posts: 9,512
    I see Lance is still having a film made about his life, it appears to be going ahead...if I were him, I'd not be attracting attention like that...he needs to do an Indurain and keep his head down for a few years yet until people move on and animosity to him goes
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKBacb2V ... ata_player
  • hommelbier
    hommelbier Posts: 1,556
    Fabio Capello, the England manager-in-waiting, took dangerous, performance-enhancing drugs during his playing career, it has emerged.

    As Capello arrived in London yesterday to discuss his dream job, a whispering campaign in Italy mounted against him, reflecting deep unpopularity in his home country.

    In an interview in 2004, while he was manager of Juventus, Capello admitted that he had taken Micoren, a respiratory aid that acts as a stimulant, while he was a player.

    "We all took it. I took it even when I played for the national team. At the time it was not illegal, it only became banned afterwards," he said to L'Espresso, a magazine.

    Capello played from 1964 to 1979, and represented Italy between 1972 and 1976, scoring a winning goal against England at Wembley.

    Micoren contains prethcamide, and was later alleged to have dangerous side effects.
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    Nello Saltutti, a former Milan, Sampdoria and Fiorentina player, said: "Micoren was taken off the market in 1985, because it was found to be harmful. However, we took it for 20 years without any doctors telling us it was wrong or with any side effects after the match. The anti-doping controls were a joke."

    Saltutti's death, at the age of 56 in 2003, is being investigated to see if there was any link to Micoren.

    When Capello made the comments, Juventus were mired in a doping scandal of their own, which later saw their club doctor, Riccardo Agricola, sentenced to almost two years in prison after 281 different drugs were found at the club's training ground.

    Agricola administered the drugs between 1994 and 1998, well before Capello arrived, but Capello declined to condemn the club. "In my career as a player and a manager, I have seen how things are done, but it doesn't seem right to denounce them now," he said.

    He added that he was "not embarrassed in the slightest" by the doping shadow that hung over the club.    "

    The above is a quote from a Daily Telegraph article (by Malcolm Moore) a couple of days ago (apologies as the link did not work.

    No doubt apologists will seek to excuse the attitude "well it was legal" so what did I do wrong but perhaps this was also the attitude in cycling all those years ago and look where it has led us.
  • GeorgeShaw
    GeorgeShaw Posts: 764
    Try typing "Juventus" and "doping" into Google. You'll get plenty of hits, for example: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1794075.stm.
  • top_bhoy
    top_bhoy Posts: 1,424
    No doubt apologists will seek to excuse the attitude "well it was legal" so what did I do wrong but perhaps this was also the attitude in cycling all those years ago and look where it has led us.

    I'm certainly not an apologist for drug taking, quite the opposite in fact, I'd introduce far more draconian measures but I don't think you can accuse anyone of doping by taking a legal drug. Where do you stop the accusations? Only at the point when a drug has been highlighted as being banned and it's continued to be used, is the time the finger of guilt can be pointed.

    Science is a learning process, what may seem OK today could turn out to be a horrific danger tomorrow!!!
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  • DaveyL
    DaveyL Posts: 5,167
    Just out of curiosity, when was EPO put on the banned list?
    Le Blaireau (1)
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    DaveyL wrote:
    Just out of curiosity, when was EPO put on the banned list?

    According to WADA "since the early 90's" - Nice accuracy there.

    I certainly recall hearing about the pro's using it in 1990....
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • peddling_pilgrim
    peddling_pilgrim Posts: 12
    drenkrom wrote:
    Yes, doping has been exposed in baseball. It has been for last few years, while this investigation went along. Don't expect the fans to revolt and put their weight behind anti-doping, as they have in cycling, though. The fight against doping hinges on the basic principle that sport is about valor and courage, determination and hard work. That does not apply to baseball fans at all. They see their sport as entertainment, not as a physical achievement of any sort. It's not "the sport of baseball", it's "the game of baseball". This is America we're talking about. Doping is not wrong as long as it doesn't impede an American from winning. Americans don't dope, they either get framed by the evil Euros or "make mistakes".

    This point of view has been exposed to me in complete seriousness by many Americans.

    Exactly, nothing is really going to come from this, and no one in the US knows if baseball is clean now. It's not like anyone is going to lose their contract, their sponsorships/endorsements, etc. Can you imagine if American baseball players (or American athletes) were suspended from participating for 2 years if they tested positive? And has anyone really tested positive from that report? It's just a government official running his mouth. It's a joke.

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