FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Bigalke said 12/05, 02:20 PM
Doping occurs in basically every sport to some extent. Cycling and track and field have been coming to grips with this reality for decades. Baseball and football are only recently coming to grips with this fact. Even the PGA is starting to look at drug testing!

The sentiments among American sports media would lead one to believe that baseball and football are mostly clean sports that are quickly working to weed out bad seeds. They also cry foul every year the Tour de France rolls into Paris. Yet cycling implements repeated in- and out-of-competition testing throughout the calendar year. Test results are transparent and quickly revealed to the public. By contrast, baseball takes weeks and months to reveal indiscretions.

These international athletes are tested for over 200 compounds. Baseball and football test for a handful of performance enhancers. Alessandro Petacchi recently received a two-year suspension for using his inhaler too much! The cortisone shots baseball players take to get back in the game would land a track star two years. The punishment fits the crime, unlike American sports... remember Shawne Merriman? One month off, and still a Pro Bowl reward at the end...

Bigalke said 12/05, 02:35 PM
This is not a matter of how much the government spends on the doping issue. This is a matter of public perception. Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis, two American cycling stars who had the potential to become the next Lance Armstrong for a warming American public, were quickly thrown on the scrap heap when they tested positive for doping (blood for Hamilton, testosterone for Landis).

Then look at someone like Merriman or Jason Giambi. Both were embroiled in scandal when their positive results first came out. Now each are relatively free of any stain on their legacies and continuing to play. American sports slap token penalties on athletes to install a facade of control; international sports fight at the forefront to keep their sports as clean as possible.

The proof is in this: when did baseball begin testing for amphetamines? 2005, twenty-five years after Jim Bouton's expose "Ball Four" revealed the rampant problem with stimulants in the sport. Cycling, by contrast, set up its testing policy the season after Tom Simpson died, overloaded on amphetamines in the heat, on Mont Ventoux in 1967. One mindset works proactively, regardless of media outlook. The other drags its feet...

Bigalke said 12/05, 04:32 PM
This is not a matter for Congress, just as cycling offenses and track offenses are not for the United Nations to arbitrate. This is a matter for sports governing bodies to tackle. And, while the UCI, IOC and WADA continue to push forward with new concepts like the biological footprint and DNA tracking, Major League Baseball and the NFL continue to shuffle their feet.

Case in point: Paul Byrd was found to have purchased large quantities of HGH while continuing to be allowed to compete in the ALCS for Cleveland. If he was a cyclist, he would be banned for two years. As of yet, MLB has meted out no punishment.

Merriman is an interesting case as well. He had no previous history... and he has gotten the benefit of the doubt. But neither did Landis or Hamilton have previous histories of doping, and they were tested on a much more consistent basis. While Merriman has been allowed to resume his career after a paltry one-month suspension, athletes like Landis and Hamilton have seen their earning power and livelihood effectively eliminated.

NFL players take cortisone shots to get back on the field; those would land two years for a sprinter. There is more to doping than just steroids...