Go Barry!!!
“NBA official admitted today that they should have known that something was amiss when they received reports about disgraced referee Tim Donaghy officiating games in the off-season for the Harlem Globe Trotters, games in which the Globe Trotters would consistently *not* beat the spread.” Gordie Thoren
Before you people all gratuitously pile on Barry Bonds, I’d strongly suggest reading former White House Ant-Terrorism Czar, Ricard A. Clarke’s latest Cyber Punk novel “Breakpoint” to see what he has to say on the subject.
OK, I get it, Barry Bonds is not a nice person, personality-wise, (for that matter, neither was John Lennon of The Beatles), and, sigh, yes, we all wish he’d take a page out of his Godfather, Willie Mays’s Book of Dignity, and do the Cuba Gooding Jr. “Jerry McGuire” dance.
Then again, why in the hell, should he?
Show of hands.
Who here has ever been on prescription medication to improve and/or enhance their performance in life, be it work or personal?
Or had their kids put on Ritalin, so they’d do better in school?
And speaking of the “precious children” what do we tell the 6 million plus kids, that we don’t want to make cynical, or disillusion, that are currently on Ritalin?
Or does fall under the acceptable “mixed messages” category that we adults spoon-feed kids?
Here’s a hypothetical question for you.
An affordable drug, with no side-effects, comes to the market, after going through a rigorous set of FDA clinical trials, that gives you a 100% photographic memory.*
Would you take it?
Would you counsel parents who want their kids to get into the best school that they can to not let their kids take that drug, even though every other kid in the class is taking it?
Would you want the President of The United States, as well as all his advisers, to take it?
If not, why not?
If so, then how is that any different than taking a regulated drug to enhance physical performance?
As far as maintaining the “Purity of the game goes”, Cosmo Kramer, please.
I was born at night, but not last night.
“Professional” Sports in America is a rigged game.
Think it’s not?
OK, sure, feel free to tell yourself that, and just ignore the fact that the majority of all World Series games for the better part of the last decade have gone the full 7 games, for some reason.
Which is like, statistically impossible, but that's no nevermind.
Major League Baseball, first and foremost, all personalities aside, is a multi-billion dollar business.
Can you name one business in the USA that generates over a billion dollars of revenue that runs from a morally ethical center?
Microsoft?
GE?
Time Warner?
Exxon-Mobile?
Blue Cross/Blue Shield?
Any of those?
Why should MLB, or any other sports league, be an exception to predatorial way America does business?
I really don’t get the sports doping = bad idea thing.
Try to put yourself in the shoes of an adolescent/early 20s, naturally gifted athlete, in a culture that’s money driven.
On the one hand, they can go the au natural route, work their butts off to get to the top of their game and at the end of that their reward is a $2 million dollar contract.
Or they can do all that, plus add a little chemical enhancement into their regimen and at the end of that their reward is a $20 million dollar a year contract.
Guarantee you that 90% of all these young professional athletes, when looking at these sets of numbers, and planning for their futures of themselves and their families are going to make the obvious choice.
There is one answer to all this.
Let’s get honest and put a stop to the current hypocrisy and eliminate *all* performance drug testing in all “Professional” Sports.
Thanks!
~Nyc
* Jacked from Clarke’s “Breakpoint” novel.
