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A better perspective on Ortiz and steroids

A snippet from Will Carrol in today's UTK column that Powerhouse mentioned:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6209
(the relevant portion is available to everyone)

Oh goody, more steroid news! There's another day of churn surrounding David Ortiz, spinning his logical, open-minded assessment of how things have changed into something approaching an admission. The Mitchell investigation is attempting to look deep into the personal medical files of people like Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa, which leaves everyone to guess their favorite sluggers to fill out the list. Let's face it--facts aren't relevant here. We have a raging orgy of Chemical McCarthyism, blocked by its own failings and shadowed by the threat of government intervention. Call me an apologist or an ostrich if you'd like, but the fact is that there are few facts here. Kirk Radomski's dirty three dozen remain hidden, just like the Signature lists promised from Albany's drug investigation.

We need more players like Ortiz, willing to stand up and say that he doesn't know what he took ten years ago, back in his homeland where even now drug laws and labeling requirements aren't exactly stringent. This isn't a new story. When the buscones come and the promise of a trip to the United States comes calling, few Dominican teenagers are going to ask if there's anything extra in the B12 shot. If Ortiz took something, knowingly or unknowingly, a decade ago, what does it matter? If he took it in 2001, it wasn't banned, and it wasn't tested for. If he took it in 2004 or after, then the testing system would have caught him. Juan Salas found this out, as did Mets minor leaguer Jorge Reyes, who was hit for 100 games, something that amounts to a near-fatal career move for a guy in Single-A. Are players cheating? Sure. I'd guess there are some taking steroids, and some are taking growth hormones or the more exotic concoctions that are coming out of pseudo-Japanese labs on the East Coast. I'd also guess there's a player who's learning how to load or scuff a baseball and one or two that knows a bookie a little too well.

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regulation of the
suppliment industry isn't just a problem in other places, there are huge problems here.

The whole industry is for the most part unregulated, suppliments bought at GNC don't need to put on the label what is in them. THey are also allowed to change the name of whats in it if they want to. They sometimes rename caffine rename taurine rename stuff worse than that.

I had no idea how much of a mess it was until I got briefed by the trainers at my school about NCAA II requirements and drug testing. While I am no big fish in the world of sports and will probably never take a drug test for it, the things that could get me in trouble are enormous.

I wouldn't take anything out of a bottle. I don't believe in most of it, and the stuff I do think would help I have never bothered to fork over the cash for, it just doesn't seem worth it.

I don't want to take anything stronger than a powerbar, or drink anything stronger than gatorade, but thats just me. People that mess around with thier bodies too much are nuts.

Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and f*** the prom queen.

by Edwantsacracker on May 10, 2007 1:50 AM EDT   0 recs

thanks for the
dose of sanity. I really am sick of the media crazed attitude towards steroids. Somebody says the word steroid and its like the blood thirsty paparazzi comes running out with pointing fingers ablaze.

by nilvaz on May 10, 2007 4:31 AM EDT   0 recs

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