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Calling out the disconnect

Mar 10, 2009
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I think it parallels how some of us post on this forum, there's the Racing section posts and then there are the Clinic section posts. Although, some have a tough time trasitioning between them.
 
Feb 3, 2011
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I was just coming here to share this column. For those who might not know, Bill Simmons used to write a column for ESPN that has since moved to his own site, Grantland, that can still be linked to from the ESPN home page. The point I'm trying to make here is that Simmons is VERY mainstream here in the US, even more so now that he also appears on ESPN's NBA studio show. I thought it was worth noting his popularity since his column is read by millions and most people who are unafraid to bring up PED speculation have much smaller audiences.

Although this one opinion piece changes nothing, it's nice to see a well-known columnist willing to openly call BS on some things without actually watching needles plunging into athletes' veins. I wonder how many other sports columnists / journalists would be willing to do the same in print. My guess is not too many.
 
Mar 13, 2009
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ElChingon said:
I think it parallels how some of us post on this forum, there's the Racing section posts and then there are the Clinic section posts. Although, some have a tough time trasitioning between them.
the Clinic really needs to merge with Tennis Has A Steroid Problem.

colloquially THASP, how about @#!#%$%^.blogsport <insert your own profanity blog spottt>
 
Mar 13, 2009
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Bill Simmons
Sports Fan Me has Googled athletes' heads and jawlines, studied their sizes, then mailed before/after pictures to friends with the subject heading, "CHECK THIS OUT." Sports Fan Me has learned to trust his inner **** detector, to swiftly question any accomplishment that seems extraordinary or superhuman. Sports Fan Me hates that he feels this way, but he does, and there's just no way around it.

but here is the solution.

stuff the pointing the finger at the individual. if its inherent in modern professional and elite "sport", where type A personalities will not sacrifice any advantage a competitor has on them, that is simple to neutralise by matching. Red Queen Effect, running on the treadmill. Dr Bob Goldman asked elite athletes in 1982 whether they would take a drug that guaranteed an Olympic gold medal but would kill them within five years. More than half the athletes said yes.

Now, lets compare the jaws and head sizes of the entire sample, the 2010 era, the 2005 era, v the 1975 era. Same inputs, same metrics of native talent. Rough comparison of same ethnicities. Some more africans in athletics and soccer, and some eastern europeans in American pro sport.

Have the samples head sizes changed? I dont have to ask why.

My theory is we will never ever have a pro sport athlete with a pinhead like Kareem Abdul Jabaar.

Taking the entire epoch as the sampled athlete (bloc) we now have negated any sampling error. ;)

Even more important, we have managed to divert the controversial element of targeting indiduals, and making it partisan, or nationalist. We dont get friendly fans flooding debate in support, the one issue voter.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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blackcat said:
stuff the pointing the finger at the individual. if its inherent in modern professional and elite "sport", where type A personalities will not sacrifice any advantage a competitor has on them, that is simple to neutralise by matching. Red Queen Effect, running on the treadmill. Dr Bob Goldman asked elite athletes in 1982 whether they would take a drug that guaranteed an Olympic gold medal but would kill them within five years. More than half the athletes said yes.

I remember that poll, they tried to sweep it under the carpet soon after, many people forgot about it or ignored it as a improper question. The poll results said it all, and I thought it was much higher than more than half.
 
Jan 20, 2013
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papisimo98 said:
this guy has a good column, really sarcastic.
i did find this interesting, maybe the clinic does too.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8904906/daring-ask-ped-question

thought his point was spot on about how the media looks the other way.

I had to thank Bill for writing that brilliant piece. And thank you providing the link. Enough with speculating in private among the journos. If there are sports with sub par testing, then let it rain with public suspicion.
 
Sports Fan Me has Googled athletes' heads and jawlines, studied their sizes, then mailed before/after pictures to friends with the subject heading, "CHECK THIS OUT." Sports Fan Me has learned to trust his inner **** detector, to swiftly question any accomplishment that seems extraordinary or superhuman. Sports Fan Me hates that he feels this way, but he does, and there's just no way around it.

And to think people thought this thread was wacky.
 
Mar 13, 2009
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Clausfarre said:
I had to thank Bill for writing that brilliant piece. And thank you providing the link. Enough with speculating in private among the journos. If there are sports with sub par testing, then let it rain with public suspicion.
well, assuming the testing works. thats your premise right?

what about IQ tests?
 
ElChingon said:
I think it parallels how some of us post on this forum, there's the Racing section posts and then there are the Clinic section posts. Although, some have a tough time trasitioning between them.

Exactly!

This disconnect doesn't just exist in Sports though....I was talking with some Spanish folk about their prime minister....it looks like he's been getting 25,000 Euros a year in a brown envelop for the last decade.
Those who voted against him have no trouble seeing the documentary evidence and believing; those who voted for him are having major problems accepting it and are demanding an even higher standard of proof.
A bit the same in the USA with Obama's birth certificate.

I hope my support of certain cyclists never totters over into belief.
 

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