the victims of doping

[Merckx index]

Interesting article about steroids in baseball, but the larger point is clearly applicable to other sports, including cycling. It provides a compelling answer to "they all did it", and also to those who worry about the damage caused by a false positive, but never consider the much greater damage caused by false negatives.

In this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, I tell the story of the four Miracles -- four pitchers from the 1994 Fort Myers Miracle, the Class A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, who all were righthanded pitchers with average stuff and either 23 or 24 years old and drafted out of four-year colleges. The only one among them who made it to the big leagues was the only one who used steroids, Dan Naulty, who has lived with the regret and sadness of cheating clean players out of a chance to realize their dream. It is one story multiplied by hundreds, such was the uneven playing field created by The Steroid Era.

The real story of The Steroid Era is not the superstar players who already had world-class ability and piled steroid enhancements on top of it, but the hundreds of men whose dreams hung on one perverse decision in an era when drug use went unchecked: to cheat or not to cheat. The times were complicated, but too many observers, especially in the media, create a false, even playing field in their mind by asserting, "Well, everybody was doing it." It's an insult to everybody who played the game clean, whether or not they ever get close to a Hall of Fame ballot. Many of them never even got to the big leagues.

Naulty told me he gained 68 pounds and added 10 miles an hour to his fastball because of steroids. He wound up pitching for the world champion 1999 Yankees while his three pitching friends from the Miracle were out of baseball by then. His manager at Fort Myers described Naulty as a fringe player in the low minors and Naulty himself said he never would have gotten out of Class A ball without steroids -- especially throwing 86 mph. Did he "work hard," the favorite cover story of steroid users? Yes, but as Naulty said, the steroids allowed him to work out "like a fiend."

Another player on the 1994 Miracle, catcher Jeff Horn, told me he later used steroids and only then was he able to consistently hit hard, inside fastballs. Horn, now a doctor, said, "When I had the stuff in me I could get to those pitches easier. You do things you otherwise couldn't do."

The greatest myth about The Steroid Era, thanks to the vapidity of many Hall of Fame debates, is the idea that players are being judged on a morality issue. It's not about morality; it's about competition…The clean player faced two options: cheat or be disadvantaged. No player should ever face such a dilemma. The game should not be decided by who has the best chemist.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...an.serafini.steroids/index.html#ixzz1wNRpV400

 

[thehog]

I like this statement;

The greatest myth about The Steroid Era, thanks to the vapidity of many Hall of Fame debates, is the idea that players are being judged on a morality issue. It's not about morality; it's about competition…The clean player faced two options: cheat or be disadvantaged. No player should ever face such a dilemma. The game should not be decided by who has the best chemist.

 

[slowoldman]

I like this statement;

The greatest myth about The Steroid Era, thanks to the vapidity of many Hall of Fame debates, is the idea that players are being judged on a morality issue. It's not about morality; it's about competition…The clean player faced two options: cheat or be disadvantaged. No player should ever face such a dilemma. The game should not be decided by who has the best chemist.

I don't know if I like that statement, but sadly it is the perfect commentary on the situation. I don't know how people who dope (any person in any sport) can look at themselves in the mirror and be pleased with their "wins"..........

 

[oldschoolnik]

This is a good one...

That's what the article is about--people justify the behavior to themselves by saying "everybody was doing it"

Great read.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

"Naulty told me he gained 68 pounds and added 10 miles an hour to his fastball".

Omg! If i´d known that when i was still playing. I always thought no matter what, you can not increase springiness.

 

[thehog]

I don't know if I like that statement, but sadly it is the perfect commentary on the situation. I don't know how people who dope (any person in any sport) can look at themselves in the mirror and be pleased with their "wins"..........

It’s the rebuttal statement to: “we’ll they were all doing it anyway so it was a level play field”

 

[slowoldman]

It’s the rebuttal statement to: “we’ll they were all doing it anyway so it was a level play field”

I should have said, I don't like that the statement even had to be said. Utterly ridiculous how people will justify their cheating by saying everybody else does it. I think we are in complete agreement here.

 

[131313]

Thanks for the link. It reminded me of this article here, which kinda got lost in the whole Lance/Tyler saga: http://velonews.competitor.com/2011...rider-says-hamiltons-charges-ring-true_174876

I can tell you that I ended up riding with a guy who's had a fair bit of success in cycling, and while the subject never comes up we both know that a lot of it has been at the end of a needle. He's a nice guy, by the way. Yet we can both almost sense that there's this giant weight around his neck that he'll never get rid of, and I can tell that he's almost embarrassed by it on some level. We're acquaintances more than friends, and I'm not going to pretend I know what goes on in his head, but I will say that I don't envy him. I consider him to be the real victim more than myself, even though I know I've been cheated out of a lot in bike racing.

Bottom line, when a system is in place that rewards cheating and has almost no repercussions for it, there really are no winners.