December 03, 2004

Giambi Used Drugs!?!?

What is with the "news"? Yes, one could write that most days, but this latest media sensation seems particularly egregious. Who doesn't know that professional athletes use performance enhancing drugs? Do all of them? No. But from baseball, to track and field, to tennis, major players use these things and have for many years. And in many sports people know exactly who's doing it. What's the story here? Is it that a newspaper has the never to report Giambi used them? Is it that Giambi admitted to it in a deposition? This about as surprising as another bit of news I heard on the radio today. The oldest woman in the United States died. Wow. You don't say.

Posted by armand at December 3, 2004 10:04 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Sports


Comments

nope. this is, and has been, all about barry bonds. giambi was close to him, as was sheffield, at the relevant times; by pinning down these two, they're just a step away from bonds, which is what they've wanted all along.

bonds is one of the most loved and hated athletes around, and there are a lot of people around who would just love to tar his unprecedented late-career surge to emerge as the most dominant hitter ever to play the game. in every respect this is true, but his straight-up, no-cliche relationship with the press has led the press to suggest he's a malcontent, and those people who want to seem him fail or be discredited -- heirs to the legacy of the horrible abuse aaron took as he closed in on babe's career mark -- are all too happy to believe everything the press tells them.

bonds is one of the most honest, straightforward men in sport. he's a credit to his team and the game of baseball, now and forever. and i'll say the same thing even if it turns out that at some point he used some performance enhancer that at the time was permissible according to the MLB rules (as in the McGwire creatine flap). because even so, i'm utterly confident that he used them briefly -- too briefly to explain in themselves his wildly successful five-year run, not to mention his earlier career. it's not just the recent home-runs that have put him in range of aaron, contrary to the way people suggest.

in any case, look at mcgwire and giambi and, for that matter, sheffield -- all plagued by chronic pain and injuries, which is what happens to people who use steroids on an ongoing basis. and barry? he's forty, he's on base more during the past couple of seasons than any other player in the game (and, as he's said, that takes its toll), and he's basically injury free.

there's nobody in professional sports i'd pay more to see than barry bonds. and i think the blatant witchhunt is a damned shame.

Posted by: joshua at December 3, 2004 12:49 PM | PERMALINK
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