The list that was produced is most likely less than 3% of the players that have used throughout the years. While it’s nice to see that MLB is making an effort to crack down on everything, the report will end up doing more bad than good in the long run. The report would have been better off if it just included percentages, numbers, and suggestions rather than calling out players.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we see at least a handful of lawsuits come out of this. A lot of the evidence in the report won’t hold up in court for a second. Luckily MLB has already agreed to take care of Mitchell when it comes to responsibility and legal fees. I’m sure Brian Roberts could be one of the first we see.

It was interesting to see Bud Selig push Mitchell’s suggestion to not dish out punishment aside for a second and lay down the law. Donald Fehr seemed pretty surprised that he did so too. However it was lame that Selig didn’t publicly put some responsibility on himself.

At the end of the day, it’s pretty obvious that the majority of players that have played in the last 20 years have used some kind of performance enhancing drug at least at some point. It just hurts to finally hear the truth and that’s why so much negativity as come out of this whole situation.

I totally disagree with everything you say, but you have a very interesting point of view!

I agree that Barry Bonds has a gift and steroids have enhanced that. But is it fair to the guy who also has a gift but refuses to take performance enhancers? Why should we give them a choice between enhancing performance versus shortening their life expectancy and well-being?

Why should Benoit be forced to take steroids just to stay competitive?

Your analogy of stress is off base. Stress is a naturaly occurence and it affects everyone equally. The banning of performance enhancer is not really about protecting the players (although it should be part of it), but more about leveling the playing field. Otherwise, there would be an arms race on who would take the next higher dosage just to hit one more homerun farther.

If that were the cae, I believe we’ll be seeing athletes dropping like flies, dead one after the other… or even worse, more cases like the Benoit tragedy.

and I do not believe Don has organized crime ties.

Don King was a numbers runner for the Cleveland mob in the 50s and early 60s and took out a loan from John Gotti in return for money and ‘favors’ for him in the early 80s. This whole unsavory aspect of his life (as well as other ‘fun’ stories) can be found in “The life and crimes of Don King: The shame of Boxing in America” by Jack Newfield.

Interesting bonus fact: Al Sharpton was a Don King middleman with the mob and turned government rat rather than go to jail when they were investigating King in the early 80s.

If organized criminals simply own a fight promotion and allow the athletes competing in the fight promotion to fairly compete and determine who is the best amongst them I am fine wit that. If they are laundering money or what have you it doesn’t bother me.

The NFL owners and the NFL Players Association are both organized rackets. Right now the Owners are better organized. Same with MLB but there the big city owners have formed a powerful cabal to tilt the balance to themselves (and this in turn helps TV and ends up helping everyone).

In many cities rich team owners have used influence to get taxpayer money to build stadiums and infrastructure for their private endeavors. You can argue that teams bring identity and prestige to cities along with jobs and revenue through tourism and you can argue that those benefits don’t outweigh the costs.

My point is that there are myriad stories of corruption in sports if you want to find them and discuss them. Me, I prefer to watch the competitions and follow the athletes.

Barry Bonds is still hitting the baseballs. Steroids or not he has a true gift in hand/eye coordination, fast twitch muscles and visual recognition of a fast moving object. The steroids have just kept his body going to do what his mind tells it.

Specifically to what I believe you were referring to, PRIDE’s organized crime ties didn’t bother me in the least so much as I was seeing entertaining fight cards for my money. In my opinion PRIDE always delivered on that end.

I meant athletes that get caught for using steroids,blood doping or EPO or something else like that.

Pro Sports need steroids and need pain medication. If you like sports, watch sports. Don’t try to watch how the sausage is made and complain about it.

Then you support other unsavory aspects of the sports business (like organized crime) as well?

All this is is a mea culpa by MLB to keep Congress from coming after them and their Anti-Trust agreement.

Here is the reality, there is drug use in Professional sports and there needs to be. Professional sports exist to sell ads on TV. Ads are sold on TV by people watching the TV. The people watching TV want to see 2 things, stars they know and exciting plays.

Pro athletes are asked to do extraordinary things with their bodies. MLB players play 6 days a week for 6 months and travel 2-3 times per week. NFL players go through the equivalent of a car crash every weekend for 20 weeks then the playoffs.

Athletes need to do steroids to keep up with the demanding schedule and recover from injuries. Steroids are rampant in the NFL and the league covers it up. If there were no steroids and no pain pills in the NFL, there would be no NFL, at least not the NFL full of superstars we know today, because very few guys would get through even half a season.

Drugs are everywhere in our society. People take Adderall and Ritalin to focus, Ambien to go to sleep, Xanax to relax, Prozac to keep from killing themselves, coffee to get out of bed in the morning, a beer to take the edge off at night, a joint to make conversation more pleasant. We’ve come pretty far with drugs that aid in daily life. 150 years ago Opium was smoked before medical operations by patients. It was the only anesthetic other than booze and booze makes you bleed. Then morphine was invented and cocaine was invented as the first local anesthetic.

People need to just learn to deal with drug use if you like sports. Kids shouldn’t be on steroids, but kids also shouldn’t drink beer. Plenty of baseball players go out and get wrecked. Are we going to have a report for how many baseball players get drunk because some teens get drunk?

People need to take responsibility for their own actions and leave everyone else alone. The baseball players doing steroids and growth hormone are not hurting anyone. The argument that you are helping them from hurting themselves by outlawing steroids and growth hormone is laughable. Playing in the NFL is bad for you. Look up the average life expectancy of linemen it is 56 years old. Go to an old timers convention one day and look at the stars of the 1980s hobbling around.

Playing sports at the pro level is bad for your health but good for your wallet. It is a trade off. Just like being a stock broker. The stress of the market and long hours are bad for you, many brokers have heart attacks and high blood pressure in their 40s and 50s. But no one is trying to outlaw that.

Pro Sports need steroids and need pain medication. If you like sports, watch sports. Don’t try to watch how the sausage is made and complain about it.

Money talks in America. That is why baseball has turned a blind eye to it all this time. Now, Congress is going to force them to the accept the cold reality…and it probably won’t be pretty. I expect suspension to be much more severe than it is currently.

http://skipbayless.blogspot.com/2007/12/pujols-named-in-mitchell-report.html