Doesn't the Biogensis stuff make PED use look like a much smaller problem? Most of the guys popped last year were clients. It certainly doesn't make it look like a bigger problem.

I understand the desire to punish harshly. However, I think the result will be that MLB may be reluctant to impose such a harsh punishment without stronger proof and there will be a longer string of appeals for players. It would be like the death penalty in criminal courts. I'd be fine if the risk of PED suspension got folded into every other consideration of a player along with with risk of injury, history of drug abuse, etc.

STFU!

ALL OF YOU!!11!!1

JUST. SHUT. THEFK. UP.

Kind of a side note but I recommend ESPN's 30-for-30 on Ben Johnson, which is running now. I saw it last night. (As usual ESPN's piece is about three times longer than it needed to be, but it was good anyway.) Johnson comes off as a quiet guy. He admits freely that he lied in the days after the scandal broke (of course, this is old news, as he soon admitted that during the panel inquiry after his coach gave him up including with secret phone recordings of the two of them discussing his steroids use).

Interesting to note: Five of the men in that 1988 race were implicated in drug scandals later in their careers, including Carl Lewis, who had been screaming about the drug use of the athletes he was competing against before Johnson tested positive. (Lewis's drug issue was amps and not steroids, and it's not clear to me whether Lewis's excuse is valid or not.)

I was not aware that Lewis and Johnson had built up a sort of rivalry in the years preceding -- Lewis won something like the first 8 races but then all of a sudden hadn't beaten Johnson in two or three years leading up to the race. And Lewis was upset at losing to Johnson again in the 1988 race.

Which leads to a humorous side note: Immediately after losing to Johnson in the 1988 race, Lewis went over to him and it looked to the announcers like he was congratulating Johnson. They praised Lewis up and down for this. It turns out that, at least according to Johnson, Lewis was arguing to Johnson that Johnson had false started. I don't think Lewis denies this, as Lewis during the current interview was bellyaching about Johnson false starting (oddly, the producers don't examine whether Johnson actually did false start).

While Johnson comes off as likeable, as do the other athletes they interviewed, Lewis comes off kind of as a prick, actually. I'm not sure what the general perception of Lewis is as I haven't really followed track & field.

When the 1993 Phillies return their pennant I'll start caring what Williams, Kruk and Schilling have to say about PED's. Wasn't that team poster boys for the use of steroids?

When the 1993 Phillies return their pennant I'll start caring what Williams, Kruk and Schilling have to say about PED's. Wasn't that team poster boys for the use of steroids?

The least they could do is when they talk about PED's mention that their biggest year (for all except Schilling) was with a team riddled with steroids.

#4 One of the keys to Johnson's success was his start. Electronic timing had been set to Valeriy Borzov's reactions -- you reacted faster than that it was assumed to be a false start. They recalibrated because Johnson was consistently reacting faster than the old standard.

IOW Johnson took advantage of a comparatively recent rule change. I'm sure it felt to Lewis like a false start. It would have been for basically his entire career.

Incidentally, I'm buggered as to how steroids could have given him such a sensational reaction time, but this ability was gone when he attempted to come back.

The least they could do is when they talk about PED's mention that their biggest year (for all except Schilling) was with a team riddled with steroids.

Schilling:

2001 Diamondbacks had Luis Gonzalez hit 57 home runs and got the winning hit in Game Seven
2004 and 2007 Red Sox had Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz

Incidentally, I'm buggered as to how steroids could have given him such a sensational reaction time, but this ability was gone when he attempted to come back.

Yeah, it seems that amps might, but steroids wouldn't.

They mentioned Johnson's skill when it came to the fast start. Lewis wasn't the only one who was complaining about it. But I can imagine there is a real edge to be gained there. I mean, the entire 100-m dash only lasts 10 seconds.

Also, one of the people they interviewed (I forget who, someone involved in the testing) said he still had all the drug testing samples going back a number of years, basically for the athletes from the '80s. Recently he went back and started re-testing the samples using now the modern techniques, and he was coming up with a significant number of new positives. But then he stopped the re-testing, figuring, well, what am I going to do with this? Publish the results? No, so I'm just going to stop.

Incidentally, the program didn't mention this, but I was struck by how old the sprinters in the 1988 Johnson race were. I don't follow the Olympics enough to know, but I'd always asssumed that most of the sprinters, at least these days, are in their late teens or early 20s. But in this race we had these ages:

Johnson 26
Lewis 27
Linford Christie 28
Desai Williams 29

I'm missing some. Dennis Mitchell was only 22.

26-29 seems old to me for an Olympic sprinter. Am I wrong?

Johnson 26
Lewis 27
Linford Christie 28
Desai Williams 29

I'm missing some. Dennis Mitchell was only 22.

26-29 seems old to me for an Olympic sprinter. Am I wrong?

2012 final:

Bolt 26
Blake 22
Gatlin 30
Gay 30
Bailey 23

Wow, so nothing unusual about the 1988 era, then.

Is williams calling for players to return all money they made from mlb contracts? good luck getting that passed. no way in hell the MLBPA would go for it, nor do I think it would even be legal. Also If you are this up in arms about PED's then why dont you out every player who you played with who used them? or is that too much to ask...

I'm buggered as to how steroids could have given him such a sensational reaction time,

Back in the old, old days (10+ years ago), I recall there was a study suggesting that steroids improved "twitch muscles" (or something ... "twitch" was in there somewhere) and could improve reaction times. I'm not vouching for that finding I just recall coming across that while poking around for PED studies.

Ray, most world class sprinters will be past college age at least. It seems a typical US sprinter would have gotten his college scholarship and might peak around 25-26 is my guess, after a few years of full-time international competition.

Checking Olympic champs back to 1960, the youngest seems to be 22 (based on birthyear I didn't bother with birthdays) by several guys. But there are a number of 25-26 and Christie came back to win the 92 race at the age of 32.

A good bar trivia question is who won the 1980 Olympic 100 meter gold. :-)

A good bar trivia question is who won the 1980 Olympic 100 meter gold. :-)

Herb Washington?