Question of the Day

Do Bonds and/or Clemens get into the Hall of Fame?

Baseball and Steriods

Suppose I should say something about this. I've been saying for a while that in aerobic sports (running, cycling) there are no longer any legitimate superhuman efforts. It just can't happen. Looks like the same applies to non-aerobic sports as well.

Any thoughts on whether the players' association will agree to blood testing for HGH? I'm going with a solid "no" because I'm not sure how much people really care about athletes cheating and as long as the union can dig in its heels, I don't see much substantive change.

Boy, Cycling Sure is a Dirty Sport

Ladies and gentlemen, your winner of the Women's 100 meter dash in the 2000 Sydney Olympics... Marion Jones! Ekaterini Thanou! Um..

For the 2004 Summer Olympics, Thanou was one of the main hopes of the home crowd for winning an athletics medal. However, on the day prior to the opening ceremony, Thanou and her training partner Konstantinos Kenteris failed to attend a drugs test, and later the same night were hospitalised, claiming they had both been injured in a motorcycle accident. In the ensuing doping scandal, Kenteris and Thanou announced their withdrawal from the Games on August 18, after a hearing before the Disciplinary Commission of the IOC. An official Greek investigation into their alleged accident, ruled that it had been staged. Their coach Christos Tsekos was also suspended and was later caught with large amounts of steroids and other drugs in his possession.

Damn it! Scratch Thanou! Tanya Lawrence? Lawrence, anything? No? Good! For now, your 2000 Women's 100 Meter Dash champion, Jamaican Tanya Lawrence. WAIT, SHE'S FREAKIN' JAMAICAN? Oh Christ...

Fine? That's not a fine

From today's NYT:

The National Football League fined New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick $500,000 yesterday, and the team will forfeit its first-round draft pick in 2008 if it makes the playoffs, for violating league rules Sunday when a Patriots staff member was discovered videotaping signals by Jets coaches during the season opener at the Meadowlands. The Patriots will be fined $250,000. If they fail to make the playoffs, they will forfeit their second- and third-round picks in 2008.

Yeah, yeah, big deal. Want to see a fine? Here's a fine:

McLaren Mercedes, the leading team in the Formula One championship, was fined $100 million on Thursday and excluded from the constructors’ title in the spying scandal that has plagued the sport all season. The International Automobile Federation, the sport’s governing body, found the McLaren guilty of cheating by using data obtained from Ferrari, its main rival, to improve its own car, the federation said in a statement issued following a hearing in Paris.

$100 MILLION. That'll change behavior.