Saturday, December 11, 2004
Thinking about the BALCO scandal, I'm wondering about the economics of it all. Victor Conte was, presumably, selling this stuff to somebody. Bonds says his trainer was living out of his car sometimes, so he wasn't buying enough to keep Conte in business-- all of the pros who have testified and fessed up-- except Giambi, the chump, seem to have been getting it for free. Even if they were buying it, what kind of market are we talking about? A little quick Googling suggests that there were about 10,000 athletes participating in the last Olympics. Let's say that one out of 1000 athletes who try out make it. That gives us a pool of a million athletes who are potential performance enhancing drug consumers. I would put it to you that that is far too small a base-- the business of selling performance enhancing drugs must be bigger than that-- Conte's business was bigger than that, and he's not the only guy in this business if my email is any indication.
I put it to you that there must be a lot more people who are using performance enhancing drugs than we think. How many of the 5,559 finishers in the Turkey Trot do you reckon? How many of the top finishers, and how many of the middle of the pack runners? How many of the 9,119 finishers in the Boilermaker?
Walking over to the gym today, I thought about how many of the people who work out at the Olympia Club might be doing this-- it is not really a bodybuilder's gym, but there are certainly people there who are serious about what they are there for.
I don't like drug laws, frankly. Except to the extent that the law protects purity, I would prefer to see the legal system get out of the drug business. I am also inclined to think that Sportsworld would be well advised to re-think its approach to this question. The health issues are one thing, I suppose, but the simple fact is that this war on drugs has been just like the war on recreational drugs. Both have been expensive, destructive, and unsuccessful.
Come to find out that possession of ethical drugs without a prescription is illegal. News to me, but it also seems like such a piddling offense that I can scarcely believe that the San Francisco US Attorney is bothering to conduct the investigation. Bonds is, in my view, guilty of trying to preserve his youth-- something that I find difficult to condemn. For whatever it is worth, he did not break any baseball rule. I've watched him at the plate, I've seen him run the bases. He is an amazing athlete, and one who has obviously worked hard to accomplish what he has. He used drugs-- so what? His accomplishments didn't come from a bottle- if you could get what he has from a cream or a pill, or a needle in the butt, the record books would look a lot different. Whatever Bonds did, I put it to you that it was no worse than what a lot of people do-- and I don't think it is that bad. Vitamins, HGH, whatever pep pills are fashionable at the moment, THG, whatever. None of it does anything without putting the work in, and Bonds obviously did the work.
I'm trying to get myself to feel the same way about Marion Jones. I guess the difference is that the rules of her sport (our sport) say that some performance enhancing drugs are banned. If we accept Conte at his word, then she broke the rules. Stupid rules? That's what I'm saying. Rules that are, it seems, honored mostly in the breach? So it would seem. What's to be done about it? Well, that's a difficult question. Going back to Bonds, one of the things that is interesting is that it apparently takes a village to ready an elite athlete for competition-- and, actually, we've probably know this or a while, too. I am not so interested in seeing what kind of athlete a lab can create-- I value sport because I value the effort that goes into a great athletic performance. The performance is, for me, the culmination of the preparation. Diet, training, and whatever your genes give you, plus the mental discipline that it takes-- that is what makes it worth it for me, and worth the watching.
Man, I thought sports were what I watched because I didn't want to have to think about it.
I put it to you that there must be a lot more people who are using performance enhancing drugs than we think. How many of the 5,559 finishers in the Turkey Trot do you reckon? How many of the top finishers, and how many of the middle of the pack runners? How many of the 9,119 finishers in the Boilermaker?
Walking over to the gym today, I thought about how many of the people who work out at the Olympia Club might be doing this-- it is not really a bodybuilder's gym, but there are certainly people there who are serious about what they are there for.
I don't like drug laws, frankly. Except to the extent that the law protects purity, I would prefer to see the legal system get out of the drug business. I am also inclined to think that Sportsworld would be well advised to re-think its approach to this question. The health issues are one thing, I suppose, but the simple fact is that this war on drugs has been just like the war on recreational drugs. Both have been expensive, destructive, and unsuccessful.
Come to find out that possession of ethical drugs without a prescription is illegal. News to me, but it also seems like such a piddling offense that I can scarcely believe that the San Francisco US Attorney is bothering to conduct the investigation. Bonds is, in my view, guilty of trying to preserve his youth-- something that I find difficult to condemn. For whatever it is worth, he did not break any baseball rule. I've watched him at the plate, I've seen him run the bases. He is an amazing athlete, and one who has obviously worked hard to accomplish what he has. He used drugs-- so what? His accomplishments didn't come from a bottle- if you could get what he has from a cream or a pill, or a needle in the butt, the record books would look a lot different. Whatever Bonds did, I put it to you that it was no worse than what a lot of people do-- and I don't think it is that bad. Vitamins, HGH, whatever pep pills are fashionable at the moment, THG, whatever. None of it does anything without putting the work in, and Bonds obviously did the work.
I'm trying to get myself to feel the same way about Marion Jones. I guess the difference is that the rules of her sport (our sport) say that some performance enhancing drugs are banned. If we accept Conte at his word, then she broke the rules. Stupid rules? That's what I'm saying. Rules that are, it seems, honored mostly in the breach? So it would seem. What's to be done about it? Well, that's a difficult question. Going back to Bonds, one of the things that is interesting is that it apparently takes a village to ready an elite athlete for competition-- and, actually, we've probably know this or a while, too. I am not so interested in seeing what kind of athlete a lab can create-- I value sport because I value the effort that goes into a great athletic performance. The performance is, for me, the culmination of the preparation. Diet, training, and whatever your genes give you, plus the mental discipline that it takes-- that is what makes it worth it for me, and worth the watching.
Man, I thought sports were what I watched because I didn't want to have to think about it.
