Results tagged ‘ HGH ’
Baseball, PEDs and a level of hypocrisy that knows no bounds
Craig Calcaterra @ Hardball Talk comes through again (seriously, he and I tend to line up on this kind of stuff nearly 100% of the time) on the whole PED front:
Dan LeBatard offers the most intelligent and mature take on PEDs in sports I’ve seen in ages. He asks us to take a step back and ask ourselves why it is we are so hung up on a certain, narrow kind of performance enhancement in sports when we never question it — indeed, we openly praise it — when athletes do insane things to their bodies, all in the name of staying on the field? Often things that could cause massive harm.
Stuff like Ronnie Lott cutting his finger off. Lomas Brown playing with a catheter. Players having ligaments taken from cadavers and inserted into their own bodies. Drug therapies and medical procedures that are wholly unnecessary for a normal quality of life but are accepted in the name of athletic performance. We are totally fine with these. We are not totally fine with others:
We are OK with Kirk Gibson hitting one of the most famous home runs ever on one steroid (cortisone), but we slam the Hall of Fame door on the face of everybody else who might have used the anabolic kind. Granted, cortisone is not a banned performance enhancer, but it certainly enhanced Gibson’s performance, which wouldn’t have been possible without it. Lost in the shouting of “Cheater!” and “Fraud!” from a pill-popping America is how often athletes have to go through the pharmacy for the healing properties of hormones — not just to hit home runs but because what they do for a daily living really hurts.
Great points indeed.
For the life of me I cannot see why HGH is banned in professional sports.
These are highly paid athletes who amount to substantial investments for their teams. It makes little sense to me to deprive them of certain medical regimens while allowing others.
Anabolic steroids have a certain “healing property” but more in the sense that it allows you to regen faster for additional workouts so I tend to feel they should still be banned, however HGH should be “A-OK” to me.
If it is actually required to come back from an injury and a doctor is prescribing, administering it then have at it fellas.
As much as we like to play the role of raging hypocrite as we look down our nose at PED users our “positions” on them are just one giant clusterf*** of contradictions when it comes down to it.
Yet Another Juror Falls Asleep During Clemens Trial
By Matt Snyder @ CBSSports.com
I haven’t been paying overly close attention to the Roger Clemens trial.
I’m not sure if it’s because I’m so sick and tired of hearing about the steroid era’s taint or if it’s because there’s no way I could take a side — seriously, a person with the morality of Roger Clemens vs. a government wasting a colossal amount of time and money … as usual?
What’s the right choice there?
Anyway, something has finally caught my eye: According to the Associated Press story from Tuesday, a second juror has been kicked off the jury for falling asleep.
I don’t know how to react to that, other than to laugh. I mean, we’ve all been there before — whether it’s a college philosophy lecture, an insurance seminar or a simple boardroom meeting.
You know the feeling. Your eyes just keep falling shut and you can’t shake it. Maybe your pen falls to the ground and the sound startles you awake, or maybe someone close to you coughs or sneezes loudly, jarring you awake. But those are only temporary. As long as you’re caught in that seat for a prolonged period of time with that nodding off feeling, there’s no fighting the heavy eyes.
And two jurors on the Clemens trial have succumbed to it.
Boy, the testimony must be riveting — maybe I should watch more Court TV than baseball. In the meantime, might I suggest some Homer Simpson glasses pictured above to the remaining jurors?
Report: MLB Players warned over deer spray
Boys will indeed be boys and players will indeed look for a way to “get around the rules” it seems.
MLB players have been issued a warning over the use of deer-antler spray, a substance administered under the tongue that includes a banned chemical known for its muscle-building and fat-cutting effects, SI.com has reported.
This is the same substance used by many NFL players, including such “luminaries” as Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens.
Players had felt free to use the spray at nearly no risk until the warning was sent last week by the league, the report said.
In its warning, issued in reaction to reports from the drug-testing industry, MLB requested players not use the spray because it contained “potentially contaminated nutritional supplements” and had been added to the league’s cautionary list of products.
The warning was not issued because the spray includes the banned chemical, SI.com reported.
IGF-1, or insulin-like growth factor, can’t be detected in the urine tests used by baseball, and the players’ association has not come to an agreement with MLB on blood testing.
According to the report, scientists discovered IGF-1 in the velvet of immature deer antlers and players have been using it as an alternative to steroids.
The chemical is considered a performance-enhancer and its use is prohibited by baseball and the World Anti-Doping Agency, among other governing bodies. IGF-1 is said to mediate the level of human growth hormone in the body, SI.com reported.
MLB said in its warning that the spray can cause players to test positive for the banned steroid methyltestosterone, though it is not listed as an ingredient, the report said.
Among the benefits highlighted by manufacturers of the spray are “anabolic or growth stimulation,” “athletic performance” and “muscular strength and endurance.”
And it’s ok. You too can admit you thought of a certain mullet wearing Milwaukee Brewer when you read the byline.
