Wednesday, December 30, 2015

My Thoughts on the PED Documentary Scandal


Another black eye is about to hit Major League Baseball if it hasn't already, and that bothers me. In a documentary that was leaked by Al Jazeera it was revealed that steroids are still prevalent in sports, and not just MLB. Some NFL players were revealed to be using steroids in this documentary as well as three major MLB players Ryan Howard, Ryan Zimmerman and Taylor Teagarden.

The documentary showcases a months long investigative report on PEDs in global sports and they even went as far as to send British hurdler Liam Collins undercover to expose other athletes.  Collins worked with pharmacist Charlie Sly who allegedly worked at an Indiana-based anti-aging clinic called the Guyer Institute in 2011. Sly reportedly told Collins that he sold both Howard, the Philadelphia Phillies first baseman, and Zimmerman, the Washington Nationals first and third baseman, a hormone supplement known as Delta-2. The drugs is specifically designated to evade drug tests and is included on Major League Baseball's list of banned substances per their collective bargaining agreement. Meanwhile Teagarden is seen on camera discussing how and when he took PEDs in previous seasons, ouch.

Howard and Zimmerman have denied using the drugs and NFL notable players like Peyton Manning, James Harrison and Mike Neal have as well. None of the three players that are named have ever been linked to steroids or PEDs and have never been suspended for any sort of drug or substance use. If the documentary, and the investigation that you know is to follow, proves to be true all three players will likely receive an 80-game steroid suspension. So what are my thoughts? This sucks. It's another black eye for MLB and it's going to be a major talking point, and argument point I think, in the next CBA after the current one expires after this season.

I want steroids to be legal or completely out of the game. I live in a fantasy world, I know this, but that's what I want and that's how I feel. Without stringent blood testing these clinics will keep popping up every few years and the game will have to try and prove to their fans that it's clean again. This is a step back, even if it's a minor one, for the game and I hate that because I love this game.

4 comments:

  1. Is anyone going to believe Al Jazeera?
    Although there have been rumblings of it on the QT for a while now! True or false we will here about it and it stinks!

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  2. Al-Jazeera...the media outlet for those that wear those filthy turbans ?

    The same pack of scum that showed a video of an arab sniper shooting
    an American soldier dead, during the Iraq invasion.

    The only thing they can leak, would come out from those rags they wear.
    Screw them, and that idiotic coran that they read. I doubt most any
    of them can read anyway. Inbreeding.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No one is a fan of Al Jazeera here. Finally, something we can ALL agree on.

      Delete

Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)