Mitchell Report Thread (Nothing to see here! Drugs are bad. Crisis averted!)

Re: Mitchell Report Thread (Wait a minute: Send in the skeptics!)

I salute BT's well-reasoned post, and would hate for it to be ignored just because I'm trying to hustle past America's Least-Loved Middle Act with his shirt off. Please feel free to comment here on Page 27.

 

Re: Mitchell Report Thread (Wait a minute: Send in the skeptics!)

What does this mean?

Does "Greater canada" believe we should be apathetic about this? Does "Greater Canada" feel that waiting for more evidence is necessary? Is "Greater Canada" still pissed about Ben Johnson?

Please explain.

 

Re: Mitchell Report Thread (Wait a minute: Send in the skeptics!)

macg, you made this point about 11 pages (and 16 subtitle thread changes ago) but I think it's worth bringing up again because it's one I spoke to John Hoberman once about at length, but no editor seemed to care: How do we expect the GA to care about steroids, HgH, PEDs, etc., when our medicine cabinets are overflowing with "performance enhancers" like Viagra and Levitra and Propecia and our starlets are freezing themselves with botox? As a society, we don't even have a firm grasp on what's the difference between steroids, blood doping, HgH, and a protein shake. We won't allow NFL players to even take allergy medicine, but we're watching on TV from our living rooms, taking handfuls of pills to control our blood pressure.

In this country, we like drugs that make us better. And the gap between Viagra and Winstrol probably isn't as large as we in the media would sometimes like to believe.

Also, Carrot Top looks like a deformed penis.

 

Re: Mitchell Report Thread (Wait a minute: Send in the skeptics!)

Or, you know, someone could have deleted the fucking Carrot Top picture.

 

Re: Mitchell Report Thread (Wait a minute: Send in the skeptics!)

Yes. Let's bump another well-reasoned BTExpress post.

 

Re: Mitchell Report Thread (Wait a minute: Send in the skeptics!)

The politicians have been foaming at the mouth and grandstanding like no one's business. A lot of journalists are wagging fingers. There's a bit of a mob mentality right now.

I think BTE's post pretty much sums up a lot of people's feelings on the subject.

 

Re: Mitchell Report Thread (Wait a minute: Send in the skeptics!)

Per DD, and to widen our thinking yet again - or at least the thinking of those with columns due by early deadline tonight - how about this:

Technology advances at a rate too fast for applied philosophy to keep up. Thus, as a species, we are ingenious when it comes to the creation of tools. We are slow as molasses, though, when it comes to figuring out their appropriate applications, and the moral and ethical consequences that arise from them.

 

Re: Mitchell Report Thread (Wait a minute: Send in the skeptics!)

Unless it involves stem cells. Millions of people knew right away that was wrong. :

 

Re: Mitchell Report Thread (Wait a minute: Send in the skeptics!)

That would be a good thread by itself. The impulse to react in pace with technology has lowered the bar of informed discourse.

 

Re: Mitchell Report Thread (Wait a minute: Send in the skeptics!)

That's fair. I can't argue with the mob mentality point. But I care, because as a journalist and a fan of sports, I feel that performance enhancers equate to cheating. And I wonder if later in life the baseball guys who chose steroids will try to make noise that MLB doesn't care about their health in retirement. Those will be the most interesting stories to me: how a roided player feels 10-20 years from now, when his career is long over.

Ideally, this report will lead to some quality reportage, because at the very least it's a potentially fascinating story abiout the lengths athletes will go to, and foolish decisions they make, i.e., paying by check and writing thank you notes to suppliers on team stationary.

Fans only care if a rival player has been fingered in this. They long ago became much too cynical to believe in sports heroes, and rightfully so.

 

Re: Mitchell Report Thread (Wait a minute: Send in the skeptics!)

Good point. However, the shock of Congress and outraged is based on "the role models for our impressionable youth" blah, blah, blah.... Wouldn't footbal be even more at risk, since that is treated as a bigger sport in high schools and colleges?

 

Re: Mitchell Report Thread (Wait a minute: Send in the skeptics!)

Sticking to the names on the list, can we start to develop some idea of how much players' stats were boosted? I saw the post on Hundley's 40 HR season. I had no idea the guy ever hit that many out. What other anomalies are there? Would folks be willing to volunteer to look at an individual player's numbers and tell us if there are any strange jumps in power output? That way I don't have to look at them all myself.