Baseball plans to retain its testing doctor (USA Today)

[natsfan1a]

Commissioner Bud Selig told baseball's owners Thursday they will make changes to their current drug program without going to an independent administrator, but plan to adopt other recommendations in George Mitchell's report on performance-enhancing drugs.

Instead of turning the drug testing to an outside body, as recommended by Mitchell and the World Anti-Doping Agency, Selig said baseball will instead provide more independence to Dr. Bryan Smith, who's in charge of the testing program.

"Independent is independent," Selig said.

"We believe it is independent now. When I say, 'independent,' that means Dr. Smith is as independent as he needs to be. So we have to strengthen the program just to assure that independence, and we'll continue to do that.

"I want to strengthen it in every way, with more testing and more series of other things. I think we've come to that, and we should do that."

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2008-01-17-testing-doctor_N.htm

 

[Nat of the Living Dead]

TOOL.  LIAR. CORRUPTED. SCUM.

[kimnat]

TOOL.  LIAR. CORRUPTED. SCUM.

Is that what "tool" means?  If so, I'll agree wholeheartedly.

[natsfan1a]

Me, too.

[Nat of the Living Dead]

TOOL has several meanings but the one I hear about the most is:

"A tool isn't necessarily what we refer to as an Honor Nazi. A tool is a cadet that follows the rules blindly because they are the rules. Tools do the dirty work of the officers that run the place. They are "tools" : something someone more powerful uses to manipulate others with...much like a farmer uses a plow, another tool. They are, in a sense, hollow. In another sense, they have very little personal thought or direction."

Sounds about Selig to me.

[natsfan1a]

Sounds about right.

[kimnat]

I can go along w/ that definition.  But isn't Selig "the boss" and isn't he rather making up the rules?

[Nat of the Living Dead]

I can go along w/ that definition.  But isn't Selig "the boss" and isn't he rather making up the rules?

In essence, he should be but if that was the case, he would of hung half the owners and players out to dry during the hearing and I believe he would of retired in 09' like he said he was going to.  It was, afterall, the owners that "pushed him" into three more years.

[kimnat]

Then the owners (as we have said before) are just as corrupt and are completely complicit in damaging our National Pasttime.  They and Selig bear equal responsibility in tarnishing the sport.  They cannot lay all this on the players.  The players may or may not have broken the rules (innocent until proven guilty), but the owners and MLB leadership have caused extreme damage and have severed any trust that may have been left.  I guess we can almost lump Congress into this given their blind eye to the whole thing.  They should be threatening to revoke the anti-trust measures in place or rather say that MLB has violated them.  But they are just as spineless.

[natsfan1a]

Agree on all counts. There's plenty of blame to go around -- including owners, GMs, players, trainers. I was thinking about the anti-trust exemption, too.

[spidernat]

Agree on all counts. There's plenty of blame to go around -- including owners, GMs, players, trainers. I was thinking about the anti-trust exemption, too.

I think it's become evident that this just isn't going to happen. Congress (known for lying to the American people) are going to allow them to pay lip service to 'appease' the public but continue to do as they please. There isn't enough groundswell of protest from the masses to force them to do something about it. People will still go to games and they know it so they thumb their noses at us and operate as usual. I have often told myself that it would be useless for me to stop attending games or even following the sport when no one else will follow suit. I wonder how many others feel as I do.

[blue911]

I guess we can almost lump Congress into this given their blind eye to the whole thing. 

The whole "it's about the kids" shtick has worn thin with me. If congress is so concerned about kids, how come there are no federal funds available for steroid testing in the schools system? Hell for that matter if they're that concerned about kids, Why don't School Buses have seat belts?

[natsfan1a]

I don't know, maybe there could be a grassroots movement. At this point, I feel more confident about minor leaguers being clean than I do major leaguers, because they've been subject to more stringent testing due to not being covered by the player's association agreement (as I understand it).

I think it's become evident that this just isn't going to happen. Congress (known for lying to the American people) are going to allow them to pay lip service to 'appease' the public but continue to do as they please. There isn't enough groundswell of protest from the masses to force them to do something about it. People will still go to games and they know it so they thumb their noses at us and operate as usual. I have often told myself that it would be useless for me to stop attending games or even following the sport when no one else will follow suit. I wonder how many others feel as I do.

[spidernat]

I don't know, maybe there could be a grassroots movement. At this point, I feel more confident about minor leaguers being clean than I do major leaguers, because they've been subject to more stringent testing due to not being covered by the player's association agreement (as I understand it).

I just don't see this happening. People prefer not to be bothered than to stage a serious strike over a lengthy period of time to force them to do what's right (or at least what is expected of the rest of us). They get to somehow get away with something regular people would not. As for the minor leaguers, I too would have a difficult time following a game that isn't at the highest level and I think they know this about the majority of us.