December 04, 2004

McCain Wants MLB to Tighten Drug Policy : WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain on Saturday demanded immediate action by representatives of major league baseball's players and owners to tighten the sport's drug-testing policy "to restore the integrity of baseball" or face possible congressional action. "I warned them a long time ago that we needed to fix this problem," McCain told reporters after attending the Army-Navy football game with President Bush. "It's time for them to sit down together and act. And that's what they should do. If not, clearly, we have to act legislatively, which we don't want to do."

posted by LROD to baseball at 07:00 PM - 18 comments

Glad to hear it. Now can we please stop with the AP lead-in copy? This isn't the Yahoo! Discussion Forums.

posted by DrJohnEvans at 07:17 PM on December 04, 2004

(news - web sites) At least trim off the unnecessary crap like this. As for the McCain's comments: okay, slow news day for him? I'm sure there are FAR more pressing issues for the American government than the drug habits of 1200 members of a union that does nothing more than entertain people. He might as well demand stricter drug-testing for the Actors Guild or the Screenwriters Guild, it'll have just as much affect on the well-being of Americans.

posted by grum@work at 07:22 PM on December 04, 2004

Oh great, now we have politics and congress trying to govern america’s past time sport, I say we are doomed and on the other hand we have Mr. conte saying that another undetectable steroid had already hit the black market ( soon enough we gonna have to get the DEA involve into this ) In contrast a professor from the university of Wisconsin said: he believed steroids should be legalized for adult athletes, saying medical risks are often overstated. Already, athletes are allowed to enhance performance by numerous artificial means, he noted. For instance, it is legal to stimulate oxygen-carrying capacity by training at an altitude or by sleeping in a hyper baric chamber, but not by using the endurance drug known as EPO. DAH! EPO is a drug Mr. Professor. My opinion is that an athlete that uses a drug to get superiority over another athlete in any sport is a cheater and should be disciplined for cheating period and for Jones if she or any other olympian athlete did it they should take the gold from them and give it to the ones that competed with integrity. In brief cheating must not be allowed in sports period.

posted by LROD at 07:23 PM on December 04, 2004

To DrJohnEvans read it in the NEW YORK TIMES TOO!, you hater.

posted by LROD at 07:27 PM on December 04, 2004

Yes. AP is the Associated Press. The Associated Press circulates generic copy to news outlets around the globe. This is why the New York Times and Yahoo! Sports can both be carrying—wait for it—the same article. Since the article is everywhere already, I don't see much point in copying and pasting it into the SpoFi post box. If you can't think of a way to tell us that the post is worth reading, then many of us won't read it. Anyway, this is hardly surprising news. Don't you remember Bush coming down on doping in the State of the Union last year? This is just a retreading of their position (and probably would've sufficed as a link in one of the other doping threads).

posted by DrJohnEvans at 08:45 PM on December 04, 2004

To DrJohnEvans, I don't care if you read it or not, or if you say is the same article either way you don't bother me on the other hand you should be reading medicine articles if you are really a doctor and stop complaining so much. You don't like it, DON'T READ IT! < stop being a twitch>>>

posted by LROD at 10:24 PM on December 04, 2004

... Well, this thread is fun. It's like having a bunnyfire of our own. Not surprised this is coming up again from the government. Bush could probably bring it up in the SOTU address again this coming year.

posted by jerseygirl at 11:32 PM on December 04, 2004

you should be reading medicine articles if you are really a doctor ... okay, I'm speechless.

posted by DrJohnEvans at 11:44 PM on December 04, 2004

OK, now back to the question at hand ... steroids, baseball, and government. The stubborn baseball union better do something concrete, not just slap a few players then put some meaningless clause in the contract about steroids. If they try to play patty-cake with this, the government will legislate against this, then the union will have to enforce it. Or the union can choose to make a mockery of baseball, turn off fans, have the government legislate baseball, and make one of the worst PR mistakes it could ever make.

posted by roberts at 06:56 AM on December 05, 2004

you should be reading medicine articles if you are really a doctor. And this doctor thing is ridiculous. Anybody can put the term "dr" in front of their name ... whether he/she is a true M.D., a Ph.D., or a high school dropout.

posted by roberts at 07:04 AM on December 05, 2004

These personal attacks are getting out of hand. He had a good point about the "(news - web sites)" thing, which I have edited out of the post. Don't malign his professional career; we of course checked his credentials fully when he joined this community.

posted by rcade at 08:14 AM on December 05, 2004

McCain is groping for headlines. Not surprising, that's what politicians do. But as far as I'm concerned, baseball sacrificed its option to keep the government out when it got the antitrust exemption. If baseball wants the governemnt to protect its antitrust exemption, then they are going to have to pay for that protection when it's beneifical for the politicians to poke their noses in. Did they think special treatment would be free?

posted by dzot at 11:48 AM on December 05, 2004

The goverment should keep their eyes in the war and the economy!, like they don't have their hands full right now.

posted by LROD at 03:41 PM on December 05, 2004

Gee, what a creative story lead-in. The miracle of cut and paste.

posted by blarp at 04:12 PM on December 05, 2004

I have no problem with McCain speaking up on this. That is what politicians do, they are the elected voice of the people. You think Sportsfilter's calls for testing are gonna get noticed? You think boycotting your favorite team because of drug problems is going to get noticed? Not a shot. I want drug testing, and I want drug testing now, and I want John McCain to kick Donald Fehr's fucking head in until he gets it. McCain is a sports fan with a long record of looking out for the welfare of athletes. Have you seen what he's been trying to do for boxers for years?

posted by vito90 at 06:18 PM on December 05, 2004

I'm all for taking it seriously. Plus, you know it has to be pretty bad for politicians to see some benefit in adding it too the ol' agenda.

posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 08:40 PM on December 05, 2004

NYT on steroids and asterisks.

posted by yerfatma at 11:58 AM on December 14, 2004

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