Lance Doped

I'm 99.5% certain Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs throughout his cycling career, throughout those Tour de France titles. Since he retired, my mind has been changed. Initially, I bought into the idea that it was just the bitter, jealous French press stirring up rumors against the hated Texan. But over the last few years, as the sport has ramped up its fight against the cancer of performance enhancing drug use, the evidence has piled up against Lance. The Champ's reputation took a devastating blow this week in one massive, public eyewitness confession (Tyler Hamilton, airing on 60 Minutes tonight) and, according to rumors, the biggest defection Lance's side has ever had to deal with (George Hincapie to federal investigators).

Hamilton was Lance's teammate on the old US Postal Service team. He was busted for doping in 2004 and essentially tossed out of major professional cycling. His conscience and a federal subpoena have led him to testify to investigators and now to the press on his first-hand knowledge of Lance's cheating. He adds his admission to that of fellow pariah Floyd Landis.

Hincapie's testimony against Lance, if he gave it, would be worth more than Landis's and Hamilton's combined in the minds of both professional cyclers and cycling spectators. George might be the Jim Thome of cycling. The media love him. What's more, he is well-respected within the peloton, and that means a lot.

Cycling is a tight-knit sport. To give an (impossible) analogy, imagine if every NBA player competed against every other NBA player every day they played a game. Better, imagine if every pro golfer played every hole of every tournament simultaneously, walking from shot to shot as a 120-man pack. That's the reality of the pro cycling experience.

Hincapie is, as far as I've seen, a favorite among his fellow pros. We will see what their reaction is whenever his testimony is confirmed, but even if he faces a ban from the sport (at his age, any such punishment would be career-ending) it is hard to see him becoming a persona-non-grata to the extent Landis reached. It is easier to believe (and hope) his slide may be the beginnings of an avalanche of doping confessions and accusations for the sport.

But lets return to Lance Armstrong. What do I make of the greatest Tour champion of all time? As I've said before, we either know or strongly suspect that a solid majority of his competitors in the Tour fields were doping, particularly those around him at the top of the overall standings. I don't think he cheated better than, say, Jan Ullrich (second to Lance in the Tour four times). So even though the memories of Lance's triumphs and spectacular mountainside attacks are diminished and poisoned, they remain remarkable in my mind.

Chorus: Few athletes are the pure, innocent, idealized heroes we want them to be.

There were probably some great pro cyclists out there who, even at the height of doping , raced clean. I had hoped that Hincapie was one of them, but it looks like that hope was misplaced. I'm also convinced that there is less doping in the Tour now than there was for the 25 years or so before Floyd Landis had his title stripped in 2006. Even if the policing can never be fool proof, personal reputation does matter to most people. That's why these confessions - in cycling or any other sport - are a good thing. Unlike in the 1990s when Lance began his string of dominance, the voice of the fan in the athletes' ears is booming. (I can follow Andy Schleck on twitter!)

Another good thing - the truckloads of cash Lance has raised for cancer research. And that's REALLY what makes this story so uncomfortable. I used the cancer metaphor in the opening paragraph to describe cycling's PED problem. Did you catch it? Did you think of Lance's heroic struggle with death? Did you recall all those times the media explained his ability to suffer in the Alps and Pyrenees by referring to his impossible triumph over cancer? Did you hope, for the sake of Livestrong, that the .5% chance I give that Lance is telling the truth...is the truth?

Lance cheated. Lance lied. Lance inspired millions. Lance raised millions. From Lance, to Manny, to Tiger...it is possible for a person to do both good and bad in this life. I think, too, it is possible for us to both celebrate the good and condemn the bad. And rather than fall into the old trap of holding athletes to a higher standard, I think we should hold ourselves to a higher standard even as we find pleasure, disappointment, and inspiration from watching other humans play games.

Reaction: No Punishment for Giambi

I'm glad Bud Selig isn't punishing Jason Giambi. I don't like Jason Giambi, but I do respect him for apparently telling the truth about his usage of Performance Enhancing Drugs to the Mitchell investigation. I may be crazy, and I'm certainly an optimist, but I believe Giambi is now clean.

It is far better in the long run for PED users to admit they used and that it was wrong to do so. Selig is right to encourage admissions, as awkward as this first case looks. It doesn't have to be a hard and fast precedent. Selig can deal with future players who admit to using PEDs as he pleases, just like David Stern has been harder on guys who have a more serious background of misbehaving.

After all, it's the elite players I'm interested in. I want to understand how to place them in historical context. I think Giambi's stats were inflated for a few seasons, but I also see that he's a solid player without PEDs. In the end, if the elite players who used admit what they've done, the damage to their legacy is punishment enough. I don't need to see them suspended, much less banned from baseball.

If they're caught, whether from a positive test or by the Tour de France "guilty by association and circumstantial evidence" standard, then they should be suspended. But if they admit their crimes on their own, leniency is the proper response.

A Few Notent Notables

• I finally read the comments to my All-Star game post and put up a response. If Justin and Chris and anyone else wants to continue the discussion, I'll add more. Here's the direct link. I stand by my broader list of All-Timers. Even if Ichiro doesn't make the HOF, he's someone I'll talk about for the rest of my life. But I do like Justin's unique classification of Manny Ramirez in the "Manny Ramirez" category. He's not quite on par with some of the other guys on that level, but you can't put him down a notch either. He's so quirky, we'll never forget him. He's the best RBI guy of the past decade. He's Manny Ramirez.
• I'm trying to cut back on the amount I post about PEDs, but I figured I should weigh in on the latest cyclist to test positive. First off, I've watched every single leg this year (with TiVo I can knock them off in an hour and a half) and many stages from the past three years and I've never heard of Patrik Sinkewitz. Second, I think his positive test is very overblown which is bad but also good. It's bad because it's getting the most coverage I've seen of the Tour on ESPN.com. It's good because one positive test is causing such a strong backlash from cyclists and media. I'm even more convinced that this is the cleanest Tour in 20 years. The punishments for doping are so severe and the damage to a riders reputation is so great, I believe most cyclists will decide its not worth it.
• What a great weekend for the Sports Sauna! The British Open, David Beckham in the MLS, and the Tour de France hits the Pyrenees. Alas, it's also going to be quite a busy weekend for me so I probably will only catch the Open live.
  

Performance Enhancers at the US Open?

Did you hear? Witnesses spotted US Open champ Angel Cabrera inhaling Nicotiana tabacam, a plant popular in Cabrera's native Argentina. The plant contains a powerful drug that stimulates the release of dopamine, which helps a person relax. Apparently, the substance he was inhaling has more dangerous side-effects than steroids or HGH. Hopefully, the PGA Tour will act quickly, strip Cabrera of the title, and ban this substance. Apparently baseball players have been known to abuse the same product. MLB should follow suit.

I'm kidding. I don't really think the PGA or MLB needs to ban smoking. Still, it is interesting to wonder if tobacco helped Cabrera win the US Open, and if so, is it a performance enhancing drug? What is the difference between smoking to relax and taking amphetamines to get "up" for a baseball game? Or for that matter, taking HGH to help you work out more effectively or doping your blood to help you recover faster after biking for 4 hours?

The more I think about it, the blurrier the lines get. Congrats to "the Duck." The victory was well-deserved. Tiger Woods remains not as good as he was in the first 5 years of his career.

Notent Notables

OK, I'm back after my hiatus. To be fair, I was in Bulgaria for 8 days in the last month working at an orphanage with high schoolers. I have a great life.

• A Mets employee pleaded guilty to distributing stuff*. My immediate reaction: at least 50% of Mets between 1995 and 2005 were using stuff. My second reaction: oh well... Go Mets!
• The 1st leg of the Man U-AC Milan Champions league game was the best match I've seen since I moved to London. Both teams passed great and both had control of different stages. Milan took the 2-1 lead by supplementing their typical Italian League skill on the ball with some excellent passes. Man U won by taking over the midfield in English League fashion. Is Christiano Ronaldo the best player in the world? I'll buy it. Is Kaka hot both as a player and as a male? Sure. Is Rooney, with 6 goals in his last 5 matches including one of the biggest of his career, back? I hope so.
• Unless you're Kate Schardein, I was listening to Maximo Park before you. Add them to the short list of bands I liked before they were really big (Gym Class Heroes is the only other one I can think of). The latest band that Kate, my British band insider, introduced me to is Young Knives. They're good too.
  
• I hate the Bloody Sock story. If you think there was anything except blood on the sock, you're a deluded Yankees fan still bitter about being on the wrong end of the biggest choke in the history of sports. That's not my opinion, that's a fact.
• I missed two of my favorite English sporting events while I was in Bulgaria. The Oxford-Cambridge boat race has been gripping stuff in recent years because both teams are so elite that they're always close at the end. And the Grand National horse race is to the American Triple Crown what the gladiator fights in the Roman Coliseum are to modern day boxing.
• Also missed the Masters, but wasn't shocked that Zach Johnson won. I hate it when a guy who everyone who follows golf knows is good but just isn't a star wins his first major and the media feels obligated to write the standard Cinderella Story piece. At the very least, this guy is going to be David Toms: perennially towards the top of the money list and competing for majors every once in a while.
• Speaking of golf, here's a little prediction that I feel strongly about: at the end of his career, Geoff Ogilvy is going to be more popular than Greg Norman ever was. Sometime in the last year I read a little column on espn.com saying that the media love Ogilvy because he gives a great quote and always puts tons of thought into his answers. Since then, almost every golf story I read has an Ogilvy quote in it. Apparently, he's a really bright guy, he's incredibly candid, he's Australian and he's wicked good at golf: everything a golf reporter could want! I think I've finally found one guy I might root for over Tiger.
• Here's to David Halberstam. Amazing life.
• Finally, just in case you're curious, and because its fun to think someone might be interested, I'll leave you with my 2007 Keeper Fantasy Baseball League Roster. * denotes my 4 keepers coming into the season. Three things to note: 1) My other possible choices for keepers were John Lackey, Jermaine Dye, and Francisco Rodriguez...nothing too great. 2.) I'm in first place right now, insanely. 3.) In addition to standard 5x5 stats, we also count Ks and Errors for batters and L's and Complete Games for Pitchers. I highly recommend that format, although the CGs are a bit of a wildcard.

Listed in the order I acquired them...
2B - Chase Utley*
SS - Derek Jeter*
C - Brian McCann*
SP - Scott Kazmir
OF - Bobby Abreu
RP - Joe Nathan
SP - Cole Hamels
OF - Alex Rios
DL - Jason Schmidt
1B - Todd Helton
OF - Magglio Ordonez
RP - Francisco Cordero
P - Chris Capuano
Util - Jeff Francouer
P - Jason Isringhausen
Bench - Moises Alou
Bench - Daniel Cabrera
----All Below were acquired after the draft off the free agent wire----
P - Al Reyes
Bench - Ian Snell
3B - Morgan Ensberg
Bench - Bronson Arroyo
Bench - Rocco Baldelli

It's a very typical team for me. Somehow I always end up with the batters who get tons of RBIs but not a lot of HRs. And I tend to prioritize Ks over Ws for pitching. Capuano, for instance, has been on my team for three years without me having to keep him. I also drafted hoping to get some guys who turn into keepers. I could see Hamels, Rios, Snell, or even Francouer making that leap this year.



*Stuff, you'll recall, is what I've decided The Sports Sauna will call performance enhancing drugs.

NFL Steroids

Killing time before the NCAA picks back up on Thursday, and lacking any semblance of a Cinderella in the phony 2007 NCAA tournament that could make for some good filler stories, ESPN.com is leading with a Page 2 essay by Chuck Klosterman on steroids in the NFL. It's a thoughtful if uninformative summary of what no one is saying.

I mean, at this point, we've got pretty solid evidence inplicating 2 of the last 8 Super Bowl teams as being entirely on steroids: the 2004 Panthers and the 2006 Steelers. Let's face it. The NFL is riddled with steroids. CERTAINLY they must be more widespread than in the MLB. As Klosterman notes, "football is more about intangible masculine warfare..." Bigger and stronger is ALWAYS better. If you want to hit another person more effectively, drugs would help. There is a bit more to hitting a baseball.

I think that the anti-steroid backlash by baseball fans has helped prevent performance enhancing drugs as well. Nobody wants to be seen as a villain. Any baseball player connected with steroids is a villain.

To answer Klosterman's implied question, I am going to think about the NFL similarly to how I think about the Tour de France. I'd much rather see guys completely drug-free, but I know that almost no one is. So I just shrug my shoulders and enjoy the entertainment.

Baseball, on the other hand, IS different. I really feel like there are guys out there who aren't on steroids, which let's me think of baseball players as innocent until suspiscion of guilt. And I can really get behind the Griffey Juniors out there who I really believe are drug-free.