For the past few years baseball has suffered embarrassing defeats in their attempt to prove high profile players were using PED's. They were unable to convict Barry Bonds. They were unable to convict Roger Clemens. Ryan Braun got off on a technicality. Although the court of public opinion weighed in on their decision long ago MLB could never provide the smoking gun or the paper trail. Until now.
Tony Bosch, the owner of a sports clinic in Miami has agreed to testify in a court of law and name names. Bosch struck a deal that will give him immunity and witness protection if necessary. Unlike Victor Conti and Greg Anderson Bosch promises to fully cooperate in the investigation and provide whatever documentation MLB needs to make their case. In short, anyone who received PED's from this clinic is totally screwed.
The testimony of Bosch is a big win for MLB, but it also exposes the ugly truth. There is no avoiding superstar athletes trying to gain an advantage on the competition. The new rigorous drug testing methods were supposed to create a deterrent to cheating, but in reality it only created more of an obstacle. Players still managed to circumvent the rules and expose the flaws in the system. There is no way to clean up a sport if the participants are determined to have their way.
Hopefully we are past the point where we are surprised by these kind of stories and allegations of wrong doing. We have seen too much in the past decade to believe anything that comes out of an athlete's mouth with regards to PED's The drugs are there, they work, and there's always someone willing to use and distribute them. So long as professional athletes have the potential to make hundreds of millions of dollars this problem isn't going away.
Hopefullty
No comments:
Post a Comment