Comments on: Why Baseball Looks (and may soon be) Cleaner Than Cycling

By: Magnanimous » Blog Archive » Keirin Controversy Concerning “Cycling Cash Claims”

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:30:15 +0000

[...] a Japanese cycling association paid $3,000,000 to cycling’s international governing body (the UCI) to get the “keirin” included in the slate of Olympic velodrome [...]

By: Sebastian

Sebastian — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:56:55 +0000

Another difference between MLB and cycling: you can only have something as singular and authoritative as the Mitchell Report in a sports league that’s run within a single country. MLB is an American organization; Mitchell is part of the American government; etc. Part of the reason why cycling’s response to doping seems so chaotic is because some of the national governing bodies are so vehemently anti-doping (France, Germany) while others (Spain, Italy) obfuscate.

By: Tommy

Tommy — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:05:07 +0000

True, all these reports came basically through the testimony of 2 trainers. Imagine if all the trainers spoke up.
Different story, indeed.

By: Barrie M

Barrie M — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:56:19 +0000

Good article. I absolutely agree with you on how poorly the governing bodies of cycling have made thing so much worse. However, people don’t see baseball as a corrupt circus of dopers because baseball hasn’t undergone rigorous testing. Therefore, there isn’t a significant trail of doping violators publicly exposed for the media to attack. And once the dust settles on the Mitchell report, baseball will still appear prettier than cycling. All of the supposedly high profile cheats exposed in baseball have come from someone ratting them out, confessing to injecting them, or records of purchases by mail order, etc. When big guns like Clemens, Bonds, A-Rod, Big Pappy, Manny, Guererro, Pujols, etc. actually fail tests and are caught with the junk, then baseball’s rosy image will really start to take a hit. At that point you’ll begin to hear water cooler discussion of how dirty baseball is and how they are all dopers. Right now I think that talk is reserved for cyclists and track and field.

If MLB turns their testing over to WADA (I don’t think they’re dumb enough to do that) then things will start to get interesting.

By: cosmo

cosmo — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 02:18:46 +0000

No argument that baseball’s current test structure is farcical. But I think today’s report marks the end of the MLBPA’s control of testing. The league, the owners, the fans, and even the players seem ready to put this era of baseball behind them.

Unlike cycling, there’s (more or less) a single controlling entity in MLB, and I think that over the next few years, that despotic structure will force through changes that will restore integrity to the sport, much like it did after the Black Sox scandal way back when.

By: Tommy

Tommy — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:48:22 +0000

Good article about the sport’s approach to drug testing. However, one point—namely, although the Mitchell report is a step in the right direction, baseball’s testing program is a farce. Players aren’t tested for HGH and many other drugs. It’s really a joke.
Also, I think that baseball players are much more “protected” from their union than are cyclists. Can you imagine if the cycling testers had to work with the likes of Donald Fehr? There would be almost no progress. And no results. And nothing definitively done to stop athletes from drugging.