The Mitchell Report made some nice weekend reading; it was a good piece of investigative journalism on the history of steroid use in professional baseball. I’ve offered my criticism of the Mitchell Report as being an overpriced review of secondary sources that was extensively documented elsewhere. But I must admit there was a good amount of primary source reporting in the testimony of Kirk Radomski and Brian McNamee (thanks to the U.S. Justice Department).
The Mitchell Report noted problems with current steroid education programs in MLB that focus on severe steroid dangers and deleterious side effects:
[T]hese health risks… generally will not deter a player from using these substances. This is because players who use or are considering using performance enhancing substances do not consider them dangerous if used properly. This view is reinforced when players see that other players who they know are using performance enhancing substances arc not experiencing the adverse health effects described in the educational materials.
This makes sense. If steroid use is rampant and the clubhouse, yet no one is experiencing any of the negative side effects, then why would players give any credence to the MLB “steroid education” programs? Perhaps overstating and exaggerating the side effects and related scare tactics are not effective in a drug education program? Read the rest of this entry »
The Mitchell Report reveals the general ignorance about steroid use by Major League Baseball players and many other athletes in competitive sports. I would hope that the investment of millions of dollars into steroid use in MLB would result in a basic understanding of the various steroids used by baseball players and the quantities involved.
But apparently this was not within the scope of their investigation. Instead, investigators relied on a survey of bodybuilders and weightlifters to document and determine the manner, methods, and quantities of anabolic steroids used by professional baseball players and presumably all competitive athletes. Read the rest of this entry »
Several months ago, Bill Llewellyn and Rick Collins told me about an independent filmmaker that was interested in hearing their perspective on the “steroid issue”; Chris Bell patiently spent several hours with each of them for on camera interviews. They had a good feeling about the film he was making finally hoping to see a truthful examination of anabolic steroids in society appear on the big screen.
I had the opportunity to meet Chris Bell, the director and screenwriter of “Bigger, Stronger, Faster,” at the 2007 Ironman Pro Expo in Pasadena thanks to an introduction from my good friend Rehan Jalali. After talking with Chris, I could understand why so many people were excited by this film. Clearly, Chris was striving for an open and honest examination of steroids free of the hysteria that is so commonplace nowadays. The irony is that it is most likely this same hysteria that makes financing of such independent documentaries possible. Read the rest of this entry »
