Columnist loses faith in track records

[TrackCEO]

Nick Canepa of The San Diego Union-Tribune, who has been a loyal tracko for years, now seems lost:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib ... anepa.html

Ironically, when he talks about a "track meet breaking out at a baseball game," he doesn't realize how the opposite occurred last weekend -- at least on television.

K E N

[unclezadok]

I think his comment about T&F is extremely ignorant--the kind of thing that gives the impression that the sports making the biggest effort to catch users of illegal substances, like track and cycling, are somehow more drug-ridden because they naturally impose more sanctions for drug use than, say, pro football. I'm sure he was the first in line in the 1970s to accuse American athletes of poor sportsmanship for accusing the East Germans of using drugs.

[gh]

If these are the words of a "loyal tracko" let's hope we don't get written about by any disloyal ones. Typically slanted piece by a mainstream writer who doesn't know his ass from a steeplechase pit.

It's not that he isn't spot-on about track, it's that he continues to pretend (deny?) that baseball has long had a problem, and that the problem is compounded by lack of meaningful testing. Don't these guys get it?

[tafnut]

The difference between T&F and all the top-tier American sports is that we truly care about cleaning up our sport - the others only want to give it lip-service, and their fans, by and large (and I've asked) don't really care.

[gh]

Not sure our fans would care either, had not the abusers been "demonized" by the governing bodies with Draconic sentences. The old Victorian sense of sport for gentlemen runs headlong into the realities of professional team sports.

[TrackCEO]

Nick is a "loyal tracko" in the sense that he knows and likes the sport, has covered significant competitions and interviewed many name athletes. And he does know a steeplechase from a pole vault pit.

He's far better than others in the U-T Sports Department. When I worked there (and everyone knew T&F was my "only" sport), the common refrain was: "The only thing I hate more than track is -- field."

Nick has just lost his soul to the "conventional wisdom" that track is all about drugs. He's not alone. Tim Layden (SI) and Amy Shipley (Washington Post) are just two of the many "track opinion leaders" obsessed with doping.

Fortunately, we have a sane voice in Steve Nearman, a running columnist with the Washington Times, who struck the right tone with this recent column on Gatlin:

http://washingtontimes.com/sports/20060 ... -8885r.htm

K E N

[kuha]

Not sure our fans would care either, had not the abusers been "demonized" by the governing bodies with Draconic sentences. The old Victorian sense of sport for gentlemen runs headlong into the realities of professional team sports.

Yup.

[Jnathletics]

I'm not so sure he was putting down T&F as much as he is warning Baseball. It's more of a fix this issue quick or baseball will become like T&F where every achievement and every participant is questionable.

He believes Pujols is clean, but because what he is doing suspicion has begun to creep Pujols' way. IMO he is trying to point out great achievements can be obtained without being juiced. and he is hoping Baseball will not fall into T&F's public relations problem.

He does miss the boat, because the article suggests that Baseball is on the right path with it's new drug policy and with this suspicion should no longer be apart of baseball. More of a keep it quiet and out of the public to avoid the scrutiny T&F is under type of message.

But that's baseball writers for you, the game is more important than the truth.

[tafnut]

Not sure our fans would care either, had not the abusers been "demonized" by the governing bodies with Draconic sentences. The old Victorian sense of sport for gentlemen runs headlong into the realities of professional team sports.

Yes, I'm sure that if steroids had never been banned, we'd be totally OK with that, and I'm also sure that the cost in human lives would not be worth it. I don't buy the 'legalize recreational drugs' campaign for the same reason. If it were legal, the cost would be incalcuable, just as it is with alcohol. Just because we let one demon out of the bag, doesn't mean we should free them all.

[gh]

I'm also sure that the cost in human lives would not be worth it..

There you go again with the "reefer madness" school of thought. You're stating facts not in evidence.

I'm by no means advocating any legalization of steroids by the way. I'm simply saying that by treating the first offense as one that draws penalties equal to a felony on the streets, we've convinced people that track athletes are hard-core criminals. The punishment is out of line with the crime.

[figo]

Baseball records are a joke overall.
Different parks, sometimes reconfigured for the hitters, no standard size,
roids, loaded teams enhancing your stats, dead ball, live ball, just too many, variables to handle..

Track records in comparison are much better. And there is the technology out there to reduce the error factor in measurement, standardized tracks , wind measurement etc.etc. Moving forward, meaningful comparision can definitely be made. One other thing.... we have no idea who really is taking what, which leads to the good old drug problem... tough to figure out what to do really.
Legalize it leads to all kinds of crazy problems and if you don't everything is under the table. And you know all the essential track and field news is kept by insiders and won't make it into the public domain as a general rule.

So you can say that the general politically correct public has their head in burried in the sand ostrich style, you know when BALCO came along.... its big news, shocking. BALCO was very old news once the story "broke".
What a joke (being shocked) in any way what so ever.












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[EPelle]

What are we saying of the Italians?

[Conor Dary]

This thread reminds me of what Chris Berman had to say on Sportscenter in 1989, when Barnes and Reynolds tested positive: '''Track, now there's a dirty sport!".

[donley2]

Not sure our fans would care either, had not the abusers been "demonized" by the governing bodies with Draconic sentences. The old Victorian sense of sport for gentlemen runs headlong into the realities of professional team sports.

While I agree that our harsh penalties lead to a sequence of events that is in fact bad for the sport, is in not possible that more of track and fields fans do care about PEDS. It would seem possible to me that a bigger percentage of our fans are hard core statistics types than any of the big 4 US sports (with baseball probably being the only one remotely close) and that stat's types really do care about PEDS.

[kuha]

"And there is the technology out there to reduce the error factor in measurement, standardized tracks , wind measurement etc.etc."

It's of some mild amusement to me that two of the most lauded WRs in track history--Beamon's jump and Flo-Jo's 100m--are assumed by pretty much everyone with an "insider" perspective to have been massively wind-aided. And yet, somehow, both were deemed legit at the time. When you throw in the Rieti rumors (misplaced start line?), the mis-read 9.76 photo finish pic, and a few other such things, I think it's safe to presume that our "absolutes" may not be quite as absolute as we'd like.