Tonight, we look at baseball. Truth be told, I don’t follow the sport much anymore. Haven’t done so since about 1994. Why? Well, that’s a story for another day. Two stories have come up in the last week or so that tie into the topic of doping in “America’s Pastime” and one of the stories has a new, unusual twist to it.
Hey batter, batter, batter…
First story up, is that of Ryan Braun, an outfielder for the Milwaukee Brewers, who apparently tested positive for an oldie-but-goodie, testosterone. At least, that’s what a number of stories I’ve seen have suggested. No great surprise that a baseball player would come up positive for man-juice. As I mentioned in my book, steroids have been a part of baseball since at least the late 1960s. And testosterone is — you guessed it — the father of all anabolic steroids (as far as performance-enhancing drugs, that is.)
Even though I live in Milwaukee, I’m not a follower of the Brewers to any great extent. Just enough to nod my head when someone at work makes a comment about last night’s game. So that’s a round-about way of saying I’ve noticed the story, but not had much of a reason to write about it until now.
This story has all the usual elements. Athlete tests positive. Someone leaks the results. Sportswriters go into overtime, writing up the story and getting some of the elementary facts wrong.
(Braun failed both the T/E ratio and the CIR tests. Somehow, the vast majority of baseball writers haven’t learned that a high T/E ratio doesn’t automatically mean excess testosterone, it just means the relationship to testosterone to epitestosterone exceeds a certain threshold. The numbers behind the ratio are unknown, so we can’t draw a conclusion about if the levels were “excessive” or not. But if you want a detailed discussion of that topic, see the very first post on this site.)
Somewhere along the way, the athlete denies that he did anything wrong. And maybe that’s the truth. Eventually we get to the rumors and innuendo, which is where the story stands today. When I saw this article posted by a friend on Facebook, my interest was piqued. Jamie Shoemaker writes:
What a nightmare Ryan Braun’s life has become. It’s unbelievable what has happened recently to him and baseball. What do we make of it? Why isn’t his camp saying anything? And the latest rumor swirling is Braun failed the test due to medication his doctor prescribed for Herpes.
If that’s the first time you’ve heard the news, take a deep breath. Try not to laugh. It’s serious business.
Shoemaker goes on to give a brief history of Braun’s fledgling doping scandal. And he digs up an interesting thing that Braun said about Alex Rodriguez:
“The best thing he can do is come out, admit to everything and be completely honest,” Braun said. “The situation will die a lot faster if he tells the whole truth.”
O, the irony.
So here’s the thing about this whole “herpes story.” Herpes genitalia is treated with anti-viral drugs. In doing a bit of research while we were discussing the story, my wife ran across a page that suggests there is a school of thought that high doses of testosterone can keep the virus at bay. This, however, is not the usual treatment.
What I don’t know is whether major league baseball uses the “therapeutic use exemption” concept so familiar to sports operating under the WADA code. But if they are, and if this his how Braun is being treated by his doctor, then testing positive for a drug that a player was known to be using would rate five “duhs” on the obvious-ometer.
While Shoemaker’s article suggests herpes as the medical issue, TMZ merely states this:
Ryan Braun‘s positive test for banned substances was caused by medication he’s taking for a private medical issue — NOT performance enhancing drugs … this according to sources directly connected with Major League Baseball. [formatting from the original]
This gets more interesting. “Private medical issue,” eh? Well, to go into full-scale speculation mode, that could also be low testosterone, which would be extremely embarrassing for an athlete in the prime of his career. And what’s that treated with? Testosterone patches. But again, if this were the case, Braun, the Brewers and MLB would all know about this and it wouldn’t be a big deal (except to those who want to gin up a scandal and sell a few papers/magazines/ads, perhaps). Finding something you know is there isn’t exactly earth-shattering news.
Sounds to me, though, like he should claim that he was either the “victim” of a contaminated supplement, or he was out on a wicked bender the night before he tested positive. Those are two actual explanations that could account for testing positive for exogenous testosterone (the result of the CIR test, apparently). And Braun could attack the science behind the test, though fat lot of good that’s done other athletes in the past (paging Floyd Landis).
But if I may be as bold as to offer Ryan Braun some advice, let me paraphrase Pat McQuaid, head of the International Cycling Union, and the advice he gave to Floyd Landis more than five years ago. “Shut up. Save your money. Accept the suspension.” And, to add a bit more: Be glad it’s only for 50 games, or about one-third of a season. If professional baseball were under the World Anti-Doping Code, Braun would be going on vacation for two years.
Thirty Days in the Hole
Looks like Barry Bonds got off fairly easy. Thirty days of home confinement, 250 hours of community service (just over 6 weeks of a normal schlub’s work schedule), and two years probation. Of course, even the people at the heart of the BALCO scandal didn’t wind up doing much in the way of jail time — with the exception of Bond’s pal Greg Anderson, and the lawyer who leaked grand jury info to the press. Anderson spent time occupying a cell because he wouldn’t rat out his pal Bonds, and the lawyer got significant jail time for passing info to the two San Francisco Chronicle reporters who were all over the BALCO story like white on rice.
Victor Conte spent less time in jail than Anderson or that lawyer. And he was at the epicenter of the whole thing, dealing drugs and giving advice to all manner of athletes on how to beat the tests. So somehow Bonds’ sentence seems about par for the course.
I feel no pity for Bonds or the sentence Judge Susan Ilston handed down to him. But I have to wonder how much of a deterrent these high-profile prosecutions have been. Seems like a whole lot of time and money spent for fairly unimpressive results. And over here in Milwaukee, there’s a player caught up in the tangle of testing positive for one of the oldest PEDs in the modern PED playbook. Doping in sports. The story doesn’t change. Only the characters do.
Rant, FYI baseball has a WADA-like program of therapeutic use exemptions. If Braun was using testosterone for a medical condition without a TUE, then he has no excuse. Because baseball also has its own version of strict liability — it’s not quite as strict as WADA’s version, but it’s more than strict enough to sanction an athlete who forgot to get a TUE.
But we’re jumping the gun. The thing about the Braun case that should feel familiar to us is that the initial facts we have do not add up. Just like with Landis, one initial question is whether it makes sense for Braun to have been using testosterone when he tested positive — at the end of the season, just before the playoffs began. Obviously, that’s not the time a baseball player is going to start cycling steroids. According to our old friend Victor Conte, baseball players use testosterone patches the way cyclists did (or do), to promote muscle recovery. So if Braun DID intentionally dope with testosterone, his case will be eerily similar to the Landis case: it will be a situation where the athlete probably intended to microdose with testosterone, and overdid the dose.
As baseball players have a strong union, baseball management takes seriously its rules about confidentiality. Obviously, SOMEONE leaked this information, but we don’t know who it was. So far, we have not one word from baseball or the WADA lab in Montreal (remember Christiane Ayotte?) that does the testing for baseball. But the widely reported gossip from today is that Braun took a conventional medication that is not itself a PED (and thus does not require a TUE) that somehow caused Braun to flunk both his T/E test and his CIR test, and that Braun is going to be exonerated. That is hard to believe, even as gossip goes. But it this gossip turns out to be fact, a lot of minds are about to be blown.
Stay tuned.
Larry,
Thanks. I knew I could count on you to chime in about how baseball’s anti-doping system works. You’re right, the Ryan Braun story sounds eerily familiar. And your observations about when a player would be cycling steroids is spot on.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the whole story plays out, given the different environment (strong union, etc.). If it turns out a conventional medication is truly the root cause of Braun’s test result, that implies there may need to be some major changes to how doping with testosterone is detected, in order to rule out such a situation.
Definitely going to stay tuned.
I don’t know what to think about Ryan Braun, but hope he is not caught up in another WADA style (not WADA itself, or its minions this time) situation that is FUBAR.
As for Barry Bonds, …don’t much care. It’s baseball after all. Kevin Costner didn’t refer to it as “The Show” in the movie, Bull Durham for nothing. The only thing that really pisses me off about the Bonds situation is the ridiculous waste on time, money, and other resources dedicated to going after him, considering the multiple examples of impotence involved in arriving at the eventual penalty, or lack thereof.
Back to Contador and the issue of Clenbuterol in the food supply. I found this article interesting:
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Olympians-warned-Don-8217-t-eat-liver?urn=oly-wp965
“The Food Standard Agency, a British government agency similar to the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S., advised athletes against eating liver.
The FSA cannot rule out the possibility that if a large portion of liver is consumed containing clenbuterol at permitted residue limits, urine collected shortly after consumption may contain detectable levels of clenbuterol. This depends on many factors including the amount consumed, the timing of the urine test and the analytical methods used.”
Now the Food Standard Agency from the host country for the next olympic games (a country I might add, few regard as backward & third world. Smarmy maybe?) is on record that the food, specifically liver, in London, England cannot be guaranteed Clenbuterol free and its ingestion can trip a non-negative under certain circumstances.
Isn’t that special?!!?
WADA’s classification and handling of Clenbuterol has become a sad farce comedy.
Tis the season. Thank you Rant for providing this forum. Thank you to fellow posters who have engaged in thoughtful discourse. Have a merry!
Jeff,
Imagine that. A government agency warning athletes that they could test positive for a banned drug, just by eating liver. Makes a good argument in the case for having threshold values so that accidental environmental exposure doesn’t lead to a sanction.
Contador should be learning his fate in the next few weeks. It will be interesting to see what, if any, legal and logical gyrations the panel will go through in reaching their decision.
Glad to provide the forum for everyone who reads and participates here at RYHO. Merry Holidays and a Happy New Year to all.
Interesting article with a baseball tie-in and basketball mention. Can be extrapolated to other sports. Doping vs. Treatment, Enhancement vs. Therapy, and some commentary on WADA – its subjective Code:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-passan_alex_rodriguez_knee_blood_treatment_122911
Happy New Year!
The writer of that article asks a very good question. What is a performance-enhancing drug? The answer seems very similar to how a justice of the Supreme Court once defined pornography. “I can’t tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it.” Or something to that effect, anyway.
Good article! I particularily liked this part: “Put enough good minds in a room and you’d like to think a rational-enough consensus will come together. And yet politics always has a way of interfering, and let’s be honest: WADA exists solely because of the demonization of the very drugs it judges and of which it profits from testing.”
Maybe THAT’S their (WADA’s) problem! TOO MANY minds in the room making policy. Wasn’t it Reagan who said “none of us is stupider than all of us”? (just think of Congress here).
It will be too bad (for all of us) if due to athlete misuse, some amazing therapies and recovery medicines aren’t available here in the US. I sure would like to try some HGH or this new PRB/Orthizone (if I thought that it could help my long term neck damage from a Navy Softball incident 30+ years ago).
A-Rod and Kobe both can afford the best there is, but I personally can’t quite afford to fly to Germany AND pay the bill for the treatment…(anybody know what the overall cost was for Kobe and A-Rod? I bet it was a LOT!) But I sure can see a very wide overlapping GRAY area between treatment and enhancement.
I guess it all comes down to the person making the call as to what’s allowed and not allowed (much like the overtime TD pass completion/incompletion for the VA Tech in last nights Sugar Bowl). Instant Replay showed it from every angle many many times, as the guys in the IR booth took a LONG time deciding on it. I can honestly say I saw a case for either decision. Just glad I didn’t have to make it, as it was a game-changer. But somebody had to.
Oops..I think I blew the Reagan quote…I think it’s supposed to be “none of us is as stupid as all of us”. Good one there Ronnie!
Is it all just “Pro Wrestling”….???
WADA lawyers came close to walking from Contador case
Ashenden blocked as a witness by CAS
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/wada-lawyers-came-close-to-walking-from-contador-case
Velonation seems to have some additional details/background: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/10849/Report–WADA-lawyers-unhappy-with-Contador-CAS-hearing.aspx
So crazy, you could not make it up!
Bizarre, to say the least. But I wouldnt expect anything less from the cast of characters and organizations involved. 😉
Thanks for the links MikeG. I read the story earlier today in USA Today (McNewspaper-online, actually via their app) when they picked it up from the AP, and was surprised to see it there.
Like Rant, I find the story bizarre, but strangely enough, not surprising.
I am surprised WADA attorneys are not satisfied with the CAS judges/arbs. Maybe they are showing an independent streak that does not respect the time honored fix?
Regardless, this was pre-destined to be a cluster (&*^%) mess.
The questions in the original (Spanish Federation) decision should have been limited to:
1) Was Clenbuterol present in Contador’s TdF sample?
2) If so, what will the penalty be?
Contador is not disputing Clenbuterol was found in his sample.
He is disputing how it got there and is adding the minuscule amount found represented no competitive advantage.
According to the Code, that should not matter, except to possibly reduce the penalty.
At a minimum, he loses the TdF win because he popped a positive during the race. There is no mechanism to ignore that fact and for Contador to keep the win.
The only thing that should have been up for grabs was the penalty. Full 2 year sanction or less time for mitigating circumstances?
WADA Code, and in practical terms based upon past experience, does not allow for a non-penalty if Clenbuterol (a no-threshold substance) was in his sample.
So a non-penalty via Spain should not have been in the cards in the first place. A reduced penalty for exceptional circumstances, maybe, but a non-penalty, no.
And of course UCI and WADA appeal. No surprise there.
The problem is Clenbuterol is commonly found in our normal everyday food supply. In some regions of the world, there is a low percentage chance of Clenbuterol contamination, while in other parts of the world, Clenbuterol contamination is actually likely when eating certain meats. England’s counterpart to the FDA in the USA has even warned athletes to limit liver ingestion while in London for the upcoming games as they could trip a positive for Clenbuterol under certain conditions.
So there you have it. A rule with no wiggle room that should have never been a rule in the first place.
This wasn’t that complicated. I should have taken a few minutes to decide, not a few years.
Sit back, have a beer with a bag of popcorn if you like. Enjoy the theatre while the Keystone Cops of WADA World attempt to make sense of their senseless system.
As for race fans, The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.
Don’t tell Ricco, he might REALLY hurt himself this time!
The procedure involved taking blood from the athletes, treating it with UV light, or black light, and then re-introducing it into the athlete’s body. This is said to help the oxygen in the blood. It was practised in East German sports in the 1980s.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/black-light-blood-treatments-in-germany
Reportedly an East German refinement of autologous transfusion.
As autologous transfusion was not against the rules until ~1986 and German reunification (or unification, depending upon your point of view) occurred in 1990, it’s likely the East German black light method was within the rules during at least some of the time it was employed?
Wikipedia mentions the 1984 USA olympic Cycling Teams use of the method while it was still legal. I’m betting their use of the method was anything but novel:
“Blood doping probably started in the 1970s but was not outlawed until 1986. While it was still legal, it was commonly used by middle and long-distance runners. The US cycling team at the 1984 Olympics also employed blood doping.”
Wikipedia also touches upon military use of the method:
“In 1993, U.S. Special Forces commanders at Fort Bragg started experimenting with blood doping, also known as blood loading. Special forces operators would provide two units of whole blood, from which red blood cells would be extracted, concentrated, and stored under cold temperatures. Twenty-four hours before a mission or battle, a small amount of red blood cells would be infused back into the soldier. Military scientists believe that the procedure increases the soldiers’ endurance and alertness because of the increase in the blood’s capability to carry oxygen.
In 1998, the Australian Defence Forces approved this technique for the Special Air Service Regiment. Senior nutritionist at the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organization Chris Forbes-Ewan is quoted as saying that, unlike in sport, “all’s fair in love and war.” “What we are trying to gain is an advantage over any potential adversary,” Forbes-Ewan said. “What we will have is a head-start.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_doping
I’ll note that if you are not employing methods that are both within the rules and give one a competitive advantage, then you are going a long way toward conceding the race.
If you are not employing methods that give a competitive advantage, while technically outside the rules but are not enforced or capriciously enforced, then you are doing the same.
While such circumstances can lead to ethical dilemmas for athletes, they are a cold and hard reality in elite sport that often result in Catch-22 situations created by incompetent governing organizations. See: Alphabet Soup.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bartali-honoured-for-saving-jews-during-the-holocaust
Point to ponder:
Had Gino Bartali been judged by current alphabet soup standards, he would have been reviled by a certain segment of fans, thus he’d lack the star power required to save the many he did in the face of evil tyranny.
I’m grateful the alphabet soup wasn’t wielding it’s corrupt power during the mid 1940’s.
Bravo Gino Bartali.
Jeff,
Bravo, indeed! Bartali was brave and selfless. A real champion, in every sense of the word.