Sportsfrog.com

Post your indignation here. You may even get an e-pat on the back from Jayson Stark.

Which prompted this investigative report on the news last night.

So…

Less than 1% of Kansas students surveyed have tried steroids. A third of those that said they have tried (approximately 0.25%) have used the drug more than 40 times.

And a whopping four (4!!!!!!) kids per school in the affluent suburban county of Kansas City use steroids.

This is obviously a problem that merited the shock and awe treatment.

With Barry Bonds’ all-time bestest friend ever, as well as former trainer, Greg Anderson still refusing to testify at Bonds’ perjury trial the government has a proof problem. In order to get the alleged three positive Bonds steroid tests into evidence, they must be authenticated (testimony showing that the tests are indeed what they purport to be) per the Judge’s ruling. And that’s Anderson. Who won’t talk.

So the government has asked for an immediate appellate review of the decision with regard to the presentation of the steroid evidence. Leading to this from bay area law professor Peter Keane:

“It’s a very stupid move,” said Golden Gate University law professor Peter Keane. “It is a futile act and a terrible tactical blunder.”

Ooohh snap.

The upshot is the trial is delayed indefinitely while the US attorneys attempt what is essentially a hail mary with regard to the trial court’s ruling. Appellate courts give trial judge’s very broad discretion with regard to such rulings.

Not a good idea. But once upon a time, used as such, by 1904 Olympic Marathon winner Thomas Hicks. During the race. Courtesy of a shadowy associate (we call them “cousins” nowadays). Really great read for a Sunday morning from the Boston Globe on the story of Hicks and a brief overview on just how long athletes have sought chemical help to boost performance. It has gone on awhile. From the Globe:

Martin said that newspapers did not trumpet the fact that Hicks had taken strychnine, because “it was sort of routine for people to take performance-enhancing substances back in those days.” But word got out, and the villain became Lucas, not Hicks, for violating the spirit of the sport. A formal protest over the unfair advantage eventually reached the Olympic Games director, but he refused to consider it, and the results stood.

Where did the outrage stem? From the unlevel playing field, apparently:

Back in those days, the use of performance-enhancing substances was not the awful thing it is today,” said Daniel M. Rosen, the author of “Dope: A History of Performance Enhancement in Sports from the Nineteenth Century to Today.” Rosen said it was not Hicks’s chemical consumption that caused the 1904 controversy. Rather, the outrage stemmed from the strychnine cocktails not being available to all Olympic runners in the searing, 90-degree heat. “Hicks was kind of a hero for doing everything he could to win,” Rosen said. “But he damn near killed himself in the process.”

The other thing worth reading the article for is the description of the marathon race itself. August in St. Louis with a 3:00 pm start? It’s like they wanted runners to die. Plus, there was confusion at the finish with a runner who had dropped out of the race who grabbed a cab and then jogged the last five miles to the finish as a “joke” in first while Hicks staggered into the stadium half dead.

Great read.