The second of two parts to this interview with Gary Gaffney, MD, of the University of Iowa. You can find the first part below or by clicking here. In this part of the interview, Gaffney talks about how baseball should react to the Mitchell Report when it is released, and how baseball and sports in general can combat the use of performance enhancing drugs.Gaffney is an expert on performance enhancing drugs, and writes a great blog at Steroid Nation.
How do you predict the public will react to the Mitchell report, especially if the names listed in it come as surprise? Is there a possibility, given everything that's led up to this point -- specifically, the names that have already been leaked through various reports -- that the Mitchell Report will be met by the public with a collective shoulder shrug?
As someone suggested, 'Anabolic Steroid' should be named Time's Man of the Year. There is little chance of the Mitchell report being met by public indifference. If anything, the Mitchell report will be met with at least 8 hours of hysteria, until a new Britney Spears crisis comes along. Probably the most hysterical reaction will be from the network news anchors who know little about the situation, but a lot about marketing.
Baseball is a hallowed game, a reverence that was demonstrated a bit north of where I write this -- on the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. With a certain segment of the baseball fans, this will precipitate a PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) reaction. Other fans will cite racism, favoritism, an on-going cheating culture, and some will blame Dick Cheney and Halliburton.
I suspect the Mitchell report will generate the usual misunderstandings and distortions that occur in all of these episodes, including those misunderstandings in the indictment of Barry Bonds.
If the MLB wishes to maintain an image as a fair and regulated sport -- a sport that protects the ethical integrity of the games and the health of the players -- it will correct the PED problem. If the MLB doesn't clean up the PED issues, then baseball becomes a popular entertainment-sport. I have no arguments either way, as long as baseball is overt about which philosophy it chooses: ethical sports league, or revenue-seeking entertainment venue. And as long as everyone is honest about the consequences of the choice.
The fact of the matter is that PED use enhances performance. Thus, all performance records in the 'steroid era' need to be re-examined in light of possible contamination. That isn't a new revelation; performances change in sports based on better equipment, better training, and different physical plants. The problem with the enhancement of performance via PEDs is multi-fold as I see it:
The drug enhancement is covert. If the strike zone changes, or the parks shrink in distances down the foul lines, the changes can be quantified. The use of PEDs is unregulated, and covert, exactly not what is to be expected for civilized ethical sports.
The record-setting athlete is afforded great accolades in the country and the world. It seems unsavory that athletes given such inflated status scrounge steroids from AIDS patients, Mexican sources, The Russian mafia, organized drug conspiracies like BALCO, and mail order pharmacies.
If all records and gold medals are tainted with doping, then who is really winning the championships? The athletes or their covert underground pharmacists? If left unchecked, the use of doping to enhance performance will lead to a drug arms race (which has already happened) to see who can benefit most from drug use. Athletes will need multiple AASs, HGH, Thyroid hormone, insulin, anti-estrogens, IGF-1, modafanil, and EPO. Obviously these drugs will lead to significant morbidity and mortality.
Did I mention the use of PEDs is cheating?
The use of PEDs in baseball gets a lot of attention, but it seems to me that we don't hear as much about it in football, and not a whisper of it in basketball, hockey, and most other sports. Is baseball the only sport heavily tainted by this type of cheating, or do you believe that the use of PEDs is prevalent across the board in sports?
The use of PEDs in rampant in some sports, especially sports where power, explosiveness, and aggressiveness are important to success. It appears to me that the sport's culture affects the use of PEDs. PEDs seem to rampant in baseball, track, power-lifting, and cycling, and used quite a bit in football. Those are sports that demand power and explosiveness.
PEDs do not appear to be as rampant in basketball, either because anabolic drug use may not offer an advantage in competition, or the basketball culture has not excepted PED use. Hockey may not have yet developed a culture of PED use because the Canadian socialized health system has long wait lines (I joke).
Explain, if you would, the different types of testing sports use to catch the users of PEDs. Are they sufficient to solve the problem? If not, what measures do the various commissioners need to take to eradicate PEDs in their respective sports?
Anti-doping measures take any number of approaches. The laboratory approach appears to be the most direct, but is not without problems. The methods:
- Lab testing for drugs. Many of the illegal PEDs can be ascertained in urine. Some are slam-dunks to detect like amphetamine; other PEDs require very sophisticated lab equipment and experience like EPO. One can see the problems involved in lab tests, as in the Floyd Landis case where the veracity and the integrity of the lab was in question. The lab has to be perfect in the handling of specimens, documentation of procedures, and security of results. This is an exercise in forensic quality control.
- Some drugs are extremely difficult to test in urine, like HGH. It is a drug that vanishes in a short period of time. HGH may require a blood test, or a bioprofile.
- Some drugs like testosterone disturb the T:E (testosterone to epitestosterone) ratio above 4:1. It seems to be possible to beat the T:E ratio, as apparently Marion Jones did, and members of BALCO also did.
- Legal investigations. Although it might be almost impossible to actually prove the athlete injected a particular drug, the paper trail of using an Internet pharmacy, or taking delivery on drugs from a PED dealer might be acceptable to some leagues. Track took away Tim Montgomery's world record because of his association with BALCO. Montgomery never tested positive.
The various sports leagues can take steps to combat PED use:
- Develop WADA-like secure testing protocols, both in-season and out-season
- Hold the coach/manager, GM, trainer, owner all partially responsible for breach of PED regulations (if the team owners suffered a consequence to their pocketbook when their players use PEDs you can bet the PED use would fall)
- Make use of 'moral clauses' in contracts to discipline players who associate with known PED users, dealers, doctors, and distributors
- Develop state-of-the-art bioprofiles to keep the athletes honest
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