A new off-broadway play about the Major League Baseball steroid scandal opens at the New York City Center MTC Stage 2 on November 18, 2008. Daniel Aukin directs the Manhattan Theatre Club production of “Back Back Back.”
Does greatness always come with a price? Can only someone with nothing to lose tell the whole truth? From the acclaimed writer of last season’s MTC Stage II hit The Four of Us and Bach at Leipzig comes a stirring new drama about America’s favorite pastime. Back Back Back follows the turbulent careers of three very different teammates in baseball’s steroid era whose clubhouse secrets bring them under federal scrutiny.
Gary Hall Jr., Olympic swimmer and outspoken anti-steroid crusader for the sport of swimming, has retired from competition. Hall has been quick to point fingers at his fellow competitors for suspected steroid use and has not hesitated to share his suspicions with the media.
“Do I think it (doping) is getting worse? Yes, I do. It’s here, it’s in the United States. I train with an international group of swimmers and all of them have stories and a few of them have had offers and I’m not at liberty to say (any more).
“To think that it doesn’t exist is foolish,” Hall said. “All doping scandals are not a direct result of positive tests. They’re usually somebody getting caught by some other means. I don’t think that we can rely on a doping agency to really catch the people that are so far ahead of where the testing is.”
Gary Hall suggests that the massive number of world records in swimming during 2008 were most likely the results of steroids and not necessarily the revolutionary swimsuit technology used by so many elite swimmers.
“Clearly we know now it wasn’t the suit that was causing all these world records to be broken, it was copious amounts of steroids,” Hall told the assembled reporters. “Can the suit technology distract from another issue? I think it’s pretty convenient for those that are indulging the other issue.”
Canadian bobsledder Serge Despres’ ban from athletic competition was extended to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Despres and WADA both agreed that the positive nandrolone test was most likely the result of his use of a dietary supplement, specifically Kaizen HMB (”Aribitration court extends bobsledder’s ban,” November 12).
The CAS set aside an earlier 20-month suspension for the anabolic steroid nandrolone — which testers agreed likely was contained in a tainted supplement, according to a statement by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. But the CAS but replaced it with a standard 24-month ban when Despres failed to demonstrate “no significant fault.”
The CAS decision states, “…Mr. Despres did not show a good faith effort to leave no reasonable stone unturned before he ingested Kaizen HMB.” The CAS cited the driver’s “failure to contact the manufacturer directly” and a “failure to obtain a guarantee directly from the manufacturer.” Despres is now ineligible until Aug. 9, 2009.
But the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport believes that an athlete is responsible for whatever substance is found in their system regardless of whether it was the result of consuming an unknowingly contaminated dietary supplement. Dietary supplement contamination has emerged as a major problem for drug-tested athletes. … Read the rest of this entry »
The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) is objecting to new steroid testing rules that will apply to footballers in England’s Premier League beginning in July 2009. The Barclay’s Premier League has been touted as the most watched sporting league and the most lucrative professional football (soccer) league. The new anti-doping rules will subject 30 top players to as many as 5 random drug tests throughout the year.
At issue is the new “whereabouts ruling” requiring tested players to provide anti-doping officials with advance notification of their whereabouts for a particular hour each day even on vacations and during the offseason. … Read the rest of this entry »
The majority of the positive results involved the use of erythropoeitin-type blood boosting drugs used by endurance athletes.
For those specifically following anabolic steroid use in sports, only two samples out of over 5,000 samples tested positive for anabolic steroids; a third athlete was disqualified during the Olympics based on a sample given prior to the Games. Ukrainian heptathlete Lyudmila Blonska, Ukrainian weightlifter Igor Razoronov and Greek hurdler Fani Halkia tested positive for methyltestosterone, nandrolone and methyltrienolone, respectively.
Convicted murderer and former pro bodybuilder Craig Titus allegedly used steroids and injected Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil with steroids when training him according to the VH1 special “Remaking: Vince Neil.” Vince Neil makes this claim on CBS’ 48 Hours Mystery on Saturday, Nov. 8, at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Titus even trained Motley Crue lead singer, Vince Neil, who admits to 48 Hours Mystery that Titus used steroids and injected him with them. And steroids were not Titus’ only drug of choice. These Las Vegas hard bodies were also hard partiers, known for using illegal drugs and pain killers.
Craig Titus and his wife, fitness pro Kelly Ryan, pleaded guilty to murdering and kidnapping their personal assistant Melissa James. The plea agreement spares the sport of bodybuilding from a sensationalistic trial where steroids would have likely been demonized. However, this will not prevent CBS from sensationalizing the murder case and, most likely, links to steroid use in a 48 Hours Mystery called “Vegas Heat.”
Former WWE star Brock Lesnar was interviewed by ESPN E:60 about his highly anticipated UFC match with Randy Couture on November 15th. He was asked about his abuse of painkillers and his abuse of alcohol which he had no problem admitting. But when the subject started to turn toward the use of anabolic steroids, Lesnar quickly terminated the interview and walked out.
Brock Lesnar says he was not necessarily annoyed by the question but by its repetitiveness. He has repeatedly denied using anabolic steroids yet he is still asked the same question. … Read the rest of this entry »
The greatest shot putter in the history of Canadian sports recently died at the age of 55. Zbigniew ”Bishop” Dolegiewicz was a three-time Olympian for Canada. He recently died in Utah where he was a successful coach for Southern Utah University. He admitted to using anabolic steroids for a decade during his testimony at the Dubin Inquiry after which his shot put records were removed.
On Tuesday, Canseco said a gel he was using to try to restore his testosterone level wasn’t working, so he went to a Tijuana pharmacy seeking something better.
“I didn’t go down there looking for steroids,” Canseco said while seated on a bench outside the courtroom with his girlfriend, who gave only her first name, Heidi. “I needed something to help me get my own levels back to normal, just to get me to, you know, normal working conditions, I guess.
“Well, when you have no testosterone level, you’re depressed, you lose muscle mass, no sex drive, no libido, you have nothing,” he added. “You’re kind of like tired, depressed all the time. You just don’t want to do anything.”
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