Ace ’80s pitcher Jim Kaat threw some chin music at the MLBPA and Major League baseball officials for their role in profiteering off a drug-fueled workplace.
“Heck, there weren’t any rules in our day. We were trying to get the edge. Who’s to say we wouldn’t have done the same thing?”
That echoes the comments made by Darryl Strawberry. Kaat, as he is so capable of doing, took a broader view of the situation.
“I don’t blame Alex as much as I blame baseball and the [Players’] Association for not putting some rules in place.”
Then he attacked golf:
“Golf is the great game of honor,” Kaat said. “And they call penalties on themselves. But still I know years ago, guys put Vaseline on the driver, mismarked their balls and things like that. It happens in all sports.”
Now we know Tim Finchem’s response. He’ll say we don’t have a problem, move along nothing to see, how dare you sully golf’s altruistic spirit and ethos by insinuating golfers would be anything less than altar boys.
Ha. Keep that altar boy image in your head next time a Hooters commercial comes on and John Daly is in a kick line with the waitresses…showing more skin than them.
Reader React: Ahh! My eyes are burning!
Anyway,never forget this list of sports that had cheaters exposed by testing more transparent and effective than the PGA TOUR, sports inwhich either the United States Anti-Doping Agency, the World Anti-Doping Agency, or other professional sports organizations that had athletes caught and punished for performance enhancers (not recreational drugs) in the last four years:
Wrestling, Archery, Cycling, Track and Field, Racquetball, Weightlifting, Paralympic Track and Field, Paralympic Alpine Skiing, Judo, Paralympic Sled Hockey, (Paralympic Sled Hockey!?), Paralympic Basketball, Boxing, Taekwondo, Bobsled, Ice Hockey, Swimming, Sled Hockey, Team Handball, Snowboarding, Curling, Fencing, Synchronized Swimming, Baseball and Football.
So happily, for the great American sports fan and for all kids, athlete or not, Congress has decided to debunk myths and all sports should take notice. If paralympians, synchronized swimmers, bobsledders and archers are taking drugs to enhance performance, every sport, no matter what their altruistic history or ethos, needs to closely monitor their own testing and enforcement.
The RIGHT conclusion for golf is this: it’s on you, the player, to monitor this list. We are not kidding. We will not hide behind golf’s ethos as a shield, sheltering the guilty at the expense of all the innocent, and we won’t let you either. If you get caught, you’re on your own. Your name gets out, and the entire process of testing, trial, defenses, and resolution are 100% transparent. So if you want a good name, and peace of mind for you, your wife, and your kids, stay clean.
And for anyone wanting to parrot the tired, disingenuous line about “false positives” and “inconveniences,” just remember this: Â with the amount of money and public scrutiny involved do you really think the PGA Tour is going to have problems with false positives? Not unless they go to some back alley or mom-and-pop testing lab. These labs are the best in the world, scientifically and medically the top of the class in every way. There’s no way they will confuse androstenedione with nasal spray. For every inconvenienced millionaire indignant that a collector accompanies him to procure a sample, there is also one middle-America family struggling with the effects of a child embroiled in the horrible health effects of dangerous chemicals.
Golf should follow the Olympics. You want your medals (trophy/check)? Top ten at every major get tested as well.
That’ll keep the game clean. It just takes strength of will. Have you noticed something?  We haven’t heard WORD ONE about testing in months.
Hat Tip: NY Post, NY Daily News
