Drugs, baseball and apple pie

   A reporter I respect who rarely covers the Panthers went into the locker room one afternoon and said he could tell me which players use steroids.

    I told him he was wrong, and that he was crazy, and on that day he was both.

      But when an athlete in a team sport gets caught using a banned substance the more cynical among us are willing to believe that everybody does.

     I have no idea how common performance enhancing drugs are in football, basketball or Major League Baseball.

    They appear to be more common on Bay Area baseball teams than anywhere else.

    Last week Melky Cabrera of San Francisco, an all-star outfielder whose career appeared to fade years ago, was caught cheating. Now Oakland pitcher Bartolo Colon has been. Colon, 39, didn't play last season because of an injured elbow.

     The problem now is that every veteran who has a good season becomes a suspect.

      Is Derek Jeter enjoying a resurgance because he has one final good year in him or because he's using?

     I vote for the former.

     I might be naive but I refuse to believe that everybody who attains success or enjoys a comeback or is in incredible condition somehow cheated to get there.

     Even if he plays in, or around, San Francisco.

 

 

Comments

[Michael Procton]

Umm...Colon pitched 160+ innings for the Yankees last year. Thanks for the insight, though, Tom.

[Ben]

Any comments on cycling?

[Mike]

Tom, please don't lower yourself to that POS Bayless's level. He talks out of his butt cheeks 99% of the time and has been called out on it on more than one occassion. To even put Jeters name in this article should cause you to lose your job.

[slim shady]

i think Jeter does use. Arod too. Yankee's are worse than the bay city teams....but hey, don't want to jeopardize the most loved team and the $$$ that comes from it. mlb won't touch yanks, but will go after some lesser team.

[jennyjohnsonjones repubhater]

who the fuch cares, Tom is twice the guy any of the bottom feeders that post here are.

[Andy]

People wouldn't be so quick to defend Jeter if he weren't such an iconic figure in New York. I wouldn't be surprised if he's now using and has been for years. Let's live in reality.
There is no Santa Claus. There is no tangible evidence Jesus even existed, and the "prestine" Baptist girl who just got married took on half the freshmen dorm in college. This is life.

[tomb43]

Tangible evidence? How about history books. Most people would agree that jesus existed. You can argue all you want about who he was and what he did but even the most extreme anti christians would say he existed mr i know everything.

[Andy]

"Most people would agree." What people think 2,000 years after the fact is not tangible evidence.
The "history" book, the Bible, was written at least 50 years after Jesus supposedly lived. Try again.
People love to criticize Tom, the Charlotte Observer and the media, but any daily newspaper is a much more credible source than the "Holy Book."

[Chris H]

Tom is a smart guy, but in this case he is wrong, and his respected reporter friend is right. The guys were on steroids, Tom, face it. Certain sports damn near require drugs to perform at an elite level. Cycling and football are two of them.

I think in 10 years or so they are going to open up sports to performance enhancing drugs. Right now they are trying to hold back the tide with a broom.

[Propylene Glycol]

Nice title...

[pepobelo]

check lv online shopping for more detail KITZpbqT http://www.louis-vuittononline-shop.com/

[briniuse]

you must read christian louboutin outlet CjJOGJlY [URL=http://www.christian--louboutin-outlet.net/ - christian louboutin outlet reviews [/URL - to your friends GDbSEutB http://www.christian--louboutin-outlet.net/

[Nitodeve]

must check gucci online outlet to take huge discount kAdjaggo http://guccioutletrr.iwannayou.com/