Despite all of Bud Selig's chest-thumping, many baseball players still rely on drugs to enhance their performance.
Some players are still willing to explore the use of banned substances, as the Biogenesis hoo-ha with Alex Rodriguez suggests.
Some players are using legal drugs in ways that are well outside the boundaries of standard medical practice. Such is the case of Toradol, a nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory drug meant for injury treatment.
Phillies reliever Jonathan Papelbon told ESPN.com that Red Sox players used the drug regularly as a pick-me-up during his time in Boston.
?It was kind of a word-of-mouth thing,? he said. ?You got in the clubhouse and said, 'Man, I feel like (bleep),' and somebody would say, 'Oh, you should get a Toradol shot.' All players talk about what gets you through a 162-game season.?
So what is the big deal here? Well, players were abusing a drug to boost performance.
Major League Baseball?s only stipulation on Toradol is that a doctor must administer it. When Papelbon got to the Phillies, team doctors told him they don?t use the drug, period.
Toradol abuse is cited in litigation filed by former NFL players against the league. Last September, ESPN.com noted, an NFL physicians society task force made a series of recommendations regarding the limitation of Toradol use.
The drug presents serious risks, including the potential of gastrointestinal bleeding. Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz ended up in intensive care with an extreme case of esophagitis.
The Digestive Health Institute website noted that England restricts the use of Toradol to hospitals and that other countries ban the drug entirely.
The Red Sox broke no laws. They broke no MLB rules. But they abused a drug meant to treat injuries.
?It made me feel better,? Papelbon told ESPN. ?You had to get it about 30 minutes before a game, and it made me feel pretty (darn) good. It only lasted about four hours maximum.?
Many fans believe there are two distinct groups of baseball players: One set that is totally clean and one that abuses performance-enhancing drugs.
In reality, science plays a major role in athletic training and maintenance. Some of that science gets pretty murky.
Defining whether a player is ?dirty? or ?clean? can become a matter of semantics.
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while the Blues wonder if goaltender Jaroslav Halak can save their day:
Will the Washington Capitals fight their way into the playoff bracket so they can bow out early again?
Is there anything wrong with Johnny Manziel having a little fun?
How do athletic departments get away with wholesale academic fraud?
POINTED OBSERVATIONS
Some thoughts on the wonderful world of sports:
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- Ladies and gentlemen, here come the Illini. They validated their upset of No. 1 Indiana by grinding out a 57-53 victory at No. 18 Minnesota to boost their NCAA Tournament profile. Our Town?s Tyler Griffey struck again, leading the long-range shooting attack with 16 points. Illinois (17-8, 4-7 in the Big Ten) has favorable home games remaining against Purdue, Penn State and Nebraska. If they keep shooting like this, they could break through at Iowa and/or Northwestern, too.
- Their remaining games at Michigan and Ohio State are less promising. But then the Big Ten Tournament will provide the Illini additional opportunities. The NCAA selection committee pays particular attention to how teams finish. They also reward teams that play tough non-conference schedules and earn quality victories ??like those Illinois banked against Butler and Gonzaga earlier this season.
- Illinois is just one team mucking up the tournament selection process. Upsets abounded over the weekend, with California winning at No. 7 Arizona, Wisconsin beating No. 3 Michigan, Oklahoma edging No. 5 Kansas, Notre Dame outlasting No. 11 Louisville in an all-night war, UNLV topping No. 15 New Mexico and Illinois State winning at No. 16 Creighton. Whew!
- The Billikens are rolling too. Yes, a big portion of their Atlantic 10 road schedule features weaker teams. But winning away from home can still be problematic, as previous SLU teams proved. Travel in the A-10 during the winter can be challenging. So it?s notable that the Billikens have conquered many foreign courts this season. They prevailed in Saturday?s defensive struggle at Richmond, limiting the Spiders to 23.3 shooting from the floor.
- Once again their 10-man depth proved handy as Cory Remekun fouled out and fellow big men Rob Loe and Cody Ellis dealt with foul trouble. John Manning provided seven sturdy minutes, helping Dwayne Evans (11 points, 11 rebounds in 34 minutes) and Ellis (nine points, five rebounds) maintain order in the paint. But as SLU?s No. 56 ranking in the CBSSports.comRPI indicates, this team still has work to do.
- Mississippi was the perfect opponent to get Missouri moving again. The running Rebels did the Tigers a favor by dictating a fast pace at Mizzou Arena. Phil Pressey shook off his miserable performance at Texas A&M and spurred his team to a 98-point outburst. He was feeling it early, so he ended up launching 23 shots in the game. That was excessive, of course, but Pressey hit timely jumpers and made several electrifying plays in the open court.
- Emotional Alex Oriakhi made the most of the home-court officiating with his 22-point, 18-rebound domination of the paint. That same, um, robust effort on the road might have earned him five fouls and an early seat on the bench. As it was, he triggered an unfortunate fracas that led to the ejection of Ole Miss forward Reginald Buckner. That was just Alex being Alex.
- Frank Haith trimmed his rotation to seven players and the Tigers managed to sustain their scoring pace for 39 minutes. Another explosive performance by Keion Bell (21 points, 3-for-3 on three-pointers from the corner) offset a sluggish game from Laurence Bowers, who is still trying to regain his legs after spraining his ?good? knee earlier this season.
- But, yes, the Tigers remain on the NCAA Tournament bubble. They must either win some SEC road games or win the SEC Tournament to get there.
QUIPS ?R US
Here is what some of America?s leading sports pundits have been writing:
Johnette Howard, ESPN.com: ?He's flown his freak flag for six seasons in San Francisco, a free-spirited place where being eccentric may actually help him blend in, not stand out. He and the city and the Giants always seemed like a perfect fit. ?It's like Halloween in the stands there every night,? Giants closer Brian Wilson once said with a laugh in 2010, back when the ?Fear the Beard? rally cry first rose up around him and the Giants' team of ?misfits? stormed all the way to a surprising World Series title over the Texas Rangers. But now, with days to go before pitchers and catchers report to spring training, Wilson is 10 months removed from his second Tommy John surgery and the Giants didn't tender him a contract. He's still trying to get a job. And if you know anything about Wilson, that process is a bit odd to imagine, is it not??
Andy Glockner, SI.com: ?For the first 39 minutes of regulation, Louisville-Notre Dame was as unremarkable a February league game you could find. Both offenses had struggled to the point where, when Russ Smith dunked to give the Cardinals a 55-48 lead, the contest seemed over. The only certainties looked to be the Under and that the viewing audience would forget about it about 10 seconds after it ended. Then, it elevated to legend, and the only certainty now is it will be the game of the 2012-13 season. Jerian Grant, who had gone without a field goal until that final minute of regulation, made a three-pointer. Then another three. Then a ridiculous three with a defender draped all over him. Then he got frisky and went to the tin, drawing the harm to go with the hoop and suddenly the game was level at 60. Twelve points in a 23-second span and a game that was basically over now headed to overtime. Then it kept going . . . and going . . . and going. All that was missing by the middle of the fifth overtime was the Energizer Bunny thumping its way across the clover at midcourt. Irish players kept fouling out. Louisville kept clanking game-winning shots. By the end of the madness, Grant's final-minute heroics were about the 27th craziest thing that happened. It was so nuts, so comical, so incredible, and generated so many questions, both for the game and potentially where these teams are now headed.?
David Whitley, Sporting News: ?The BCS is looking for a few good men and women. Football expertise is a must, and it would help if they didn?t mind being referred to as a ?corpse.? The job is selecting four teams for college football?s playoff system. It will begin after next season, and BCS commissioners laid out the framework this week . . . Picking four playoff finalists will be the best and worst job in America. It offers the prestige and influence of the U.S. Supreme Court, and you don't have write all those boring opinions. The downside is your opinion will be sliced and diced by millions of Americans. And you may be, too. I don?t want to overstate things, since 99.94 percent of college football fans are not certifiably insane. They may want to be buried in official Ohio State or Notre Dame caskets. But who among us doesn?t? It?s that special sliver of lunacy I worry about. Like Harvey Updike, the Alabama fan who poisoned Auburn?s famed Toomer?s Corner oak trees. If committee members get it wrong, they may look out their front window one morning and see their yards have turned into the Mojave Desert.?
Patrick Hruby, Sports on Earth: ?With apologies to the NFL communications intern charged with faxing and/or emailing the same brain trauma statement over and over again, allegations that the league sought to mislead players, cover up the problem and generally keep the football universe's collective head stuck in the sand do have merit. Lots of merit, actually. Maybe not in a legal sense, inside a courtroom, where culpability is determined by billable hours and the fate of the free world can hang on the semantics of what "is" is. But definitely in a moral sense. And definitely in a common sense sense. Consider the facts. Not the facts that may be uncovered during a future discovery process, assuming the concussion lawsuits progress to that point. Just the facts we know right now. The stuff already in the public domain.?
MEGAPHONE
?Better coaches than me have been fired. Just not many.?
??Ever confident Rob Ryan, after becoming defensive coordinator in New Orleans.
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