Baseball Chat

[langostino]

An attempt at answering you 2 questions ...

"What I'm wondering is why those who have cooperated with investigators haven't (maybe they have) shown invesitgators how the dopers are covering up their trail"

Every person is different (in terms of motivation), so tough to give a blanket answer.

We know that there are some rare instances where athletes have spilled the beans. In track and field, Kelli White. In cycling, there are several, the most prominent of which would be Jesus Manzano. (If you want to have your eyes opened, google up Manzano and you should be able to find several multi-part pieces published in Spain's largest daily newspapers, and even some video where he does quite a bit of explaining how systematic doping is carried out for pro cycling teams -- it was his testimony that ultimately led to the bust of Dr. Fuentes and the infamous Operation Puerto, that snared literally hundreds of pro athletes in European soccer, pro cycling, etc., etc. Problem is, so many spanish national heros were getting doped by Fuentes that the Spanish courts tried to bury all the evidence. Only recently have Italian anti-doping agencies gotten ahold of DNA and been able to round up more of them.). In the past couple years, 2 members of the German Telekom/T-Mobile team spilled the beans on how a respected University (Frieborg) lab and doctors systematically doped the then-world's #1 team. When you read the Manzano pieces, note that you are seeing inside how they doped in the early 90s. As complex as that may seem, it's child's play compared to the sophistication that's developed in the nearly 20 years since then.

As for why more don't follow suit, it's because generally, there's lots of downside, and little upside. First, even if busted, most athletes can just serve the penalty and go back to making a much bigger living in the sport than they ever could doing anything else -- but only provided they don't get blackballed for opening their mouths. Second, even if banned from the sport permanently, there are still plenty of ways to make a living (i.e. broadcast commentators, coaches, managers, etc., etc.) in the sport -- but again, only if you haven't been blacklisted.

Then there are the personal issues. Performance enhancing drugs are still drugs. Do them for years and you are a drug addict. There is personal shame in making a full admission. Much easier to do like Marion Jones and "admit" a watered down version of the truth, containing only a "one-time" lapse in judgment, or only 1 drug, not a whole sophisticated regimen. People like that often have trouble admitting even to themselves what frankensteins they were turned into.

As for investigators knowing the techniques, the people in the know, definitely have a good grasp. They recommend to the people running the sports how to catch people, but the sports themselves are run, at the top, by people making enormous amounts of money off the stars. They have no financial incentive to do more than the minimum amount necessary to pull of the p.r. of convincing people they're "anti-doping."


"A question on Armstrong: How has he been able to avoid detection"

Not to be trite, but by being always 1 step ahead. In 1999 when Lance returned to cycling, a test for EPO did not exist. So he (and his team) used EPO with impunity through 2000. This was confirmed in embarrassing detail when samples he gave during the 1999 Tour were later tested (after the EPO test was finally developed) and he was positive on all 6 samples from that year's Tour.

Then came a return to autologous blood doping. With no out-of-competition testing, the game became to dope the heck out of yourself in the off-season, and during early season races where you knew you wouldn't finish high enough in the standings to be tested. The equivalent in baseball was to dope in the off-season. Then, you maintain what you've gained by "micro-dosing". You continue on, but keep your dosages low enough to be below threshold. In the case of blood doping, mid-race, you re-inject.

You would be surprised at how easily blood (and urine) values can be toyed with, in a matter of hours. You can destroy a urine test by putting a little lye on your finger and making sure that gets into the sample, and boom, you've washed out the EPO test, for example.

Rather than carrying on in detail, here's a little IM chat between former Armstrong teammate Frankie Andreau with current Team Slipstream-Garmin manager Jonathon Vaughters.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/landis/instantmessage.html

As for your question whether his anti-cancer regimen helped him avoid detection, the answer is yes, for a while. The biggest scam in doping, is that you can LEGALLY dope -- all you need is a TUE (therapeutic use exemption). Lance carried TUEs for corticosteroids and other "medications" for the first three of his yellow jersey performances (and made good use of them).

But here again, he's hardly alone. Would it surprise you to learn that more than 70% of the riders in the European pro peloton have been diagnosed by their doctors as severe asthmatics? So severe they cannot be treated with mild medication, but instead require a TUE for Salbuterol or other steroid based medication? Yes, this is a scam. Give any cyclist a big hit of salbuterol prior to a 30 minute maximum effort time trial and give them unnaturally large dilation of the bronchii and voila, they can process more oxygen input to the bloodstream and produce a superior result.

You are absolutely correct, behind it all, there are sophisticated networks that make this all work. Dr. Fuentes alone had at least 300 clients, and was responsible for countless gold medals, several World Cups, scores of World Championships, etc. And he was just one of the Spanish based networks (granted he had "houses" all over Europe so his clients could get dosed no matter where they were competing). Italy's Francesco Conconi and his pupils Michele Ferrari (Armstrong's guy), Checcini, etc. have the longest and most "distinguished" record, dating back to the early 80s.

BALCO was just one of the U.S. based "outlets". If you go back, you'll find it wasn't just Bonds, Giambi and a handful of MLB guys, it was Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, and a host of elite track and field athletes, it was NFL greats, tennis players, and so on. BALCO alone produced literally dozens of Olympic medals for the U.S.

But here's the toughest part ... the U.S. Olympic committee itself has fostered and covered up doping since the late 1950s when it began the development of modern anabolic steroids. There is a load of evidence that Lance Armstrong was indoctrinated into doping when he entered the U.S. national team as a teenager, and there is a logical case to be made that his testicular cancer was a result of that doping. (More than 50% of his former teammates on the jr. national team suffer from bizarre autoimmune and endocrine diseases and issues, and three of the 5 elite members of that team ultimately sued the US Cycling Federation, which paid out substantial settlements to them, of course with the obligatory gag provision so they couldn't talk).

Ultimately, when you begin to understand the limits of testing, the advances in ways to manipulate body chemistry, and the ways in which sophisticated doctors can help athletes evade detection, one begins to wonder how anyone but the "little fish," who can't afford the expensive programs, ever gets caught.

Ironically, much as in business, where better capitalized businesses can capitalize on economies of scale and their bigger bankrolls to crush smaller competition, so too can the elite athletes use money as a competitive advantage in the doping arena, buying more sophisticated doping regimens that produce better results, and ... get by with stuff the competition can afford to buy.