The Major League Baseball steroids problem goes beyond the integrity of baseball as a sport—it is better seen as one of many unintended side effects of the prevailing attitude that every imaginable problem with a person's body can be solved by popping a pill.
I'm not an expert, but it seems to me that there are probably quite a few problems that could be solved much better by going for a run than by going to a pharmacy.
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Until this weekend, it had been around a 10 years since I last saw Run Lola Run. Even saying as little as possible about Franka Potente, the film has aged remarkably well, and is still as entertaining as it ever was. I even had an ironic epiphany while watching it on Saturday—sometimes it is probably better for a person to go out and run than it is to sit around watching movies.
I honestly can't remember the last time I seriously considered going for a run.
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Before I completely forget about it, the Mitchell Report is particularly relevant to sports nerds (some day I will write a column explaining why "sports nerds" is not actually an oxymoron) at this moment because trying to slog through the outpouring streams of objections to and acceptance of the Mitchell Report findings is a nearly impossible task for a casual observer.
The most obvious consequences of the report has so far been Roger Clemens' inclusion and his very public attempts to acquit himself of ever having been associated with steroids.
But the most important moment of hearings comes today, as Bud Selig, Donald Fehr and report author George Mitchell are all scheduled to appear for congressional hearings.
Buster Olney has a number of fantastic questions he'd like to have answered listed on his ESPN.com blog. One issue Olney's questions raise struck me as particularly important: how and why was Mitchell, working as a private investigator, allowed access to information obtained by federal investigators that was not made available to the general public, fans, journalists, and players under investigation?
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Going for a run has never been quite my style, and some days it is honestly all I can do to hoist myself out of my favorite recliner long enough to cook dinner. I tell myself it's not an entirely bad lifestyle for a bookworm. Maybe.
Also, it's probably not a sign of good physical health when one spends most of his Saturday eating at Wendy's and arguing about which famous athlete Stewart Cheifet looks most like.
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If there are any sports nerds out there who would like to read a little bit of in-depth basketball play-by-play analysis, check out www.coachingbetterbball.blogspot.com for some high quality breakdowns of some painfully grainy youtube footage.
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Landon Leiker tracks stats for the Marion boys basketball team. I'd like to see someone step up with the interest and ability to match that service for the Warrior girls.
The work Landon is doing is really important, and not just because having a complete record of accurate game stats makes my job easier.
Stats are the way sports measure history, and history matters.
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