Who Sport What?

A Bad Day At The Death Mill

The Federal investigation into leading internet steroid supply house, Florida's Signature pharmacy, has netted 10 WWE "wrestlers". They have been suspended for violating the WWE's "wellness" policy. It seems Signature had also supplied the three most recent wrestlers whose deaths were probably related to drug abuse. Steroid Nation has the details here.

None of these athletes came up as part of any testing programme carried out by the WWE and it would seem fair to surmise that they were only suspended as a PR move once it was clear they would be publicly linked with the drugs. The ratings will tell the real story

An Interview With Dave Zirin

Deadspin has a great interview with Zirin, one of the most interesting American sportswriters.

To Err Is Human. But Robot Referees?

As sporting stakes are continually raised, so is the cost of refereeing error. The English Premier League will not see Rob Styles officiating next weekend, after his blunders effectively cost Liverpool their game against Chelsea on Saturday. Referee Styles awarded a dubious penalty and a yellow card mix up.

Not that Liverpool have much to complain about. The team scored a "phantom" goal against Chelsea in the semi-finals of the Champion's League two years ago, putting the celery-lovers out of the tournament. "Did the ball actually cross the line?" is a question that goes all the way back, doubtless, to the first game ever played. And after being found wanting with his response to that question in the Middlesborough v. Fulham game on Saturday, assistant referee Ian Gosling also finds himself benched.

It's all grist to the mill of the technology vendors of course. You remember: the ones who want to put radio chips in the balls to track them into the goal. Hawkeye, the camera-based system that has revolutionized tennis and especially cricket coverage is now, invevitably, being touted as a panacea. £250,000 per ground to install, if you please.

Technology can be great, especially when it enhances competition broadcasts. But demonstrate a lack of confidence in referees at the top of the game and you condemn the officiating of every game refereed by humans to to be dogged by questions of competence. Not to mention depriving Premier League fans and sportswriters alike the chance to examine and mourn the one that got away. Stick with the humans.

This Spin Is No Tight Spiral

Michael Vick is to plead guilty, so it looks like he's receiving sound legal advice. But on the PR front, things look lousy:

"Mr. Vick has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to those charges and to accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made. Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter."

Ookie, if you want sympathy, say sorry to the dogs.

The USOC's Sweet Tooth

The USOC has signed a sponsorship deal with Hershey's chocolate. So alongside burger boxes and Coke cans, the Olympic rings  will now adorn.

It's easy to dismiss such deals as part of a world gone mad. The argument can be made that McDonald's and Coca-Cola now offer many more healthy choices than ever before. But healthy Hershey's chocolate? What's appropriate for kids growing up? A Kit Kat a day? A week? A month?

This is not the first foray into sports marketing for Hershey's, with the Reese's logo already plastered across a NASCAR team. And the USOC can hardly be expected to make a unilateral stand when all it relies on sponsorship for so much of its revenue. After all, Beijing 2008 is sponsored not just by Snickers, but by no less than three different beer companies.

China's 1,000 Boat March

Totalitarian states have long demonstrated the potential to achieve sporting success by bludgeoning their way to the top. China's march towards dominating the medal count at the Beijing Games, at least in terms of golds won, is no different. But it's hard to suppress a sigh of admiration when reading lines like the following, tucked away towards the bottom of a China Daily piece on the recent sailing test events in Qingdao:

"The government purchased 1,000 boats for young sailors with 10 million yuan ($1.3 million) donated by local companies.

"To teach these youth to sail, we have also held five training camps with coaches from seven different countries and we have sent some excellent young sailors to get trained in Kiel in Germany," Deputy Mayor Zang Aimin said."

In the 15th and 16th centuries, following a doctrine of Confucian inward perfection, China turned its back on seafaring. With no naval defense to speak of many port towns were handed over to foreign control after the Opium wars. Qingdao was outside of Chinese control for the first half of the 20th century, changing colonial hands often. It's heartening to see the city flourish and to see it flourish with sport at its heart. The beer is still good, too.

Donaghy's Moment Of Truth

NBA referee Tim Donaghy pleased guilty today, to the charges of, well, every major sports league commissioner's nightmare. The Smoking Gun has the details as well as the actual paperwork. And the most honest part of the whole affair? The bit where the NBA describes itself as entertainment.

The Wheel Turns In Paris

Building on similar schemes' success, Paris has just pulled off an impressive first month for a citywide cycling initiative involving the deployment of 10,000 bikes. 1,5 million journey were completed on the bikes, available to all under a subscription scheme, with each bike being used some seven times a day. Paris sensibly chose a quiet summer month to launch the scheme. Vandalism and theft have not proved insurmountable problems.

An annual subscription is supplemented by charges that rise steeply after a free first half hour, encouraging the bikes to ridden from one rack to the next, rather than being checked out for longer then left to rot in some dusty garage, like a forgotten library book. It's a smart system, reminding users that the bikes are owned communally and intended primarily for transport. Tourists will still find it cheaper to rent a bike for the day from a bike store. No data yet on what the substitution effect is for car journeys, rather than walking or public transport. But congratulations to the Mairie de Paris, which has used the past ten years to make the city one the world's friendliest for bicycles with real bike lanes often providing complete separation from pedestrians and cars.

The only apparent downside would appear to be increasing visual pollution in the city. Municipal services giant JC Decaux, already provider of Paris's pay toilets, newspaper kiosks and bus shelters, has provided the bicycles in exchange for being granted yet more space for selling outdoor advertising in the city.

The Bloody War

Politics and sport should not, as a rule, be mixed. But here on the day that Karl Rove resigned and after even an Economist leader about America's left turn, I feel a compelling need to share the following video clip from 1994 with as many people as possible. After you've seen it, I expect you'll understand.

The bravery of U.S. troops is not in question. Unfortunately, neither is the degree to which they have been misled.

Slate's Dope Test

Slate is having a "thought experiment" on doping. The premise is simple: what would sports look like if doping was legal. Try this for an response:

In response to your question:
"What would the sports world look like if every athlete could inject himself with God knows what?"

The short answer is: pro wrestling.

The MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA. would look exactly like they do right now.

Does anyone really believe NFL linemen get to be that big, that strong and that fast just by drinking milk after they lift weights? Thought not.

In the other "Olympic" sports, they don't need to wait to inject themselves with God knows what. They already have human growth hormone, which remains undectable in its available-over-the-internet form and works just great for sports with a real heavy training load. How do you think all of those old Eastern-bloc swimming world records were beaten? Tighter Speedos?

The old fashioned steroids, from testosterone patches to Stanozolol, would see a resurgence in the power sports, leading to athletes dying in their forties just like they do in the death mill.