iSearch topic.

I know that it is a little late for me to be choosing a topic for my I-search paper, sorry! I was a little confused about the assignment, but now I think I know what we were supposed to do. For my paper, I'm going to write about performance-enhancing drugs and their use by athletes.

Over the past few years, there has been a lot of speculation and accusation about the use of steroids, HGH (human growth hormone) and other performance-enhancing drugs have been in the news a lot. Mostly, these accusations have come in baseball. There have been Federal cases about these drugs, including long lists of players linked to them. Now, baseball is trying to figure how widespread the use of these narcotics was/is. Some of the more notable alleged users include Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, and Mark McGwire. Clemens testified before Congress and was indicted by a federal grand jury on accounts of making false statements to Congress regarding his use of PEDs. Rodriguez lied during an interview with Katie Couric about his use of the drugs before being confronted and admitting to doping in February of 2009. Canseco was one of the first players to admit to juicing, and he wrote an entire book saying that the drug use was very widespread. In the book, he named and accused a lot of people of taking performance-enhancers.

There are a lot of ways to view the steroid saga in Major League Baseball (and, to a lesser degree, in other sports) and there will be much more information to come. Stay tuned!

Big Game in Steel City

Sunday Night Football tomorrow will be a good one, as the Patriots go down to Pittsburgh to face the 6-2 Steelers, one of the better (if not the best) team in the NFL. The Patriots were on a high horse at this time last week: they were 6-1 and boasted the best record in football. Thanks to a humiliating loss at the hands of the Browns and a sensational game by their tank of a running back Peyton Hillis, they are 6-2 and odds against them going into this Sunday night showdown.

Behind quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and running back Rashard Mendenhall, the Steelers are a powerhouse team that is tough as nails. They've been making headlines a lot recently because of linebacker James Harrison, who has been fined multiple times (totaling $100,000) for illegal hits as the league tries to clean up the game. Despite the controversy, they have managed to remain the solid football team that they always have been for the last 5 or so years.

On the other side, this game is huge for the Patriots. Not only do they play the Steelers tomorrow, but they also play the Colts (6-2) next week and the Jets (6-2, and a division rival) in three weeks. If the Patriots win all of those games, they would be a definite leader in the AFC. At the same time, if they were to lose all three, they would become a very middle-of-the-road, not-as-good-as-they-used-to-be team.

Finding the True National Champion.

Everyone's thinking it. Everyone's talking about it. Now, with two non-BCS conference teams undefeated, vying for a spot to play for the National Championship, it's about time people start listening. College football needs to abandon the BCS. It needs to institute a tournament to determine the national champion. The real national champion. Right now, all the college football teams play and, at the end of the season, a computer uses random calculations to decide who plays for the national championship. Two teams. Naturally, it picks the biggest name schools (Oregon, Auburn) from the biggest conferences (Big 10, Big 12, SEC, etc). I'm not saying that these teams are undeserving, they are sensational football teams. But what about the other teams, the ones from smaller conferences? Teams like Boise State and TCU? For all of this year and last, neither of those teams has lost a regular season game. Boise has won 22 in a row. And yet they never get to play for all the marbles. Boise and TCU could win every game they play, and have their season end, without playing for anything with any meaning. College football is the only sport or league in which a team can keep winning but stop playing. This needs to change. I'm not saying that I know how to do it, just that someone should. The BCS is deciding for us who the best team in the country is, and we, as fans, want these teams to play each other to find out for real. We need a college football playoff. Seriously: president's orders.

Hitting Rock Bottom.

The Cowboys. America's team. The boys from Big D. Could they be the worst team in the NFL? 32nd out of 32? King James thinks so. And, apparently, so does the team's boss, Jerry Jones. This afternoon, Jones fired head coach Wade Phillips after the Cowboys 1-7 start.

In February, the Super Bowl will be held in Cowboy Stadium in Dallas and, during the preseason, the Cowboys were considered to be contenders for the NFC championship. By winning the NFC, they would [have] been the first team to ever play in the Super Bowl in their own stadium. Clearly, that does not seem to be lurking in the future of this Cowboy's team.

A few weeks ago, they lost star quarterback Tony Romo for the season due to a broken collarbone. His replacement, Jon Kitna, has merely made the situation worse. At the same time, though, not all the blame can be put on the quarterback change. The Cowboy's defense has been dreadful, as evidenced by the 45-7 thrashing handed to them yesterday by Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. Watching the Cowboys play this year, one wonders how anyone could ever pick them as a possible Super Bowl contender, as they can't seem to do anything at all, offensively or defensively. If there is any sort of dim, convoluted light at the end of this tunnel, it's that the season is half over and they can't possibly stoop any lower.

Yet again, Renteria a pivotal part.

For the first time since 1954, the Giants (who, at the time, were not even based in San Francisco) are on top of the baseball world. Behind the sensational effort of Tim Lincecum (8 innings, 3 hits, 10 strikeouts) the Giants will be partying in the streets of San Fran. In a matchup that pitted two of the best pitchers in the league against one another, Lincecum out dueled Rangers' ace Cliff Lee. The game was scoreless until the seventh, when Edgar Renteria hit one out with two men on. The three runs were all Lincecum needed as he went eight strong innings, before giving way to the rather frightening Brian Wilson, who shut down the Rangers 3-4-5 hitters to clinch the Fall Classic for the Giants.

Wilson celebrates with his trademark X, while rookie catcher Buster Posey rejoices in the background.

For Renteria, the home run was his second World Series winning hit. As a Florida Marlin in 1997, Renteria had a walkoff single in the 11th inning of game 7 of the World Series. 7 years later, Renteria was on the opposite end of the spectrum, as he was the last out of the 2004 World Series in which the Red Sox beat the Cardinals for their first World Series title in 86 years.

Back in 2004, Renteria was the last out...

...now, he's the hero and World Series MVP.

After suffering through all of the controversy surrounding Barry Bonds and his use of performance-enhancing drugs, the Giants have brought winning back to San Francisco.

With young talent in their pitching staff and their hitters, the rest of baseball should be wary of the Giants for years to come.