Meeting the Band. (revised)

One year, for John's birthday, his dad got him a great gift: tickets and backstage passes to John's favorite band. He could not have been more excited. John bought a T-shirt from the band and listened to all of their music repeatedly in the few weeks leading up to the show. Finally, the day came. He and his dad went early to the venue. Because of their backstage passes, they could get in early and hang around and watch the concert come to be. John was awestruck. At one point, he saw the band members and could not conceal his excitement

"Dad! There they are!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know, just wait until they play," his father replied.

And play they did. They played a long set and John could not have been having more fun. After the show, they went backstage, and they saw the band again. John's dad wanted to go up and meet them, but John was frozen with fear and awe. Finally, he managed to walk forward and strike up conversation with the band members. They told him that, with a little practice, he could become as famous as they were. Obviously, they were just trying be nice, but John took those words to heart. At the time, he played the guitar a little, but didn't like it that much.

Through the years, John practiced. He formed a band with a couple of friends. Gradually, they became more and more well known. All of a sudden, their record was on the iTunes Top 20 albums chart. In an interview with a magazine, John was asked about where his musical inspiration came from. Immediately, he thought of the show his dad took him to for his birthday. He told the whole story of that concert the impact it had on him. He ended the story by telling the reporter that, on a wall in his house, he has framed the backstage pass from the concert all those years ago.

Meeting the Band.

One year, for John's birthday, his dad got him a great gift: tickets and backstage passes to John's favorite band. He could not have been more excited. John bought a T-shirt from the band and listened to all of their music repeatedly in the few weeks leading up to the show. Finally, the day came. He and his dad went early to the venue. Because of their backstage passes, they could get in early and hang around and watch the concert come to be. John was awestruck. At what point, he saw the band members and could not conceal his excitement
"Dad! There they are!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah, I know, just wait until they play," his father replied.
And play they did. They played a long set and John could not have been having more fun. After the show, they went backstage, and they saw the band again. John's dad wanted to go up and meet them, but John was frozen with fear and awe. Finally he managed to walk forward and strike up conversation with the band members. They told him that, with a little practice, he could become as famous as they were. Obviously, they were just trying be nice, but John took those words to heart. At the time, he played the guitar a little, but didn't like it that much.

Through the years, John practiced. He formed a band with a couple of friends, and they were able to climb their way up to the top of the music scene. Still, John lists his favorite childhood band as inspiration. On a wall in his house, he framed and hung up the backstage pass from the concert all those years ago.

Performance-enhancing drugs in other sports

Steroids and other PEDs have been used most prominently by baseball players, but they have also been used by athletes in other sports.

In the NFL, a survey was conducted in 2009 and 1 in 10 players said that they had used anabolic steroids while still playing. 16.3% of offensive lineman and 14.8% of defensive lineman also confidentially admitted doping. Most notably, Shawne Merriman tested positive for steroids a couple of years ago and was suspended for four games.

Doping is also a problem in cycling. Floyd Landis, the winner of the 2006 Tour de France, tested as having a high ratio of testosterone (which is used as a PED) to epitestosterone, another hormone. Later that year, Landis tested positive for a synthetic testosterone. He was then stripped of his Tour de France title and banned from cycling for 2 years. Landis has also accused Lance Armstrong of doping in 2002 and 2003 (two years Armstrong won the Tour de France), probably the most famous cyclist of all-time, of doping. Armstrong has turned aside and denied these claims.

There have also been cases of doping in Olympic sports, most notably with Marion Jones, the famous sprinter. She was accused of and admitting to taking anabolic steroids, and was deeply apologetic to her fans and country. There have also been accusations made of female athletes who either allegedly aren't really female or have abnormally high levels of testosterone and possibly were doping. 

Barry Bonds, baseball's home run king*

Barry Bonds is baseball's home run king. But there is an asterisk that comes with that title. That is because of his alleged use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. In 2005, Bonds was indicted on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice in relation to the government investigation of BALCO, a co-operative that was charged with providing athletes with anabolic steroids and other banned drugs. Bonds' trainer at the time, Greg Anderson, was the BALCO employee charged with supplying athletes with these drugs. Bonds received two substances from Anderson, which he was told were nutritional substances, but were actually an anabolic steroid and a cream used in conjunction with anabolic steroids ("the cream" and "the clear"). The book Game Of Shadows alleges that Bonds used stanozolol and other steroids.
Between his early years in baseball and his final years playing the game, Bonds' physique changed dramatically. He got noticeably larger and gained a lot of weight. His head size also increased dramatically, a known side-effect of anabolic steroids. Bonds attributed these changes in his physique to an intense workout regimen and a healthy diet.
Bonds has the most home runs of all-time with 762 long balls, but we may never know for sure if that number deserves an asterisk next to it in the record books.

The Mitchell Report

The Mitchell Report is a result of former senator George Mitchell's investigation into the use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) in Major League Baseball. It's a 409 page report that details the history of performance-enhancing drugs in sports and names a lot of athletes allegedly connected with the drugs. Among these names are Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and Miguel Tejada, among others.
The Mitchell Report also details Brian McNamee, a personal trainer who allegedly helped athletes acquire steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Most notably, McNamee trained Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte. Pettitte has admitted to using HGH and has apologized for doing so. McNamee claims to have injected Clemens with anabolic steroids, which Clemens denies. Clemens was recently indicted by a federal judge for, among others, lying to Congress. There will be much more on Clemens, McNamee, and others to come!

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.