More Needles, More Damage Done

There’s a burgeoning story about performance-enhancing drugs that no one is likely to much care about, but they should.

ESPN is reporting in great detail the case involving Anthony Galea, a Canadian doctor charged in U.S. federal court in Buffalo on Tuesday with drug smuggling and other related drug offenses. The story is big enough on its own, but it also has an interesting Cleveland connection.

Galea’s arrest is the result of an investigation that began last fall when his assistant, Mary Anne Catalano, his former executive assistant, was arrested at the U.S./Canadian border for trying to smuggle into this country a variety of performance-enhancing drugs. Catalano has become an informant, probably in an attempt to gain leniency, and has been a virtual treasure trove of information for the FBI.

According to the ESPN story, documents they obtained show that while Galea criss-crossed the country treating elite athletes with his own brand of voodoo and cocktails laced with human growth hormone, one of Galea’s most frequent stops was in Cleveland.

Galea allegedly was in Cleveland nearly a dozen times between July 22 and September 11 administering medical treatments of some sort to 11 different athletes never mind the fact that Galea isn’t even registered to practice medicine in this country.

Not surprisingly, this little gem of a story has eluded the notice of the local press. After all, there’s stories aplenty to write about D’Qwell Jackson and the fact that he isn’t attending mini-camp. It sometimes makes me wonder whether the local press has just given up on its own agonizingly slow death march toward extinction.

Because court documents don’t name the athletes allegedly treated by Galea, there’s no way to know at this point whether these athletes played for Cleveland teams or were just visiting. Likewise it’s not known at this point the sports they participated in though the timeline suggests that both baseball and football players were likely involved.

What is known though is that during this period, any number of Cleveland Indians’ players were either on the disabled list or nursing injuries, players like Grady Sizemore, Travis Hafner, Anthony Reyes, Aaron Laffey, Asdrubal Cabrera and Rafael Bentancourt, to name a few. That doesn’t mean any of them were treated inappropriately. It doesn’t mean that any of them were ever seen by Galea or that they even know him. But it does mean that it is now fair game to ask the question, just don’t wait for the Plain Dealer to do it.

Likewise with the Browns. Although the Browns had just entered training camp during this time period, there were a number of its players being treated for a variety of ailments. This included Robaire Smith, Jamal Lewis, Shaun Rogers, Ryan Tucker, Brodney Pool and Jerome Harrison, among others.

Again, it’s important to point out that none of these players have ever been linked with Galea or that no questions have been raised about the appropriateness of any of their treatments. But given Galea’s frequent visits to Cleveland during this period, raising the question is completely appropriate.

Let’s also not forget that during this time period the Indians had home series against Detroit, Minnesota, Texas, Anaheim, Seattle and Kansas City. Given Galea’s geographic location, Toronto, and its easy access to Cleveland it could very well be that Galea was seeing players from these teams instead. It would be interesting to know which injured players from these teams were traveling with them from this time period but I doubt you can get anyone from the Plain Dealer interested in investigating that, either.

None of this is good news for sports fans in any of these cities, but as I said at the outset, most won’t see it that way, including the “established” media, save ESPN. Stories about performance enhancing drugs are nearly as common as stories about LeBron James’ free agent status. At some point people just tune them out.

But it is important because it goes directly to the integrity of each sport. When some players are being fed illegal drugs in order to enhance performance, the product on the field is fraudulent. The competition is no longer between teams with the best players but teams with the best enhanced players. That’s why the story breaking now, again by ESPN, regarding Floyd Landis’ years-too-late admission that he was a serial drug cheat, is eye-opening. For too long the French have been accused of being on a witch hunt and yet they were right all along.

The Galea story isn’t good news either for the commissioners of Major League Baseball and the National Football League. Once again their sports are tainted by another drug scandal, just emphasizing the point that whatever they think they’re doing to clean up their sports isn’t working as well as they’d like to believe.

Particularly shameful in this regard is the legacy of Major League Baseball. Under Commissioner Bud Selig, the league has become mostly a joke when it comes to drugs. I’ve seen several revisionists lately take their hand at trying to position Selig as perhaps the greatest commissioner baseball has ever seen. But every time I read one of these works of fiction they always seem to gloss over how weak-kneed Selig was in the war on drugs, particularly when faced with union opposition.

It was only the threat of Congressional action that got Selig really moving and even then the sport still has a weaker drug testing program than any other sport. Again that’s attributable to Selig’s almost abject unwillingness to back up tough talk with tough action. He’s never shown much of a willingness to take on a misguided union on these issues. Improvements have come at a glacial pace and been merely incremental.

Football has a slightly better story to tell, but only slightly. It embraced more stringent drug testing and harsher penalties well ahead of baseball. The problem, though, is that it hasn’t seemed to deter players hell bent on gaining an illegal advantage. Meanwhile, most seem to just shrug it off.

Consider, for example, that just a few weeks ago, Brian Cushing, the rookie linebacker from the Houston Texans, was revealed as a drug cheat. Cushing had won the Associated Press defensive rookie of the year award with 39 of 50 possible votes. That was before his positive test was known. Last week, in an unprecedented move, the Associated Press ordered a re-vote on its award and Cushing won again, although with far less votes.

The fact that Cushing won again feeds the perception that too many sportswriters are athlete-wannabees that help foster a permissive drug culture inside the locker room because taking a tough stance might not get them the access to the players that they think they need.

But perhaps even more farcical was the handwringing from some of those same sportswriters about a re-vote even taking place. To them, the unprecedented nature of the re-vote was a far more serious issue than the fact that Cushing’s performance was artificially enhanced. Talk about misplaced priorities from your working press.

That really is what underscores the entire issue here. The local beat reporters for both the Indians and the Browns haven’t even bothered with this story despite its Cleveland connection. If you can’t get the working press that covers these athletes on a daily basis to give a damn and be an agent for pushing real reform, what chance does the average fan have? It was this working press, both locally and nationally, that ignored the raging use of PEDs in baseball for years and now are repeating the same mistake by still rewarding known drug users like Cushing for performing at a level he might not otherwise have achieved without the PEDs.

Meanwhile, it’s not just football and baseball that are at the center of the storm involving Galea. It’s worth remembering that another one of Galea’s high profile clients is none other than Tiger Woods. When Woods made his now infamous mostly-wooden apology for being a serial cheater on his wife and family he did save real emotion in that well-rehearsed speech when he denied, without being asked, that treatments he received by Galea involved illegal drugs. Translation: It’s one thing to cheat on your wife, another on your sport.

Court documents seem to suggest that Woods is “Athlete D” administered to in July in Orlando with the so-called plasma rich platelet treatment. According to reports, this involves a process by which blood is taken from the athlete, the platelets are separated from the red blood cells with a centrifuge and then injected back into the athlete to accelerate healing.

It all sounds a little Battlestar Galactica but not illegal, except perhaps for the fact that it was done by someone not licensed to do so, someone like Galea. Whether Woods is a cheat depends on how you come out on the question of whether or not it’s cheating to have a legal treatment administered illegally. We know what Woods thinks but his judgment isn’t exactly unbiased. Of course the same goes for another of sports’ shadier characters, Alex Rodriguez, also a patient of Galea.

Eventually this story will go away. Galea will likely plead guilty to some sort of crime or two and the athletes involved aren’t likely to suffer either way. It’s funny. In this country a young person can be permanently rendered ineligible for federal financial aid for college if he or she is convicted of even minor drug possession charges. Meanwhile professional athletes, many the same age as these same college kids, find that even far more dangerous drug use on their part ends up being merely a minor speed bump on their way to backing up a Brinks truck to the owner’s suite.

The World According to Bill

Losing games is never easy, though no one ever said it would be. Some games are more meaningful than others certainly and thus those losses sting harder and linger longer. All you can really do is try to learn something from the experience and move on. You cannot alter the past only your future. Though that doesn’t mean we don’t try from time to time.

The outpouring of emotion following the Ohio State Buckeyes second consecutive loss in a national championship game is following that natural order of things. It’s been almost a mini version, actually, of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grieving: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, with most fans currently stuck somewhere between denial and anger. The feelings are too raw, apparently, for lessons learned.

There have been postings to the message boards at TheClevelandFan.com that have been all over the map. Almost every body with access to a computer and a forum has weighed in, including, of course, yours truly. Some can’t believe that the Buckeyes laid an egg for two years in a row. Others are simply angry about it and lashing out in every direction. There’s been some transient levels of bargaining and depression but little, to this point, acceptance. Then there’s Bill Livingston.

In Wednesday’s Plain Dealer, Livingston again proves, as if he had to, that while others can have their ups and downs, his ability to be consistently wrong knows no parallel. Rather than put the Buckeyes loss into some sort of perspective or to offer some greater insight (he did attend the game didn’t he?), he instead uses his allocated column space to once again take a hack at one of his favorite targets, Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel.

In Livingston’s world, Tressel is a poser and a phony whose accomplishments are always less than they otherwise appear to be, the latest example being the LSU loss. It’s fine, of course, if Livingston or any other columnist wants to paint a more complete picture of Tressel than some fans who have deified Tressel might want to see. But it’s another thing altogether to simply hack away unfairly.

In this regard, it’s not as if Livingston hasn’t done it before. You can compile a pretty decent size library of Livingston columns about his criticism of Indians manager Eric Wedge, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. Does it mean that Wedge has done everything right in his tenure of Indians manager? Of course not. But Livingston’s inability to provide perspective or discern trends, which really is the core of his job, is becoming legendary. He’d rather continue to grind the axe he has against Wedge, even at the expense of his own credibility.

Livingston has been on a similar crusade when it comes to Tressel for years. There was the column in November, 2006 (no longer available, mercifully, in the Plain Dealer’s archive) in which Livingston seemed to credit Tressel for successfully making the transition from Division I-AA to Ohio State but really was a vehicle for criticizing Tressel’s supposed inability to discern quarterback talent. He claimed, for example, that Tressel was slow to see Troy Smith’s talent while not acknowledging that Justin Zwick was a much better and higher profile prospect. Smith was a late bloomer, to be sure, who really didn’t come into his own until, under Tressel, he learned to think pass first, run second. (My view on Livingston’s column appears here)

Then there was the column last season (likewise no longer available from the Plain Dealer’s archives) in which Livingston took Tressel to task for not voting in the final USA Today coaches poll as to who should take on the Buckeyes in last year’s national championship game. This was, of course, after Livingston initially came out and supported the move. (My view on this Livingston masterpiece appears here) Straying for from his intended point, Livingston used Tressel’s non-vote as a launching pad for a broader criticism of the coach, implying that his ethics and values were, if not questionable, then at least not where they should be. His chief evidence for this character assassination was the supposedly too soft punishment he leveled on former linebacker Robert Reynolds for a cheap hit in a 2003 game.

Wednesday’s column follows the same worn formula but also reveals more than a touch of inconsistency, demonstrating perhaps that Livingston likewise must not have access to the Plain Dealer’s archives. In it, Livingston uses the loss to LSU as another reason to take down Tressel another peg or two, but not in a way that makes much sense.

First, he basically minimizes the 2002 national championship out of existence by alternatively suggesting it was either unfairly gifted on the heels of a bad interference call or that it was essentially nullified because of Maurice Clarett’s substantial legal troubles since that game. Second, he then subtly suggests that Tressel’s pursuit of Pennsylvania high school wunderkind Terrelle Pryor is an act of desperation, an act that will be further played out if he lands Pryor and then starts him ahead of incumbent quarterback Todd Boeckman.

If you’re having trouble following the logic of that last paragraph, no need to adjust either your minds or your eyes. Only in Livingston’s world would it make sense anyway.

The inconvenient fact remains for Livingston and his ilk that Tressel has won a national championship at Ohio State. That victory, which was every bit as big of an upset as Florida’s victory against Ohio State last year, if not more, isn’t tainted in the least. However you decide to come out on the interference call in overtime, the one thing that can be fairly said is that it was a close call. Maybe the referee should have swallowed his whistle, maybe not. But one thing is certain, that penalty call wouldn’t even make the list of the 50,000 worst calls by officials in sports in the last decade. As for Clarett, the fact that he let his own outsized ego and desperation take hold of him to the point that he committed a crime years after that game doesn’t magically invalidate his performance in that game. To even offer the suggestion, as Livingston does, is as ridiculous as it is bizarre.

As for Tressel’s pursuit of Pryor, Livingston is as off-base as ever, which is a pretty far-reaching statement, actually. Pryor is the consensus number one high school player in the country. He’s number one in every scouting service and was the USA Today high school offensive player of the year. Nearly every coach from across the country has pursued Pryor. Indeed, if Tressel was not doing so, he would be rightly criticized, likely by Livingston.

Further, Livingston’s underlying inference is that Pryor has a shady background or, in Livingston’s words, he’d be a “shortcut” for the program. Exactly, why, however, he doesn’t say, meaning he can’t support it. Pryor did have an incident last fall when he was allegedly given a citation for disorderly conduct for reportedly being “mouthy” with security officers at a Pennsylvania amusement park. But if this sole incident is the basis for Livingston’s implication that Pryor is trouble, then he should just level it and let others make a judgment. Instead, he simply dangles the implication out there that landing the nation’s top high school recruit, who happens to be African-American, would be a “shortcut.” Nice.

The other interesting aspect to Livingston’s criticism is how inconsistent it is with his other column, noted previously, in which he criticized Tressel for not being able to recognize quarterback talent. Anyone who saw Pryor play last Saturday in the U.S. Army High School All American game in San Antonio, a game in which Pryor not only won the MVP award but looked as if he were playing a different game at a different level than anyone else, knows he’s a major talent. Only a fool wouldn’t allow him to compete against the incumbent, whoever it is. If Pryor ends up with the Buckeyes and can overtake both Boeckman and Antonio Henton, then he would deserve to start. Any other decision and you could almost see the next column Livingston would recycle, saying how Tressel can’t properly evaluate talent.

The issue isn’t whether Tressel should be subject to criticism for his performance and that of his team. Even Tressel understands that’s fair game and comes with the territory. The issue really is why the Plain Dealer continues to provide Livingston with a forum to exorcise his personal demons against those with whom he harbors personal jealousy for accomplishing far more. Given the deteriorating quality and readership of the paper, the answer lies in what appears to be the Plain Dealer’s overarching problem, they just don’t care.

Power Surge?

Well, at least it was a team effort.

This past Sunday, the Plain Dealer, as only they could do, published their list of “The Most Powerful People in Northeast Ohio Sports.” (see column here) It took the combined efforts of nearly all of the PD’s various beat reporters to compile the list that purports to name the 25 males who most impact area sports because of their prestige, wealth, ability or position. Of course, they claimed that it was the 25 most influential “people” but since no women made the list, no need to pretend that it’s inclusive

This is not to begrudge their effort to do something interesting during the bye week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. The Plain Dealer usually demonstrates such little creativity that almost any effort these days is appreciated. But having taken on the effort one wonders what the heck they were thinking.

The fact that not one woman made the list in any capacity should itself have been a story. This week we’ll be bombarded with stories marking the historic meeting of two African-American head coaches in the Super Bowl and the Plain Dealer doesn’t think that the fact that not one woman is on their list warrants anything more than a story of the few women considered and ultimately rejected?

The Plain Dealer notes that Carol Heiss Jenkins, Olympian Diana Munz and even Gloria James were considered but just simply say none made the top 25. Forget the fact that Heiss Jenkins, for one, is a world famous coach who maintains her base in Lakewood, training world class figure skaters. Perhaps the achievements of these skaters, who live and train in Cleveland is viewed as less influential and powerful as, say, Laing Kennedy, Kent State’s athletic director, who finished 23rd on the list. But what of Gloria James? If her son is going to be viewed as the most powerful person in Cleveland sports and the “James Gang,” LeBron’s coterie of hangers on are viewed as the 17th most powerful, then it makes little sense to exclude the one person, his mom, from the list who continues to exercise the most influence over James, keeping him local and grounded.

But moving beyond the Plain Dealer’s gender myopia, it’s probably no surprise to most that James finished number one on the list. It seems like an easy and safe choice, but is it warranted? With all due respect to the Chosen One, it is ludicrous to think that the best player on the third favorite Cleveland sports team is the most powerful person in Northeast Ohio sports. James’ abilities and accomplishments are hardly in debate. He has a chance to be the best player ever to play for Cleveland in any sport. His love for his hometown of Akron and the fact that he gives back to the community in many, many ways is unquestioned. But the fact remains, the Cavaliers aren’t even close to being this town’s most popular or influential team.

A case could be made for James in the sense that the only reason the Cavs are at all popular now, in Cleveland and elsewhere, is the fact that James is on the team. In that way, he’s had a huge impact. But that impact still must be put into context. To most Cleveland fans, indeed to most sports fans, the NBA is the least interesting of all the major professional sports and James’ presence only moves the needle slightly. Its regular season drones on and, thanks to its playoff system, seems mostly irrelevant to most. Neither the NFL’s regular season nor baseball’s bloated 162-game schedule seems to suffer a similar fate. If James can somehow transcend all of this and raise the status of the Cavs in the minds of fans to be at least on par with the Indians, let alone the Browns, then he truly wouldl be the most powerful person in Cleveland sports. But until that unlikely day presents itself and inspite of his accomplishments to date and the promise to come, he’s not even close to being this town’s most influential or powerful sports figure.

That honor, unfortunately, goes to Randy Lerner, who clocked in at number two on the PD list. He seems like such an obvious choice that it’s hard to believe that even the Plain Dealer messed this up. Lerner is the reluctant but earnest owner who to this point has mostly failed at trying to return the Browns to some semblance of glory. For purposes of this list, however, it’s not so much whether he fails or succeeds that matters most, it’s the fact that he’s in the position to influence that equation the most. Whatever he does is watched more intently by more Clevelanders than the war in Iraq. Need proof? Look how much attention even the tiniest of moves the Browns make gets. Right now you have fans debating the relative merits of each and every assistant coach. It’s doubtful that these same fans could name any of the Cavs assistant coaches or the Indians assistants for that matter. The fact that Cleveland sports fans are nearly all consumed with how Lerner wields his power as the Browns owner is what makes him such an obvious choice at the top of any such Cleveland list.

Given that the Plain Dealer completely misunderstands the Cleveland sports market, it’s not a surprise that the rest of the list is a mess as well. Dan Gilbert is their number 3 choice You can take the same comments about James and paste them here. But it also seems like the PD put him on the list because one of Gilbert’s key goals, according to the PD, apparently is to keep number one happy. That being the case, one wonders why Gilbert wasn’t number two, Danny Ferry number three and Mike Brown number four? Instead, the PD placed the Dolans at number four and Phil Savage at number 5. Given the importance of the Browns to this town, Savage probably deserves to be right behind Lerner, then the Dolans at number three with their chief executive, Mark Shapiro, next. Then, and only then, should anyone talk about James, Gilbert or anyone else associated with James, including head coach Mike Brown.

The rest of the list is simply goofy and internally inconsistent. For example, despite his relative importance to the Cavs and James’ psyche, coach Mike Brown ranks 13th, behind attorney Fred Nance and Jim Brown. Nance is a fine person and an even finer attorney. But from a Cleveland sports perspective his biggest splash was that he helped preserve the Browns, but that was years ago. His continual presence as a key figure in Cleveland sports is, at best, unclear. If someone is going to make the list, his or her accomplishments should both be current and apparent. The PD notes that Nance was a finalist for the job of NFL Commissioner. But that job was destined to go to Roger Godell before even the first interview was held. In any case, that hardly seems a reason to rank Nance at all, let alone number 10. As for Jim Brown, the first person who can cogently explain his current impact on Cleveland sports, please raise your hand. Sure, Brown shows up for games and various other Browns-related events, but if the criteria is current power and influence Brown has none. The PD suggests that Brown is a trusted adviser to Lerner. Even so, no outward manifestation of that role has emerged.

The same sorts of flaws befall the rest of the list as well. But perusing the rest of it for flaws misses the larger point—the list is too long. The impact any of the remaining members of that list have on Cleveland sports is negligible at best, save for Eric Wedge. An interestingly side note is that Wedge is only number 15 on the list, one ahead of the commissioner of the Mid American Conference, which doesn’t even have a team in Cleveland. See the point?

Maybe it’s because it’s the Plain Dealer’s own list and humility and/or a massive conflict of interest prevents it, but wouldn’t you like to think that the editor of the sports section of the town’s only newspaper might be more influential than, say, WTAM’s Mike Trivisonno? Trivisonno's influence is solely a product of his own warped mind and, in any case, seems severely undercut by the simple fact that he spends little if any time anymore even talking about sports. Or perhaps one of the Plain Dealer’s sports columnists should have garnered a mention? After all, isn’t their job description to help shape public opinion about Cleveland sports? If none of these folks can make the list, that speaks to what we’ve said all along, relevance and the Plain Dealer is an oxymoron. While that’s hardly a surprise, it’s just hard to believe that the PD and its columnists have sunk below Lee Reed, Cleveland State’s athletic director, who finished last on the list in a tie with Joe Tait.

Wasted Asset

You can tell the Cavaliers are on their annual winter west coast trip and the games are being played past the bedtime of at least one Plain Dealer columnist. It’s January 19, 2007, the Cleveland Browns played their last game three weeks ago and now, just now, Bill Livingston offers his take about Braylon Edwards and Phil Savage in this morning’s Plain Dealer.

Of course, you had to sort through about three paragraphs to figure out what the heck Bill was talking about since he started his column talking about Eric Snow. Usually Bill doesn’t start to veer wildly off course until five or six paragraphs into his thrice-weekly mess. As near as we can figure, Bill has come to the conclusion that the Browns and Savage just don’t “get it.” He surmises that Savage just doesn’t understand Cleveland fans. According to Bill, we don’t dislike Braylon Edwards because he’s a Michigan Wolverine, we dislike Edwards because he drops passes.

Actually, we do dislike Edwards because he is a Michigan Wolverine and because he’s a loud mouth, me-first prima donna whose mediocre production doesn’t match his overinflated opinion of himself. And because he drops passes. But thanks, Bill, for the observations. Day late meet dollar short.

In another story from this morning’s paper that we think is directly related to our overall point, Plain Dealer editor Doug Clifton announced that he’ll be retiring on June 1, ending an 8-year stint at Cleveland’s only daily newspaper. When Clifton looks back on all he surveys, hopefully he’ll come to grips with the notion that at this point, the best people can say about the PD is that it used to have a good sports section.

But that was years and years ago. Pick up the Plain Dealer sports on any day and no day in particular and there is an undeniable sameness and blandness. The game stories, irrespective of the team, are largely uninteresting. The columnists, particularly Livingston, rarely venture very far out on a limb or say anything remotely controversial. The fact that now Livingston chose to write about Edwards and Savage at a time when he doesn’t have to run into either for several months just illustrates the point.

Perhaps this is the kind of malaise that creeps into an organization when it doesn’t perceive a need to be competitive. And at the Plain Dealer, they still act as if they have the market to themselves. That’s true, but only if one defines the market as narrowly as the PD does. What they fail to realize is that on any given day, there are probably a dozen better sources on the internet for Cleveland sports fans to gain a more interesting and deeper perspective into what’s happening than the Plain Dealer seems willing to offer.

Sure, the Plain Dealer has a modest internet presence. It consists of providing the same bland columns that one can find in print and an occasional podcast from Tony Grossi. Pretty ground breaking stuff. Given their modest objectives, it seems like the PD is still worried that this internet thing may be a fad as they hardly even begin to take advantage of the potential that the immediacy of the internet offers, which is good news to sites like this.

But we don’t think that daily newspapers are ever going to suddenly disappear like Chuck on “Happy Days.” Nor do we think it is ultimately a good thing that the Plain Dealer is a mediocre presence in this community. As we’ve said before and we’ll say again, part of the problem in this town is that the sports teams in this town have produced such crappy products for such a long period of time, the fans have come to embrace mediocrity as an acceptable state of affairs. We no longer push for excellence and thus get what we deserve.

And the Plain Dealer, as the only Cleveland daily newspaper, is a big part of the problem. It is so casual in approach to how it covers sports these days that it simply isn’t in the position to even identify excellence, let alone demand it from the various teams and their representatives and hold them accountable when they fall short.

Despite its continuously dwindling readership, the PD could still play a vital role in helping shape this community. But the institutional boredom that seemed to set in years ago shows no signs of abating. As a result, a needed asset and advocate for change is absent. But on the other hand, as long as they keep letting Livingston chew up newsprint three times a week, there will always be a reason to laugh. It’s just not for the reasons the PD probably intended.