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Volume X

Now I know why I don’t bother to pay for any of these magazines strewn all about me. Old copies of Sports Illustrated and ESPN: The Magazine and an occasional issue of The Sporting News lie in stacks, waiting to be cut up and filed away for some background into a future article yet to be written. For one thing, it’s so much more economical to just wait for one of the many college kids living at the University of Oregon -- where I earn a living as a cook by day -- to toss them into one of the myriad recycling bins located around the campus...

... but even more to the point, all these reclaimed magazines sitting all around me comprise pound after pound of print -- and nary more than a passing word for some of the sports I love most. Don’t get me wrong... I enjoy a good in-depth football or baseball article as much as the rest of America’s fanatical sports spectators. But it gets frustrating trying to find coverage of soccer, or cycling, or tennis in these magazines. Unless an American is dominating the sport in question -- the Williams sisters, Lance Armstrong, etc. -- these periodicals find little need to try to educate a sports-hungry public to the wonders just around the corner.

Instead of hyping the glory of a Paris-Roubaix to a populace which has proven an affinity for racing of all stripes, we are treated to endless hours spent thinking and rethinking mock drafts only to watch the best-laid analysis rendered moot at the zero hour. These non-traditional sports receive lip service while writers rehash the same staid thoughts. The traditional sports media sit back and -- while they might give you some in-depth analysis from time to time -- expound upon the same few sports. They do little to expand your wider base of sports knowledge. Which is why I do what I do, bringing this coverage to you every week here at Informative Sports. We’re now into double digits -- welcome to our tenth edition of the column here at its new digs!

But where to start this week? There’s been so much going on. While America finds itself embroiled once again in a debate about performance-enhancing drugs as Manny Ramirez takes his fifty-game punishment, European fans grapple with the realization that two of its talents have been enjoying the Doc Gooden lifestyle -- Tom Boonen and Richard Gasquet face substantially longer bans than Ramirez from cycling and tennis respectively for their recreational dabbling in the world of the coca plant. We’ve seen referees take their lumps for their officiating in soccer; jockeys changing mounts in the middle of a Triple Crown hunt; and the season’s first grand tour in cycling commence. Sit back, get comfortable and settle in -- it’s time to dive in to another week of news and notes from around the world with A Non-Traditional Sports Fan in America...

Banned substances in sport are a hotbed topic at the moment, on both sides of the Atlantic. Jeremy Mayfield just became the first NASCAR driver to test positive under its new drug-testing policy... for what Mayfield asserts was a substance allegedly found in an over-the-counter allergy medication. NASCAR, though, will not reveal just what that substance might be, though they counter that this was no mere allergy medicine. But Mayfield’s time away from the track, both as a driver and as a team owner, is overshadowed by the American press with the Manny Ramirez revelations. The nation is just starting to discover the myriad uses of human chorionic gonadotropin. Ramirez, the affable slugger for the Los Angeles Dodgers, will now sit fifty games and forfeit seven million in pay for his use of the substance, purportedly due to a botched understanding of just what was and was not banned under the MLB testing policy by Manny’s physician.

As Manny faces a third of a season away from his sport for a drug with known steroid-masking properties, a couple of superstars over in Europe ponder what may potentially be much longer absences -- for their use of a party drug. Both Tom Boonen, cycling’s cobblestone king, and Richard Gasquet, one of France’s top tennis stars, both have recently both tested positive for cocaine. For Boonen, this is his second positive test for the substance in a twelve-month span. For Gasquet, he finds nose-candy in his system just as his home nation prepares to host the second Grand Slam of the tennis season. Both could possibly face two-year bans from their sport... and for Boonen, seeing as he received legal amnesty following last year’s positive, the courts might not be as lenient this time for his recidivism.

Ultimately it is an athlete’s responsibility to know what he or she is putting into his or her body. But in ridiculing solely the athlete for these indiscretions, we ignore the hefty sway that coaches, trainers, agents and even peers can have in the decision-making process. Athletes are increasingly dependent on outside assistance with everything from their fitness and nutrition to paying their bills and buying their groceries. While these superstars can do everything in the world to ensure that their assistants are legitimate and honest, this chain of responsibility does not, in the end, exempt these others from at least an investigation into their culpability when an athlete sends up the red flags...

Calvin Borel faced the ultimate conundrum. Rachel Alexandra, the filly who took the Kentucky Oaks two weeks ago with a twenty-length blowout of the field, gets set to take on the boys in the 134th edition of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico after her sale from Adolphus Morrison (who was a traditionalist who would not race the girls against the boys). Would Borel, who had been riding Rachel Alexandra for months, take her mount at the Preakness?

In doing so, he would sacrifice his chance to guide surging gelding Mine That Bird on that rarest of paths toward the ever-elusive Triple Crown. Borel, though, has only been on Mine That Bird’s back twice -- in a pre-Derby warmup ride to familiarize himself in the saddle, and then the Kentucky Derby victory itself. Borel would have to choose between becoming the first rider to sacrifice his shot at the Triple Crown after winning the first leg... or giving up his chance to become the first jockey to guide a filly to victory in the race since Nellie Morse in 1924.

Borel has chosen the latter. Rather than attempt to end the 31-year Triple Crown drought, he sets his sights on guiding Rachel Alexandra toward bridging the 85-year gap between filly victories in the second Triple Crown leg. Rachel Alexandra becomes the first female since Winning Colors in 1988 to earn the early-favorite status among bettors; Borel will hope for better results at the Preakness than the third place finish Gary Stevens earned on Winning Colors after the filly took the Kentucky Derby victory in the first leg. Borel could become the first jockey to complete the Triple Crown... on two different mounts.

Standing in 8-5 favorite Rachel Alexandra’s way will be a strong field of a dozen males, led by Kentucky Derby runner-up Pioneerof the Nile at 5-1 odds. Derby winner Mine That Bird and his new jockey, Mike Smith, share the next-best odds with Derby pre-race favorite Friesan Fire at 6-1. Musket Man, third in the Derby, will line up alongside Mine That Bird with 8-1 odds. Other sentimental favorites include Papa Clem (12-1), General Quarters (20-1) and Big Drama (10-1), who did not start in the Derby and is racing for the first time since his post-victory disqualification at the Swale Stakes in March at Gulfstream Park in Florida.

But it will be the showdown between Borel’s Derby-winning mount and the one he decided to ride instead at the Preakness which will be the talk of the weekend. Borel is crafty enough to sweep the remaining races, and he has a horse capable of taking the spoils against the field despite her two X chromosomes. Now we will find out if Mine That Bird is as good as his Derby finish would dictate, or if Borel was the magician responsible for the upset at Churchill Downs...

What we will never know is how the Champions League final might play out differently on May 27 were a trio of players -- two for Barcelona, one for Manchester United -- allowed to play instead of sitting in the stands. Refereeing decisions have come under intense scrutiny in soccer recently, as the work of both Roberto Rosetti and Tom Henning Ovrebo were questioned for their accuracy in the semifinals. While much of England has been up in arms about Darren Fletcher’s dismissal in United’s match against Arsenal, with the Red Devils filing an appeal on compassionate grounds after replay showed that Fletcher appeared to make legal contact with the ball as he tackled Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas. Sir Alex Ferguson, the longtime Manchester United coach, said about the penalty, “We understand the system and honestly believe the referee made the right decision at the time. From his angle and from where I was, I thought it was a penalty myself. But from the replays it is obvious Darren managed to get his leg round and flick the ball away from Fabregas.”

But both squads will be reeling from the suspensions. Lost in the hype surrounding Fletcher’s absence is the reality that Barcelona has lost both sides of its defense. Whereas Manchester can plug any number of options into the spot occupied by Fletcher, Barcelona will have a much harder time replacing its losses. Abidal will be gone in Rome despite what turned out to be a complete lack of contact against Chelsea striker and countryman Nicolas Anelka; Alves earned his second yellow card after going up for a contested ball against Florent Malouda and getting the better of the challenge. In addition to all the injuries Barcelona has suffered on its run to the final, it is likely that Manchester United will walk away as repeat champions in Europe’s preeminent club competition.

One thing is for certain, though... if Manchester United does lose to the Spanish powerhouse, it will not be because of Fletcher’s absence. He wasn’t deemed necessary in last year’s final, and was a mere substitute in both legs of the semifinal clash with Barcelona. Ferguson still has the talent to take out the Catalan forces, especially with all their infirmities and otherwise unavailable personnel...

While Rome awaits the arrival of the teams on pace to take respectively this year’s English Premier League and Spanish Primera Liga championships in their battle for intercontinental hardware, it also awaits the coming of the Giro d’Italia as it finishes this year’s centenary edition in the capital city for the first time since 1950 and only the third time in the race’s ninety-one editions. So far we’ve seen some exciting action...

So far several of my predictions have bore fruit. Astana is in such trouble that they will be changing their team uniforms mid-race to reflect current and upcoming changes in the team’s structure. For a squad which has shown such talent and promise in the past few seasons since now-disgraced Alexandre Vinokourov stepped in to rescue the defunct Liberty Seguros team from the ashes of Operacion Puerto, the dissolution of the Kazakh consortium which has underwritten its expenses the past few seasons is a sad state on how sponsorship can affect cycling in both positive and negative ways.

The race started on the windswept Lido di Venezia in the Venetian lagoon. For the first time in the race’s history, a British rider pulled on the maglia rosa as Mark Cavendish crossed the line first with his Columbia-Highroad teammates to take the team time trial ahead of Garmin-Slipstream and Astana. The roads of Italy have been good to Cavendish so far this season. He took the final stage at Tirreno-Adriatico before pipping the rest of the field at Milano-Sanremo, the season’s first one-day classic. And now, with the leader’s jersey on his shoulders, the sprint specialist then turned his sights on the next two stages through the northeast corner of Italy...

But instead of the Manx Missile it was Alessandro Petacchi -- Ale-Jet himself -- who took the next two battles to the line. As mentioned in the predictions, it appears that the sprint duel has come down to these two men... or, rather, to one of these two men. In Stage 2, Petacchi jumped ahead of Cavendish and his Columbia train on the run-in to Trieste, taking the victory ahead of his younger competitor. The next day, it was a crash ten kilometers from the line that prevented Cavendish from contesting the sprint. Petacchi swept to victory once again and into the maglia rosa.

It wouldn’t last long, as Stage 4 saw the roads start turning skyward in this topsy-turvy Giro. Here we saw former winners make some noise, as Danilo Di Luca -- the 2007 winner -- took the first summit finish of the race at San Martino di Castrozza, finishing ahead of Stefano Garzelli -- the winner back in 2000. Di Luca slipped in to the maglia rosa himself after finishing second in Stage 5, two seconds behind stage winner Denis Menchov of Rabobank. Nearing completion of the race’s first week, it appears that the field has been winnowed down significantly...

And a couple of Americans are still in the hunt for Astana... though neither is named Armstrong. Levi Leipheimer sits in fourth, 43 seconds off Di Luca’s pace. Chris Horner, one of Levi’s key lieutenants with Astana, sits in eighth at just 1:17 behind. And Armstrong, truth be told, isn’t that far behind yet at only 3:34 off the pace. Don’t forget... there’s still 76 kilometers of time trials to be raced yet, including the final-stage race through Rome itself...

We might get justifiably low as revelations come to the light about this or that athlete using this or that to boost his performance, whether in the heat of battle or as the life of the party. But there is too damn much out there to get excited about to lose our minds completely to the paranoia which talk of doping can breed. Concrete evidence is one thing, but speculation is a damning indictment of another stripe altogether. So don’t let your fears get the best of you... there are people out there testing for these things, and as the escalating number of positive results demonstrates, the tests are catching up to the drug technology.

Don’t lose faith. Sports can illuminate the best of our society, but in reality they represent all facets in a neatly-defined structure. The lows feel that much lower, when we are faced with the long absence of a fallen favorite. But so too do the highs feel that much higher... so keep your eyes open -- there’s a world of sports delights waiting out there to offer you a full range of emotion...

Submitted 5/14/2009

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