From time to time, I've posted sports-themed posts on my other blogs, DiscConnected (music reviews and news) or Back In The USSR (political).

I decided to see if I could give ESPN 8 (The Ocho) a run for their money and started this blog.

I lifted the title from John DeBella's Philadelphia morning radio show back in the eighties.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

SO LET IT BE WRITTEN

Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from cycling. Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union, the sport’s governing body, said Armstrong, “deserves to be forgotten.”


And it seems like everyone is piling on, from corporate sponsors terminating agreements to the Boston Marathon vacating his time in the 2008 race.




Sheryl Crow is even going to pull songs influenced by her relationship with Armstrong from their respective releases.

Okay, I'm kidding about that part-I needed an excuse to post a Sheryl Crow picture!

Armstrong claims the process is "rigged" against him and maintains his innocence, saying he never failed a drug test.  He has said that he, his teammates and those riders who competed against him would always know he won those seven Tours.



I am as conflicted on this one as I was on the steriods in baseball issue (well at least the Senate didn't get involved in this one).

Just as Barry Bonds in baseball, it seems implausible that Armstrong could be innocent.

It bothers me that it's so many years later that action is taken.

But the big question for me:

Who will the titles go to-second place?

Because I am certain that if Armstrong was a doper, the guy who finished two seconds behind him was probably squeaky clean!

8 comments:

Stephen T. McCarthy said...

DISCDUDE ~
Although it’s not the ONLY reason, steroid use is one of the PRIMARY reasons that I have lost so much interest in sports over the last decade or two. Almost the entire world of sport is filthy.

They have cleaned up baseball to a large extent. This year baseball had its first Triple Crown winner in many decades (that’s one player who leads all of baseball with the best batting avg., most home runs, and most runs batted in). The Triple Crown winner had 44 home runs. A monster number, but nothing like the number of home runs that were being hit in a single season when steroid use was so rampant in baseball.

But still, today, steroids are being used extensively in tennis, track and field, and swimming. (Does anybody with two brain cells to rub together REALLY believe that Olympic swimmer Dara Torres was/is clean? OK, so she has never tested positive. But neither has Serena Williams. Neither did Lance Armstrong. But when 11 of Armstrong’s former teammates testified that he was dirty, I think we can take that to the bank!)

I posted the following paragraph on my ‘STUFFS’ blog back in June of 2008:

I’ve got “big” news for ya: a woman cannot acquire a man’s physique and a man cannot acquire The Incredible Hulk’s physique without chemical assistance. (If you believe that Serena Williams comes by that Cassius Clay body naturally, I’ve got the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, and a musical bridge that I can let you have for a song! Anyone wanna place any bets on whether or not that rumor about Lance Armstrong and “artificial assistance” might have a chemically-enhanced leg to stand on?)

I’m glad they finally caught Armstrong. Glad they finally caught Barry Bonds. Glad they finally caught Roger Clemens. I wish they could catch them all.

~ D-FensDogg
‘Loyal American Underground’

Stephen T. McCarthy said...

Oh, I forgot to mention...

I heard that the record book would indicate there were NO WINNERS for those years when Armstrong won by cheating.

It's a real shame for all of the riders who may have competed without cheating, but I do think that, under the circumstances, that's probably the best remedy to the problem.

~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'

DiscConnected said...

Stephen-

I hear you. I do.

But I cannot help call your attention to a famous quote...

"If ya ain't cheatin'
ya ain't tryin"

Sadly, my biggest problem with all of this is it further glorifies sports in the American consciousness (baseball is so sacred that we need our Senators to root out the evil steriod users), where sports already holds far too much importance.

I'm going to repeat that, not for your benefit, but for the benefit of any random passers-by.

SPORTS HOLD FAR TOO MUCH IMPORTANCE IN THE AMERICAN CONSCIOUSNESS!!!

But I guess I don't like cheaters much, either.

Although, given a chance, I would have cheated with Sheryl Crow!

And I'd have used one of them pills that gives you those five hour woodies just for good measure!

Disc-gusting MC pig

DiscConnected said...

I wish there was a way to align my replies to your comments.

I try posting your first commen, then responding, then posting your second, but it does not work out the way I'd planned.

I actually had read this as well (the titles would remnain vacant) but wanted to make a joke (and a comment) about the next place finishers.

After all, didn't the second place finishers in several of Lance's victories already get banned for 'roids?

I still think his biggest shame should be the loss of Sheryl Crow as significant other...

Anyone can ride a bike up a hill...only a lucky few have ridden...nope-not gonna sink that low!

LC

Stephen T. McCarthy said...

>>...I try posting your first commen, then responding, then posting your second, but it does not work out the way I'd planned.

Nope, the system don't work that way. Regardless of when you click the "Publish" button, the comments will always post in the order in which they were first submitted to the system.

Don't know much about Sheryl Crow but... if I recall correctly, it was one of the Davids from 'David & David' who produced her debut album.

Did Sheryl do that song about "watching the sun rise over Santa Monica Boulevard"? If so... I always disliked that song! (David & David's songs were better.)

~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'

DiscConnected said...

Oh I'm wit' ya on that song-if I never hear it again it'll be too soon!

But she is a hottie!

LC

Stephen T. McCarthy said...

I guess after all those denials about having used Performance Enhancing Drugs, Lance Armstrong finally had to eat Crow. (Then again, it seems he was already doing that.)

DOH! Did I really write that?! (I don't often sink that low into the gutter, but it was just too much of a temptation for me to resist.)

~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'

DiscConnected said...

It wuz a good one!