More Drug Testing Follow-Ups

Alan Shipnuck follows up his SI Scorecard piece with a few more thoughts on the drug testing story.

It made sense that beefy power hitters were juicing, but more surprising was the evidence that implicated just as many pitchers, who wanted to add a few feet to their fastballs and speed their recovery time between starts. Steroid use in golf is counterintuitive, but so was the idea that a junk-ball middle reliever might be using.

Pat Jones at Golf Course News also takes on the issue, and writes:

...it’s a good thing Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem is confident that professional golf doesn’t need drug testing, huh? None of our noble sport’s athletes would ever resort to performance-enhancing substances, would they?

Hmmm … let’s see. Pro golfers do everything possible to improve their game by a stroke or two. They hit 500 balls a day, hire sports psychologists and putting coaches, test 39 different drivers made from materials developed for the space program and put themselves through workout regimens that would kill the average duffer.

Oh, but none of them would ever try human growth hormone or EPO any other performance-enhancing substance just to get those extra five or six yards on a drive that might mean the difference between making millions on the Tour and giving lessons to Mrs. Hacker at Podunk Hills Golf Club, would they?