songs of experience

In light of the recent controversy surrounding major league baseball and steroids, I have to say a word (or four) about our athletic playing fields: THEY ARE NOT LEVEL! In my own little world of American female distance running, two giants were not only caught [finally] using performance-enhancing drugs … but one of them, Mary Slaney, was inducted into the track & field hall of fame after she tested positive. What’s up with that!? What exactly does it mean to take the 5th? Does it mean, “Hey, I’m guilty but you won’t hear me say it”? I am the most sickened by Regina Jacobs, who was so dirty for so long that all of us in the running commuity accepted it as the way things are. For nearly two decades, Regina cheated her way on to every World and Olympic team, leaving only two spots open (out of three possible) for honest runners. When you lined up to try to make a US team in a race with Jacobs, you thought, “Okay, after Juice Jacobs … a sort of cyborg creature, part man/part machine … who do I need to beat?” After the story broke that Jacobs had taken EPO, human growth hormone, THG, and insulin [the same conconction Marion Jones purportedly was on], lo-and-behold!, Juice retired from the sport. I have heard she is selling real-estate in Califonia. Anybody wanna buy some swampland in Florida? Juice is your gal.