If Tim Lincecum truly regrets anything, he probably regrets getting caught the most. But he's pretty hip to the P.R. issues surrounding his pot bust and because of it he offered a statement following his post-Cy Young interview yesterday:
"I made a mistake and I regret my actions. I want to apologize to the Giants organization and the fans. I know as a professional athlete I have a responsibility ... both on and off the field. I promise to do better in the future."I think the San Francisco Chronicle's Henry Schulman summed up this business the best the other day: "I know this whole Lincecum story is considered overblown and a joke in Northern California, where many folks probably vacuum more than 3.3 grams of pot residue off their carpets at home, but it's taken seriously elsewhere and by Major League Baseball."
I'd argue that in an ideal world it shouldn't be taken all that seriously, but we don't live in an ideal world. We live in a world where people freak out about small amounts of generally innocuous, generally harmless plants while drugs that actually kill a lot of people are allowed to advertise on outfield walls. We live in a world where the same writers who just acknowledged via their awards vote that it's possible for a guy to take a certain drug and still be a world class athlete also write about how bad a thing it was for that athlete to take that drug.
I understand that Lincecum broke the law and should pay his fine. I also understand that he's subject to a collective bargaining agreement that tells him he can't smoke pot, and to the extent that agreement calls for anything to happen to him because of it, so be it. But the fact that we expect guys like Lincecum or Michael Phelps or whoever to make public apologies like this is a bit much for me.
I would argue thta pot is a PED. Pot relaxes the user, removes stress, and allows someone to perform without the normal pressures felt by pitchers playing straight.
Using your argument, then it is OK for Bonds and all the other cheaters to use chemicals to preform better. Mental barriers to performance are just as limiting as physical barriers, or visa versa. So, if it is OK to mellow out to perform better, why not build up to perform better? Your suggestion is a one way ticket to running the whole business of athletics into the ground and ultimate disaster. NO chemical performance enhancers of any kind can be sanctioned in any sport. That is what is ruining the whole business world wide.
It'll be a sad day if Lincecum ever gets traded. He is made for San Francisco.
Couldn't really call this a chemical perfomance enhancer could we. The general argument against weed is that it makes a person slow and lethargic. If businesses thought this drug would improve perfomance they would be jumping all over each other to get it legalized in order to improve productivity from its workers.
1. They make athletes apologize for everything. At least in that regard, there's no double standard between drunk driving and drunk pot usage. (The double standard seems to be that athletes have to apologize for minor things but not for, say, domestic abuse.)
2. I don't know if driving while high is like driving while drunk, but if there is any chance you could hurt yourself or someone else while high, it should be treated exactly like drunk driving.
Agreed, Simon. In this case, however, there was no evidence of impairment on Lincecum's part and he wasn't charged with it. I totally agree that you have to treat all impairment the same for driving purposes.
Here, however, in the absence of that, the analogy isn't a DUI. The analogy is stopping a guy for speeding with an unopened six pack in his car on the way home from the grocery store.
Ditto, that's assuming he used it before pitching a game. I "highly" doubt that he would do that. Pot does seem to take the bounce out of ones step. Or so I've heard.............
howard was probably right next to lincecum...i can already hear the convo...."ear howard, now go wright a story 'bout this'.....maybe everyone should be smoking dope while playing instead of using the seeds....how bout we have a weed night instead of bat day....do you need me to continue?....slapnuts...
As long as Lincecum shares his Ring Dings with his teammates during the seventh inning stretch, I have no problem with it.
Anyone who doesn't think weed can be a "performance enhancer" has never gotten laid on it. Hell, when I was a kid it even made the long version of "In-a-gadda-da-vida" an excellent accompaniment to horizontal entertainment, and speaking as one who believes that "Parker's Mood," "Naima," "Brilliant Corners" and "Kind of Blue" are the pinnacles of modern musical art, making the Iron Butterfly even listenable is no small accomplishment.
Even so, baseball fans don't have to start worrying about weed until black light advertising posters start showing up on the outfield walls. Meanwhile, you've already got your hands full with steroids. Come back next week and we'll talk about mescaline. Now pardon me, I've got to take my brownies out of the oven.
I agree. I don't care whether they smoke dope or not, or take steroids for that matter - but I don't believe a single one when they "apologize" - considering the fact they only feel bad about what they've done after they've been caught.
Take drugs - that's your business. Insult my intelligence with a BS apology - that I take offense to.
Maybe you just thought your perfomance was enhanced. Have a nice trip.
The idea of pot as a performance enhancer is pretty laughable when it comes to playing baseball. Does it enhance your performance when it comes to creativity and environmental stimulation (food, sex, music)? Of course? But does it make you a better baseball player?
Let's see - it doesn't help with arm strength, speed, power, or flexibility and it's actually a DETRIMENT to hand-eye coordination.
And further, the idea that it relaxes you to the point that you won't care about or notice the typical pressures that a pitcher would have to deal with - well, anybody who's ever used pot will tell you that it has the exact opposite effect in public, particularly when the people (in this case, thousands of fans) around you are not also high. If anything, it would make a pitcher paranoid that everybody knows he's high and increase his heart rate.
I'd venture to say that there is no scientific evidence whatsoever that would support the idea of pot as a performance enhancer for baseball players. I'd be curious to see if anybody can produce some evidence to the contrary.
Couldn't agree with you more, Craig. I was kinda hoping he would issue a statement along the lines of 'I've committed a victimless crime. I don't believe it was wrong, and therefore I feel no remorse.' Now that would have made him a folk hero and a legend outside of just the baseball world.
Please tell me that photo is genuine!
Couldn't agree with you more, Craig. I was kinda hoping he would issue a statement along the lines of 'I've committed a victimless crime. I don't believe it was wrong, and therefore I feel no remorse.' Now that would have made him a folk hero and a legend outside of just the baseball world.
Please tell me that photo is genuine!
Remember that commercial for the MLB video game where Tim Lincecum is giving pointers to his virtual self? Well check this out
http://www.tauntr.com/content/tim-lincecum-commercial
It'll be a sad day if Lincecum ever gets traded. He is made for San Francisco.
What no! It's his destiny to pitch in Seattle.
Spoken like someone who (a) never had his performance enhanced; (b) didn't perform often enough to know the difference between enhanced and unenhanced performances; (c) may in fact never have performed at all, or (c) may soon run out of opportunities to have as many delightful adventures to look back upon as I have.
GET OVER IT, HE WAS PROBABLY STONED AT THE PRESS CONFERENCE.
BY THE WAY, DID HE SAY HE WOULD STOP PUFFIN ??? NO, RIGHT.
Yeah, but he will be coming to the YANKEES in the very near future.
I see the PINSTRIPES IN HIS FUTURE.
THE YANKEES ARE CHAMPIONS OF BASEBALL......AGAIN!!
Thanks Old. Been there, done that. If that's your thing, roll with it. Don't have a problem, but if I did there are better drugs for that. Pleasant memorys.
BS it's a PED! No one would ever pitch under the influence of drugs! Trust me, I'm a former pitcher.
HA! Pot is Performance enhancing? Yea maybe at video games and the ability to fit cheez puffs in your mouth. Under your argument baseball players shouldn't drink or use pain killers. Tylonal PM might relax a pitcher. What about perscription drugs used to curb anxiety is that performance enhancing? He should not have to apologize!
Great article! That's the reality tho, while perscription drugs are killing all these people, pot really doesn't do anything to you except make you relax. Plus if you live in Cali, it's like a religion to smoke bud.
Remove the caffine, nicotine, sugar, and sun light. Make them play in a sterile enviornment that way we can be sure the game remains pristine like it has always been.
I don't think we should take a chance on having concessions at the ball park either. One of the players may eat a hot dog, and we all know how namy chemicals they contain.
You must be a Giant fan because I live in California and I don't understand what your talking about.
Cosmic Charlie, how do you do? Truckin' in style along the avenue....
Yeah, and Lincecum also could have pointed out that the laws are stupid and discriminatory, that banning folks with glaucoma or on chemotherapy from using it to get some relief or help their eyesight is cruel and typical of the mindless ideology of right-wing assholes everywhere (can you imagine if Rush "Oxycontin Junkie" Limburger or Sean Vannity were going blind? What would they do, lose their eyesight on principle and shrug since, with all the droolers and knuckledraggers out there who follow him, he could still make a living at radio?)
'Course he could also have taken a page from Slick Willie's Spin Manual and claimed that he didn't inhale....
I had numerous friends in high school who used to smoke weed before they went lifting and would swear by it. These guys were pretty serious about lifting, too, as opposed to your casual Joe who just wants to avoid looking like he sits in a cubicle 90 hours a week. I'm not sure of the rationale for the benefit or whether it's actually effective or detrimental for something like lifting, but if there is some benefit, how is that not performance enhancing? Perhaps someone else with more knowledge can explain.
Actually, to add on to my point, one thing I recall them mentioning was that if they smoked beforehand, it helped them to ignore the muscular fatigue associated with lifting and that they were able to do it for longer periods of time (at least that's what I think I remember them saying ... this was a while back).
Fast Eddy, your an idiot, enough said.
priceless
1.- Comparing pot to steroids is dumb.
2.- pot should be legal
3.- alcohol kills 90,000 people a year and is sold at Giants games
4.- bud light has drinkability
5.- the Cy Young award winner smokes pot
Must say you made my day. I haven't laughed that hard in quite some time.
However, good weed should be classified as a wonder drug, not a PED. If memory serves me, it made 2001:A Space Odyssey completely comprehensible.
Well said Chuck. It all comes down to money in the end. Their PR agent tells them to say sorry because it could affect future money...bottom line. I personally don't give a damn what these guys do in the spare time. Life is about decisions and consequences...
No - you missed my point. It should not be tolerated.
You can probably lift weights w/o too much of problem, stoned.
You can shoot a few good games of pool, loaded.
But hitting, pitching, fielding a ground ball or running down a fly ball....not very easy while stoned. Especially playing 7 or 9 innings.
Yo Former Pitcher,
What about Doc Ellis?
"Former Pittsburgh Pirates' pitcher Dock Ellis says he was under the influence of LSD when he pitched a 1970 no-hitter against the San Diego Padres."
I don't believe Dock for one second....walking to the mound while tripping on LSD would be in itself, difficult, let alone pitching a no-hitter. Sorry, Dock, never happened.
Keep smoking your joints moron. Some day you will wake up. Probably too late, but it is your life. No Chemical enhancements should be allowed in sports. Period.
So I guess caffine should be band then. Give me a break.
Craig Calcaterra represents the forward, not straight, thinking. Everything in moderation, including but not limited, to all natural plants. Once man gets involved producing plant derivatives, however, all bets are off. I think a bigger issue is whether Lincecum will get a haircut!
That was pretty funny, Dave. Here's some real evidence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KOggNQb1Us&NR=1
Looks to me like a guy just lovin' life, and why not? Baseball needs more players like him. Can't wait to see him win CYA #3 next year!!
All well and good but, frankly, a little too much codeinated cough syrup would have made Space Odyssey comprehensible to me. The real test is, was your weed potent enough to clarify El Topo, Au Husard Balthasar, Blow Up, The Sheltering Sky, Zeigunerweisen, Glen or Glenda and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie for you?
And most radically: did it make it possible for you to sit through the entirety of Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio? If it did, by all means roll me a few, will ya?
To answer your questions, I didn't see any of them in an "altered" state; however, it might have helped with Blow Up.
I sincerely doubt if weed would be enough for me to decipher The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie. I prefer satirical allegory.
Re: Glen or Glenda-Didn't see the remake, but the original was interesting.
And nothing less than a gun to my head would make me sit through any part of Benigni's Pinocchio again.
Love this kid. A Californian pot smoking hard pitching wonder. While Manny and Alex needed sterioids this silly kid gets high and throws smoking fastballs. Baseball needs to get back to some basics. The Babe would approve!
On Tim's memo pad with "DUMB THINGS I GOTTA DO" printed at the top is 'read the pot apology they gave me'. Now that it is done and lined through, let's move on.
Hopefully Tim had a good laugh reading all our comments
Um actually marijuana is not a chemical performance enhancer. It is a natural plant. Thats like saying you can't eat vegetables because they increase your energy and makes an unfair advantage to baseball players who don't eat vegetables.
Get your preconceived notions on pot out of your heard, and do some research on why its actually banned and you will see there clearly is NO reason.
I doubt that people would smoke pot if it had the same affect as,m say, carrots. Marijuana conatains a chemical (THC) that has certain properties: While many drugs clearly fall into the category of either stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogen, cannabis exhibits a mix of all properties, perhaps leaning the most towards hallucinogen or psychedelic properties, though with other effects quite pronounced as well.
There are rules. When you break them, you should be punished (drops microphone).
Tim should apologize for his actions. This is disturbing that all the kids who look up to him see him smoke pot and feel that it is ok for them to smoke pot. I don't care what other ballplayers are doing? Thats not the point, the point is he was caught smoking marijuana and he is a role model, weather he likes it or not. I don't care if his actions fits into the San Francisco scene! Again, this is not the point! He is a role model, he should act like one. I don't care if he's young and stupid, Thats not the point, the point is he is a role model and everyone has to live with their mistakes, and this is a huge mistake that will cost him dearly.
They should sentence him to 1000 hours of community service in helping children stay away from drugs. I am so disappointed in him. I know that all Giant fans don't care if he smokes weed or shoots up heroin as long as he pitches well for them. This is the sadness of sports today and the moral decay of the American way of life.
So if eating carrots was illegal, and a baseball player got caught eating carrots, he should apologize to all the kids and make sure that they never eat carrots? Just because something is illegal does not mean it is automatically wrong despite evidence to the contrary. If you knew anything about marijuana or had ever tried it, you would know that all of the things that the National Center for Pot Misinformation tells you about marijuana are bold-faced lies. Bad kids will be bad, regardless of whether they smoke weed. Lazy people will be lazy, regardless of whether they smoke marijuana. MILLIONS of responsible, successful adults CHOOSE to smoke marijuana every day. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, janitors, stockbrokers, authors, Republicans, Democrats, Muslims, Christians, baseball players. When alcohol was prohibited, organized crime stepped in and created an unsafe atmosphere that endangered the lives of people. Sound familiar? Prohibition didn't work once, and it's not working now.
The sad thing about this kind of story is that all the potheads out there try to be funny by talking about their trips. Sick.
My vote for best response...
Seriously, I think kids aren't as stupid as people think; the real message they get is that the fake apology and hypocrisy are 2 weapons they need to add to their arsenal...
Pot destroys memory cells and damages lungs. I have friends from high school who don't remember much about their lives 30 years ago and I have to tell them what went on. Some other people went from being honors students to mediocre slackers once they started smoking pot. They never fulfilled their potential. Anyone who thinks pot can't cause some very negative consequences is someone detached from reality.
PED? LOL...any idea what it does to your hand/eye coordination? Your intensity? Marijuana is many things, but it is NOT a performance enhancing drug..not even close. Unless the "performance" is eating Oreos.
You have made my point.
How did KD Lang's picture end up on your blog, Craig?
Nice one, there are actually some good points on here some of my friends just might find this worthwhile, I will send a link, thanks.
So would you consider lasik eye surgery performance enhancing...I mean they are altering their god given sight to enhance their performance right?......or what chewing tobacco.....athletes who chew tobacco usually feel some relaxing effect from it so that could be considered performance enhancing with your argument......or even a cup of coffee can be considered performance enhancing cause it stimulates your brain in ways that are not natural....saying pot is performance enhancing is completely retarded....I see were you are coming from but that is a total stretch....if your theory holds true than all athletes would ever get is bread and water because everything else they put in their body could be considered in one way or another as performance enhancing....where does the line get drawn and when can we end this foolish arguments about performance enhancers cause it an endless topic that is rather boring....I can really give a crap what someone puts into their body to help them play a "game"...if they want to destroy their bodies and minds to play a game then go right ahead...its your body destroy all you want for all I care..and don't give me the bs of them being role models for kids....kids should be raised by their parents...not by a bunch of stupid jocks...but personal responsibility is something lacking in today's society...but that is another rant altogether....and as for the integrity of "the game" leave that bs for someone else....everyone knows if you ain't cheating you ain't trying and people have been cheating "the game" ever since the game got started...holding on to some bs notion of keeping the game pure is for people who have no grasp of reality....cause at the end of the day you watch "the game" for entertainment and then go about the rest of "reality" whatever that may be to you....
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