Lance Armstrong

[Indy]

Yup.

[Professor]

[The Comrade]

[Professor]

[The Comrade]

which is against the rules BTW.

people don't want "better performances". if everyone was on steroids the performances would be no different than they are now since everyone would be at a comparable level. what people want is a hero, which is what cheaters represent until they're caught. lance armstrong touched off the david v goliath portion of our empathy machine. 7 titles, and he beat cancer. the sammy sosas and the mark mcguires because they seemed unstoppable at the bat. they were outliers and gods in their sports. that's what made them attractive. haven't you noticed the backlash when it comes out that these people were cheating? it's because it ruins the illusion built up around these people. you find out that, no, they aren't amazing at their sport and a once in a life time player, they're just cheating.

[Indy]

Well there's a few who didn't and got hosed as it was.

Example: Chicago White Sox player Frank Thomas.

In 2000 he lost out MVP to Jason Giambi, finishing second. Giambi was juicing--Thomas was not (which if you think about now is completely rare). He was just a natural talent.

Now THAT sucks.

[Professor]

Perhaps Comrade is right.

I'm basing my opinion on Group B rallying, back in the 80s. Basically, you could make your car as fast as you wanted, no rules. Everyone did it, and rallying went from a Swedish sport into the second most-popular form of motorsports in the world in the span of a few years.

Then, some drivers got killed because they couldn't handle the speeds. And a few cars went into crowds because the organizers let crowds stand on the side of the road where cars were flying by at 140mph.

All of a sudden, they outlawed the whole thing. Now, few people watch rallying. We watched because these were the fastest things that man could build.

[Gremlin]

Ooo, look, shiny object!

[NAB]