Another twist to the supplement/steroid controversy (1 Viewer)

[Brian Perry]

In a recent story about the trade of Billy Koch from the A's to the White Sox, I was struck by the following:

Here’s Koch’s story on why he throws 100 miles an hour now when he never did before: Koch blew out his right elbow in 1997 and required Tommy John surgery. When Dr. James Andrews took the tendon from Koch’s left wrist and reattached it in his right elbow, Koch said his tendon was so long that Andrews "was able to get an extra loop out of it," making it stronger. After Koch reached the majors in 1999, he faced Detroit on May 18 and fired a pitch that was clocked at 101.

I had never before contemplated the possibility that a player (in this case unknowingly) could actually improve his physiology in such a manner to boost his performance. Would such surgeries, in theory, be frowned upon by MLB? If an NBA player could increase his vertical jump by 6 inches with some kind of magical tendon surgery, should that be allowed?

Just food for thought.

 

[Leila Dougan]

On a similar note, I know there has been controversy over people who have had their leg(s) amputated and now wear prostethic aids participating in sports. It seems that runners who use artificial limbs specifically designed for running actually seem to do better than their natural-legged counterparts. Obviously it still takes a lot of training but they've found that the light, yet sturdy metals, springs, and overall design of the prosthetic device actually functions more efficiently than a human foot/leg. I've heard of instances where college athletes with prosthetic devices were not allowed (or being considered to not be allowed) to compete against people with human legs.

I don't have any further information, that's pretty much all I can remember from an article I read, but that's certainly more food for thought.

 

[Bill Harada]

We can rebuild him. We have the technology...Better than he was before. Better...Stronger...Faster
And it doesn't even take $6M anymore.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

I once read an article about laser eye surgery. However, this type of surgery, instead of reshaping your cornea to your eyeglass prescription, would use a computer to reshape it to exactly fit your retina. This means you would have better than human vision... about the equivilent of a fox the article said.

The article closed by stating that the military and some professional sports teams were interested in the procedure.

 

[Max Leung]

*tasteless remark about wrist exercises suppressed*