Is caffeine OK?

To continue my notes from yesterday, I will have to acknowledge that now we have Vijay Singh's bout with IGF-1 to contend with.

I still have trouble pretending that this is an issue. Every professional, you would think, does all they can to improve his/her performance in their own field. Naturally there are limitations, normally involving actions that actually bring harm to others.  In the case of PEDs, the only harm, if any, is to the user himself.  Taking PED's does not guarantee anything for the user other than quicker healing and perhaps greater strength, but do not negatively affect other people.

An argument could be made that the users of PEDs are not the strongest or fastest or best. If they were, they would not need these supplements. So maybe the use of PEDs is really an attempt to level the playing field.

Whatever the case may be, let's stop pretending that we need purity in athletics.  If we extended our PED logic to the rest of our lives, we would be banning caffeine, sleeping pills, vitamin waters, even quality food, for those things merely allow us to do what we otherwise would not be able to do.

By the way: it has nothing to do with PEDs, but Pete Rose does belong in the hall of fame. He was the best, and nobody ever tried to throw a game that they had bet they would win.  Did his bets perhaps make him try harder than the others? Perhaps. Does that mean its bad to exert greater effort?