Sportsocracy - 7th Edition - Tarnished careers and successful aftermaths

If you read the last edition (edition 6 - And if you did not see it scroll to the bottom of the right hand column and find Blog History and click on March), you will notice I rounded off with the mis-guided and drug mis-using baseball soul that is Barry Bonds.

This brought forward my own perceptions of some sports people and brought my views of sports people who rip apart their own careers to the forefront of my thoughts.

Barry Bonds career is obviously tarnished due to him bending the rules to gain an advantage via illegal use of substances, thus destroying his long career. This includes everything he had accomplished, baseball records and personal gains through the sport. Now at 42 his name has been soiled with his scandalous dwellings into drug use which helped him become successful.

This made me think he is not the only sports person who has done this. There have been many sports persons who have made mistakes in their careers by doing something which has overshadowed what they have accomplished and even some wrecking what they had achieved by being exposed as cheats.

Here are a select few : -

Marion Jones - Multiple gold medalist in the woman's 100 and 200 metres, prosperous athlete, seemed to be the consummate role model for young girls wanting to become athletes. She tarnished her career by being exposed as a drugs cheat, had her Olympic medals taken off her and now banned. It is yet to be seen what Marian will do next with her next career step.

( for more click this - http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?scope=all&tab=all&recipe=all&q=marion+jones+drugs

)

Dwaine Chambers - A very good 100metre sprinter, had the world at his feet possibly and was in the form of his life. He Owned up to taking drugs and served a 2 year ban from athletics but continuously trained and even tried to take up American Football in the NFL Europe. He has had previous records revoked and even medals taken off him. He is currently banned from taking part at any Olympic or World championship outdoor event, but he is hoping to get another chance. He is now focusing on becoming a Rugby star with Castleford Tigers. He is currently serving a trial period with the tigers and we are yet to see if this works out and he becomes a true success for him.

(( for more click this - http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?uri=%2F&scope=all&go=toolbar&q=dwaine+chambers+drugs

)

Adrian Mutu - Superb Romanian striker, brilliant possibly the best player Romania had had for years. He was plying his trade at one of the biggest clubs in the spotlight, Chelsea, and he seemed to be doing very well until he was outed as a cocaine user. He served an 8 month ban for his drug use and then went on to move to another team, a team which was about to be involved in turmoil, Juventus, and the match fixing scandal. He is still playing football professionally for Fiorentina and appearing for the Romanian national team.

(( for more click this -

http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?scope=all&tab=all&recipe=all&q=adrian+mutu+drugs)

Martina Hingis - Again another cocaine scandal. Martina Hingis a wonderful young tennis star, she was the youngest ever Tennis women's world number 1 at 16 years of age. It was revealed in November last year that Hingis had tested positive for cocaine. Martina issued her plee of innocence and also retired at the age of 27 on the grounds of health problems and her age. It is yet to be seen what Martina does with her career she is still very young and has had an influence in Tennis which is now sadly tarnished.

(( for more click this -

http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?scope=all&tab=all&recipe=all&q=martina+hingis+drugs)

Other select few 'tarnishers' and cheats include - Zinedine Zidane for his famous world cup final headbutt on Italian Defender Marco Materazzi, Maradonas drug abuse throughout his career peaking at the 1994 Olympics where he was under the influence whilst playing and finally the legendary George Best who retired professional football in his late 20's due to the party boy lifestyle taking over his life.

Anyway as per usual your voice of opinion is gladly accepted try and comment below this post by clicking the COMMENT link its free, simple to use and anonymous.

Sportsocracy - 6th Edition - Underdog shocking the tennis world and a mixed bag of sports content.

What a week this has been. Kicking off with Tennis of all sports. I am not a massive Tennis fan but when it comes to upsets I cannot refuse but to take note. Rodger Federer, the winning machine, who has won literally everything mens singles Tennis has to offer, went crashing out of yet another tournament.

The Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells was centre stage as un-seeded American, Mardy Fish, shook the Tennis world as he beat the world number one in straight sets with Fish disposing of Federer inside 70 minutes.

Fish who sits 97 places below the world number 1 in the ATP Rankings comfortably won the 22nd of March semi final clash with a 6-2, 6-3 victory. The only thing is Fish went onto face third seed Novak Djokovic in the final, and Djokovic beat the American in 2 sets to 1. (6-2, 5-7, 6-3)

All I can say well done to Mardy Fish. Now thats something to tell the grand children about. The question I ask to you all is the Fed express running out of steam? Is Rodger Federer in the middle of a career crisis? Or is this the calming before the storm, the press said Federer has been suffering with Illness will there be a Federer backlash?.

Well all the best to a Federer recovery, but Mardys win will go down in history as a major upset and just for the record, Mardy Fish faced 5 top seeds and disposed of them before facing Djokovic, now thats impressive.

In other sporting territories, Football, Liverpool got hammered 3-0 by Manchester United which saw Liverpool midfielder, Javier Mascherano sent of for questioning the referee, Steve Bennett. Bennett gave Javier his second yellow and a very angry Mascherano was given his marching orders.

The Man United goals coming from a Wes Brown header, a Ronaldo Header with questionable goalkeeping from Reina but a good finish for the third goal from Nani sealed the 3 points for Fergies side.

The match was not the greatest for Liverpool goalkeeper Jose "Pepe" Reina whos goalkeeping was considerably pinpointed in the match as two of the Man United goals seemed to be via his mistakes. Pepe is a talented goakeeper and i'm sure he will be back with a few clean sheets before the end of the season.

Finally I can congratulate Newcastle United, who served up a Craven Cottage roast with a solid 2-0 victory over Fulham. The goals coming from a text book Viduka turn and right footed shot and the second coming from an even more aspirational finish from Captain Michael Owen, slotting home and wrapping up Kevin Keegans first 3 points in his short reign.

Newcastle now sit at 13th in the premiership table. Come on the Toon and dare I say it they are too good and too big to go down, lets hope this is a fight back from the Magpies. What views do you Toons fans have on this? Do you think relegation is possible for Newcastle?

And finally -

Golf - Australia's Geoff Ogilvy held his nerve to win the WGC-CA Championship in Miami by one stroke, bringing Tiger Woods's remarkable winning streak to an end. (from bbc website)

Olympics - The Olympic torch has been lit at a ceremony in Greece that was briefly disrupted by pro-Tibet activists. Protesters from media rights group Reporters Without Borders broke through the cordon of 1,000 police officers in Olympia as China's envoy spoke. (from bbc website)

Signing off with some USA sport news and the biggest sports story in the USA right now regards Major League Baseball star, Barry Bonds.

The big man who hits a ton under the influence and without? Is struggling to find a team, and with two weeks remaining until the new Major League Baseball season kicks off will a team coming running to the 43 year old for his assistance?

Bonds, who was a record breaker when he beat legendary hitter Hank Aaron's home run record was gradually shouted down by fans and the American sports world, who all claimed foul play that Bonds took performance enhancing drugs and was under the influence throughout his career.

Should this guy even deserve another shot in the Major League? Are drugs ruining all sports not just Baseball?

Your opinion is vital, give up your opinion on anything said in todays edition and I will reply to as many as possible. Voice your views.