Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

mystic_trev

Well done PN.......you'll be buying a house next!

purch

chewmylegoff wrote: »

surely baseball must eclipse tennis and golf? there are dozens of players on contracts with a value in the hundreds of millions of $. (although obviously if you're the best at tennis or golf then you make a killing, but the money doesn't go far down the chain).

Baseball is another example of a sport that had to be dragged screaming and kicking into the realisation that too many of it's superstars were using drugs.

I remember the reaction when Mark McGwire admitted using creatine, which wasn't a banned substance in Baseball at the time even though in most Sports it was, most sportswriters and players didn't really seem to consider it a problem.

Throughout that period in the game, (1990's to mid 2000's strangely similar to the period in cycling where it got out of control) it was clear that many players were taking performance enhancing drugs, players were getting bigger and bigger and hitters (batters) were setting records every year........the Home Run Record had been owned by Babe Ruth since 1927 at 60, until Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961 (in more games 161 to 154), and then McGwire and Sammy Sosa were suddenly hitting 70 and 68 HR's every year, until Barry Bonds finally surpassed them all with 73 in 2001.

It took the BALCO scandal, and Bonds being charged with obstruction of justice and perjury after telling a Grand Jury that he had never taken steroids for the whole matter to finally come to a head, and nowadays Baseball is a much cleaner sport, players are not so huge and 50 HR's are considered a great season, rather than the norm as it had become.

Hopefully the exposure of a sporting "great" like Armstrong will do the same for cycling as the McGwire/Bonds exposure did for Baseball.

PasturesNew

They're asking for refs.... thing is, it's been so long and everybody's moved on, not sure who to use/if I can track them down.

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

They're asking for refs.... thing is, it's been so long and everybody's moved on, not sure who to use/if I can track them down.

Well I'm sure if you are looking for a personal reference there are lots of NP who would help

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

Well I'm sure if you are looking for a personal reference there are lots of NP who would help

They've not actually specified a type.....

lostinrates

Didn't you help one ex regular get paid for his writing?

Nikkster

I'm assuming they know when you last had an employer? Would think at least one personal ref would be fine?

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

Didn't you help one ex regular get paid for his writing?

Well .... not sure/really. If you mean the one who wrote the blog, met a girl, left MSE ... maybe, maybe not. It's all a bit 'tenuous'.

I'm lacking in what employers would call "good, proper, work refs".

Looking back in the past 15 years:

98: No trace, last time I found him he'd been to India and the company had specifically said no refs were to be given for old employments at previous companies.
99: Could track this one down - work/personal as I worked where she was a Director and we remained friends until she got a bloke and was never available any more (after 2008).
00-01: Contracting - bit of a long time ago to call on a contract ref from 12 years ago
01-02: Got made redundant, company's completely changed, all new staff. Wouldn't have records/remember me.
03-04: Could track down a guy I worked for for 15 months, but he's a bit of a funny geezer so could be unreliable and simply 'not bother'; he refused me permission to even have the statutory Employee Insurance document on the wall
05: Bloke I was doing self-employed work for did a runner, never paid me, last heard of somewhere in the US
06: Worked for 6 months - got made redundant, company sold, boss/Director teamed up with another 2-3 people and works for another company now, never replied to the last ref I requested.
07-08: Couple of temp bookings, nobody'd remember me, they probably don't keep records that long.
08-09: Couple of private contracts gleaned from the temping work - companies have been sold/bought out, all new staff. Nobody'd remember me.
10-12: Been "me doing my thing".

PasturesNew

99% of the companies simply don't exist any more. The people have moved locations, changed jobs, can't be found. .... and then it all starts to get a bit in the dim and distant past.

I did 'help' fc123 over some stuff.... not much; probably more motivational kick up the butt for her to sort something out rather than being actually useful.

chewmylegoff

Wheezy wrote: »

I'm in!



Fair enough...i'll bring some nice Belgian beers for the posher NP's and cheap lager for chewie. Can you just make sure the freezer is sufficiently stocked with frozen kebabs?

well done, PN :T

but she already said she was getting some Stella in