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Thread: Never Ending Wave Of Bullshit!
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02-22-2009, 04:43 PM #1
Never Ending Wave Of Bullshit!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/ny...ef=othersports
After Bodybuilder’s Death, Asking Why
By ALAN FEUER
Published: February 16, 2009
When Joseph V. Baglio, a Staten Island bodybuilder, died two years ago of heart failure at a power lifters’ meeting in Ohio, it seemed at first to be a tragic, though not entirely unexpected, event. Mr. Baglio (known to all as Joey Bags) was, after all, not only in his 40s, a rather ripe age for the sport; he had also received a heart transplant, just the sort of medical intrusion that would have kept most other gym rats distant from their weights.
Dr. Richard Lucente has been charged with prescribing steroids blamed for Mr. Baglio’s death at age 41.
A friend in the bodybuilding circuit said he was shocked that Mr. Baglio continued competing even after receiving a heart transplant.
The bodybuilding blogs, nonetheless, went wild with the news as weight men from around the country mourned his sudden death. There were typical posts: “R.I.P. Joe Baglio!” and “Joe was an awesome guy.” But there were cynical posts as well: “I wonder how many drugs he was on?” and “Another one bites the dust.”
The cynical side of things seemed partly confirmed last week when the authorities in Brooklyn announced the indictment of Dr. Richard Lucente, a Staten Island physician, who was charged with illegally prescribing steroids to Mr. Baglio and to more than 200 other clients between 2005 and 2007. Dr. Lucente, along with a pharmacy in Brooklyn, was accused, among other things, of reckless endangerment for having given the dose of steroids to Mr. Baglio that prosecutors said eventually caused his death, at age 41.
For nearly two years now, that death has been causing consternation to friends and family and to Mr. Baglio’s colleagues on the bodybuilding circuit. They have been left to wonder why this gentle, giant man — an athlete, a dog lover, an electrician — had turned to steroids when they so obviously were damaging to his health.
“Joe started training at my Staten Island Bodybuilding Club in the mid-1980s,” said Mario Strong, a friend. “He had a thin build and was the last one you’d ever expect to become a mass monster. But he had a drive in his heart to succeed and took the sport of bodybuilding to an extreme. Sadly, he got lost in the anabolic cloud and never found his way out.”
Mr. Baglio’s story would seem to have extra poignancy after the news last week that Alex Rodriguez, the New York Yankees’ star third baseman, had taken steroids while playing with the Texas Rangers in 2003. The echoes here were as easily heard as the differences: Mr. Rodriguez had arguably taken drugs under pressure to protect a multimillion-dollar contract. Joe Baglio had taken drugs for a ripped torso and some minor-league bodybuilding trophies.
“I knew he was taking them,” said Debra Baglio, his widow, who lives on Staten Island. “After the heart transplant, I wasn’t sure what was going down, but, yeah, he did it before. Of course you don’t want him to do it, but it’s not like I could say much. It’s like anything else. You always think you know what’s for the best.”
Worst of all for Ms. Baglio is that her husband’s name is now connected in the public’s mind exclusively with steroids — a regrettable obsession but a fraction of his life. People don’t know, she said, that he was a baseball fan (of the New York Mets) and was almost comically in love with his pet St. Bernard, which he named Minnesota for his favorite football team, the Minnesota Vikings. In 2001, she said, he and Minnesota took first place in a pet-owner look-a-like contest at the Staten Island Pooch Parade at Clove Lakes Park.
Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Baglio moved to Staten Island with his family as a toddler. He earned an associate’s degree and spent nearly 20 years as a union electrician working with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 3, in Queens.
He had always been a gym rat but started bodybuilding seriously in the mid-1980s at gyms in Staten Island, Brooklyn and New Jersey. By the latter part of the decade, he had started to compete, traveling the region for meets on what is known as the National Physique Committee’s junior circuit.
He didn’t do too poorly at them. In 1999, for example, Mr. Baglio placed eighth in the superheavyweight class of the committee’s Junior National Championships. Three years later, he took first place in the heavyweight division. Along the way, however, his formerly narrow frame became so enormously muscular that some of his colleagues began to have doubts.
“Joe’s physique took on unnatural proportions,” Mr. Strong recalled. “Only through chemical means could you force the body into those kinds of massive changes.”
Mr. Strong said that steroids were virtually unheard of when he first opened his Staten Island gym in 1976. “Even though my original gym’s members knew they existed, it was rarely discussed,” he said.
By the 1980s, however, the tide began to turn, and “the anabolic storm,” as he put it, “became a gale-force storm that still rages on today.”
Among the accusations facing Dr. Lucente, who has pleaded not guilty, is that, according to medical documents, he prescribed steroids to Mr. Baglio despite the fact he should have known they could be damaging to the heart.
Dr. Lucente’s lawyer, John Meringolo, said on Friday that Dr. Lucente was not responsible for Mr. Baglio’s death. He also said that he had subpoenaed the autopsy report from Columbus, Ohio, adding that “it’s categorically false” that Mr. Baglio died because of Dr. Lucente’s prescriptions.
Mr. Strong, for one, remembers being shocked that Mr. Baglio continued competing even after the transplant, which he had in the fall of 2005. When he saw Mr. Baglio at a competition in Manhattan in November 2006, he was stunned.
“Not in a million years would I ever think that Joe would be able to return to a physique competition,” he said.
In 2007, Mr. Baglio flew to Columbus to compete at a meet with his old friend Leon Brown. Mr. Brown recalled how Mr. Baglio complained of feeling ill. Mr. Brown attended a dinner with his colleagues that night but called Mr. Baglio from the banquet hall. His condition had gotten worse. Mr. Brown took his friend to the Ohio State University Medical Center and stayed with him there from 9 p.m. until 3 the following morning. Later that day, Mr. Baglio died.
“He was a good man with a kind soul and a soft heart,” Mr. Brown said. “He was the kind of friend who would give you anything he had.”
Mr. Brown still trains and, at 61, is of the old school. He can bench-press 400 pounds and worries about the younger generation of lifters, who he says have substituted drugs for grit and sweat. He always says the same thing to “the kids” who corner him in the gym and marvel at his old man’s giant body.
“What are you?” they ask. “I’m a guy on 35 years of straight training,” he says.
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02-22-2009, 05:18 PM #2
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ALAN FEUER knows not of what he speaks
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02-22-2009, 06:42 PM #3
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Chop the head of ALAN FEUER
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02-22-2009, 11:24 PM #4
I'm sure this Mr. Brown is doing some sort of cycle as well. He tells the kids he's be "on training for 35 years" what a moron..
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02-22-2009, 11:39 PM #5
I feel bad for Dr. Richard Lucente... Each time a doctor gets popped for writing scripts it becomes harder for people who need the medication to find a willing doctor!
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02-23-2009, 07:46 AM #6
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What the fuck was he doing powerlifting after a god damn heart transplant!!!!? Powerlifting puts a huge amount of stress on your heart.. Fuck, he was basically competing with somebody elses heart.. A heart that has never worked that hard it's it's life.. Maybe even an old man or a female heart..
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02-23-2009, 08:44 AM #7
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As scary as they try to make steroids sound here, you would have thought they would have at least screamed about the guy having roid rage....
I guess the steroids aren't as bad as they think because from their own mouth they say this:
“He was a good man with a kind soul and a soft heart,” Mr. Brown said. “He was the kind of friend who would give you anything he had.”
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02-23-2009, 09:15 AM #8
Why did he need the heart transplant to begin with? He had 20 years of training and who knows how many years of AAS use. What ruined his first heart? That issue was skirted by you, Dave. Not fair reporting. Did he have an enlarged heart from training + heavy AAS use????
Let's not be purposefully ignorant. AAS do have side effects and the heart is one potential target. Remember Don Youngblood, or that Arnold required a heart valve replacement, etc.
I'm not anti AAS. I use. I do heavy cycles. But I don't feel bullet proof or believe that there won't be potential consequences........
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02-23-2009, 09:43 AM #9
I cant speak on the Youngblood issue but Arnold had said that it was not because of the use of AAS and his condition was hereditary and that he was taking care of it before it became an issue. I don't know how forthcoming he was in his assessment but you can only go on what he tells you.
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02-23-2009, 09:57 AM #10
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02-23-2009, 10:06 AM #11
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02-23-2009, 11:32 AM #12
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02-23-2009, 01:12 PM #13
Hardly a moron!! Leon was one of the greats in his day and had one hell of a freaky back to boot. And chances are he's been training longer than 35 years, as he was competing in the IFBB Universe back in the early 70s.
If some kid asks me what I'm using and said kid has only a few months under his training belt I'm not about to tell him anything regarding AAS. Instead I'll talk about nutrition, years training etc as that's what has built every great physique and drugs just take a great physique and move it to the next level, but most kids are only looking for magic "pixie dust" as they think with AAS they'll look like Ronnie, Arnold etc without the hard work.
Next kid that asks you what AAS you use ask them how much protein they get in a day, and I'll bet 90% or more will look like dear caught in the headlights.
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02-23-2009, 01:27 PM #14
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its obvious, steroids are deadly!! wham baam
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