The headline today of a New York Times account of the spread of steroid use in baseball is: Steroid Report Depicts a 2-Player Domino Effect. In the pattern it describes, in the mid-1990s a Met clubhouse attendant supplied steroids to 2 Met players, Todd Hundley and David Segui. When those 2 were traded away from the Dodgers, much more than one or two simple lines of falling dominoes occurred. A small world network was activated.
Wikipedia’s article on small world networks includes this description: A small world network, where nodes represent people and edges connect people that know each other, captures the small world phenomenon of strangers being linked by a mutual acquaintance.
The following from the Times article describes a real world small world network. By studying the baseball disgrace in network effect terms, perhaps some understanding for catching offenders can be gained — and some stronger appreciation for the guys who resisted.
As Mitchell reported, it was Segui, in a rolling-stone existence as a journeyman on seven teams, who introduced seven players, as well as a trainer, to Radomski. That trainer then reportedly supplied performance-enhancing drugs to three more players, including Roger Clemens.
Hundley went West in a 1999 trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers and took Radomski’s telephone number with him, Radomski told Mitchell. Hundley gave the number to catcher Paul Lo Duca, who then put Radomski in touch with four more players, including pitchers Eric Gagné, who once converted a record 84 consecutive saves, and Kevin Brown, a six-time All-Star, the report said.
A New York Times Sports chart of players in the network reveals that network’s typical small world clusters and links.
The headline today of a New York Times account of the spread of steroid use in baseball is: Steroid Report Depicts a 2-Player Domino Effect. In the pattern it describes, in the mid-1990s a Met clubhouse attendant supplied steroids to 2 Met players, Todd Hundley and David Segui. When those 2 were traded away from [...]
