Schadenfreude, Anyone?

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in Busch Stadium sometime next season, when Coach McGwire tries to talk to a young hitter about his approach at the plate:

McGwire: Bobby, last night you went 0-for-4 with 4 strikeouts. The night before, you didn't hit the ball out of the infield. You're hitting .147 this season. Let's work on your fundamentals.

Bobby: F*ck you, Coach. I'm not here to talk about the past.

Charles Bronson's Take on the Steroids Issue

I just got done finishing an article that discusses Bronson Arroyo's view on the steroids issue. He admits to saying that his name is probably on the list (I would assume if he knows his name is on the list). He continues by saying that this was just the culture of sports and that andro made him feel like "he could jump and hit his head on the basketball rim". Now I don't know how tall he is but that is pretty cool that he could hit his head that high up. I could have hit my head on the basketball rim but that was when my friends and I were having a dunk contest on a 6 foot rim. I think this is a good reaction from a player. Just admit that you did it and move on...don't try to hide anything.

PS Bronson Arroyo is 6'4 so if he couldn't hit his head on the rim that would be pretty pathetic. He is also 194 so he needed to take something to bulk him up.

On Steroids

(I originally penned this in a private email to MJ, and then thought to put it here. As has been discussed publicly on this blog before, MJ and I have divergent reactions to the whole steroid scandal. Rather than just debate it with him on email until we're (a) blue in the face, and (b) cursing the other for not agreeing with our strongly-held positions...I thought I'd open it up here. MJ and I are probably the biggest baseball fans on this blog, and so maybe our views aren't representative of the general sports-following populace.)



I think how one reacts to the steroid scandal depends on answers to the following questions:

1. Is it ok for an athlete to take - for lack of a better term - "unnatural" products that artifically boost their ability to compete in their sport?

- If the answer is no, we stop here. The fan who thinks that steroids are ok in a vacuum will obviously not care about this issue in any capacity, except to get upset about the fact that it is an issue.

- if the answer is yes, we move on.

2. Is the steroid-taking athlete excused from culpability because the use of steroids was (or is) widespread?

- This is the meat of the issue for MJ, I think. It's the "if everyone else was doing it, why can't I?" defense. But it also reflects a question about the impact of a player's use on the game in general, i.e. if stats were inflated across the board, and if the foundation of the game for 10 or 15 years was in part reliant upon steroids, then the playing field was more or less evened by the widespread use.

3. Whatever the answer to #2, is the use of steroids a problem because of the statistical-historical impact on baseball?

- Those who say "no" often argue that players throughout history have sought illegal edges, and that we don't know what guys in past generations might have been taking, so we can't assume that they were clean and that it's only current players who are dirty.

- Those who say yes respond to the opposing argument generally with the notion that - unlike this era - there is not evidence to support widespread cheatng in past eras, and so it is unfair to assume that the sins of today are equivalent to the sins of yesterday.

4. Is the use of steroids excused because of management complicity?

- I don't know anyone who argues this outright, but many argue that players cannot be solely blamed for the steroid scandal. In any event, once you get to this question, you've already concluded that steroids is an issue and that someone must take the blame.

Amen!

Hear, hear! This statement is from Marvin Miller – a man I profoundly respect – who ran the Major League Baseball Players Association back when sports unions were legitimate agencies of advocacy and protection for their constituents and not one of the following:

(1) a buddy-buddy bacchanal of borderline negligent quid pro quo activities (NFLPA);
(2) a spineless cluster of idiots that have no voice (NBAPA); or
(3) a reflexively intransigent group that ends up bumbling away goodwill and legal (not to mention moral) high ground because Congress threatened to de-pants its leadership on C-Span (MLBPA).

If only Marvin Miller were in charge of the MLBPA, there would be far less union tolerance of grandstanding wankers in Congress like the “honorable” Elijah Cummings (D-MD), who wants to get a free photo-op with A-Rod.

Yes, Another Post About Steroids

With the news, broken by Selena Roberts of Sports Illustrated, that Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids back in 2003, baseball is left in a very difficult position. It was always assumed that Barry Bonds’s tainted homerun record would be whitewashed midway through the next decade by the no-doubt clean A-Rod. Unfortunately it appears that this will not be the case; baseball’s next homerun king (if he even gets that far) will have the same clouds of suspicion and guilt hanging over him as does the current monarch, Barry Bonds.

Of course, as with everything else that involves A-Rod, it is not as simple as that. After mountains of anecdotal evidence emerged that there was rampant performance-enhancing drug abuse in baseball, labor (Donald Fehr) and management (Bud Selig) agreed to use the 2003 season as a test case. If greater than 5% of all player PED tests came back positive, the 2004 season would be subject to mandatory drug testing.

Yesterday we learned that 104 players tested positive for the use of performance-enhancing drugs, representing roughly 14% of all MLB players tested in 2003. However, all positive test results from the 2003 PED survey would be kept confidential and none of the players who tested positive would have their identities revealed.

The fact that Alex Rodriguez’s name was disclosed – leaked, really – demonstrates the worst kind of ethical breach on the parts of four separate and distinct individual actors: Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association, the federal government which seized the results of this survey during the course of their misguided foray into this topic, and Selena Roberts of Sports Illustrated. Although the fact remains that A-Rod tested positive for PED’s and the choice to use drugs was his and his alone, the fallout from his decision should not rest squarely on his own shoulders.

As I’ve argued many times, baseball’s drug culture was condoned by management and team officials and swept under the rug by the entire media apparatus. I can’t accept a reality where various disparate entities are practically pushing the plunger of a juice-filled syringe into a player’s vein, but then standing in judgment of that player when – GASP! – it is revealed that he used steroids.

Only one player – A-Rod – had his name “outed” in yesterday’s report. If the report was supposed to be confidential and the only name revealed happens to be the highest-profile and most well-known player in the game, am I supposed to believe that there isn’t something more sinister, something more akin to persecution going on?

A-Rod’s baseball career is now tainted forevermore. Nothing he accomplishes will ever be viewed in the same way. And because he plays for the Yankees, the scrutiny and analysis will be overbearing, relentless, and never-ending. To say this story has become tedious would be the understatement of the century. I just wish I could understand why our society has such bloodlust when it comes to the rich and famous. We build them up, only to rejoice when we tear them down. It makes me sick.

Friday Quick Hits

1) The fallout from the Michael Phelps marijuana photograph seems excessive to me and makes us seem like extremely tight-assed nation. Although I can certainly understand why USA Swimming wants to discipline its members, I don’t exactly see why punishing someone for using performance-reducing drugs would really make that much sense. Nevertheless, as a governing body, they expect a certain level of appropriate conduct and that’s fine. And as much as I don’t agree with their decision, Kellogg’s has also chosen to punish Phelps by suspending their sponsorship agreement with him.

My general message to sponsors is that they shouldn’t be so fickle. Stand by your guy. He’s a good kid and the best Olympian in history. Because he didn’t commit a major crime, I’m pretty sure this will blow over in a few months and you’ll be sorry you stood on principle for something that most people just don’t care about. Trust me, cereal sales and public perception of your company will not suffer for this.

What really annoys me about this story is how some spotlight-hogging sheriff in South Carolina is talking about pressing charges. Are you kidding me? You weren’t there so you didn’t witness the crime. The crime itself was totally victimless. The act itself took place nearly three months ago. Is this really that important a charge to pursue? If Phelps weren’t a celebrity, would you really be interested in pursuing this? Good grief.

2) In continuing with the theme of hyper-aggressive law enforcement over petty crimes, I’ll let the far more eloquent William C. Rhoden of the New York Times speak for me. And make no mistake about it, I agree with every word he writes here.

3) I watched the second half of the Lakers-Celtics game on TNT last night and saw Kevin Garnett getting into Lamar Odom’s face. It reminded me of last year, when Garnett suddenly acquired the swagger of a player playing on a good team and suddenly had a foul word or gesture for everyone he played against. Think back to the playoffs if you need to refresh your memory: the throat-slashing, the dirty fouls, the cries of “fucking faggot” to opposing players and fans.

What happened to the KG of old? The guy that was fan-friendly and gave off an aura of being pleasant seems to have been replaced by a cocky, trash-talking bully. ESPN The Magazine writer Chris Broussard tackled this issue late last month and I’m glad at least someone in the mainstream media has decided to poke a stick at the formerly likeable but now loathsome Garnett.

(Note: the KG article is for ESPN Insiders. I don’t know if this link will work or not. If anyone wants to read it, email me and I’ll send it along)

4) Finally, to end on a positive note, pitchers and catchers report to spring training a week from today. Baseball season can’t come soon enough. I really can’t wait!

Oakland A's To World: We Love To Juice & We Don't Care Who Knows About It!

Talk about MLB teams not getting the message: the Oakland A’s have re-hired Bobby Alejo as their strength and conditioning coach. Alejo previously held the same post with the A’s from 1993-2001.

All along, I’ve been arguing that the players have unfairly borne the brunt of fan, media, and management criticism over the steroids issue when, in fact, all of those aforementioned actors deserved their fair share of the blame.

By hiring Bobby Alejo, more famously known as the personal trainer for Jason Giambi, the Oakland A’s are basically saying “eh, who cares” to the whole issue. I would bet just about anything that Commissioner Bud Selig doesn’t say a word about this hiring and that the whole issue is forgotten in just a few days’ time.

I grant that Bobby Alejo was not named in the Mitchell report. I grant that Alejo’s name did not surface in any of the BALCO grand jury testimony. But I refuse to believe that a personal trainer of any reputation wouldn’t have known that his main client – Jason Giambi – was using performance enhancing drugs. I refuse to believe that the other players in his charge that were on the A’s during this era – Mark McGwire, chief among them – used steroids without his knowing about it.

I am not offended by steroid use in baseball. I am offended by the hypocrisy and the clear double-standards that exist surrounding the steroids issue. The Oakland A’s shouldn’t have been allowed to bring back a guy that had even passing knowledge of what was going on in the A’s team gym.

Sadly, this is more of the same silence from Bud and MLB. It’s why I don’t believe the steroids era is truly over, it’s just been swept under the rug.

Judge Curt Schilling

Curt Schilling is entitled to his opinion. And, in accordance with the right to share his opinion, he shares it (and with great frequency and gusto, I might add).

Although he’s a member of the Red Sox, I actually don’t hate Curt Schilling. I’ve had the pleasure of personally corresponding with him and he’s not only a pleasant guy but he understands the fan perspective and “gets” how much baseball means to those of us that follow it passionately.

Having said all that, it bugs me when he makes statements like these. Roger Clemens should have to give back his four Cy Young Awards if he’s found “guilty” of the allegations proffered in the Mitchell Report? Who is to say that the four runners-up were also drug free? In fact, this very discussion highlights what was so wrong about the Mitchell Report’s release of names. It effectively damns the few and makes all others seem less culpable by contrast. Schilling is making a judgment on Clemens based on his inclusion in the report. As if that report wasn’t conflicted enough? Now he’s rushing out to implicitly state that no one else on the list of Cy Young finalists was compromised by PED’s?

Do I believe that Roger Clemens used PED’s? Of course. I’ve said all along that I believe most, if not all, baseball players used some form of enhancement simply because it was encouraged by management and because the incentives to do so were so great. Now, I’d like to ask Curt Schilling a question:

Did his performance receive a boost between 2000 and 2001 and again between 2003 and 2004? Because strictly looking at his statistics from 2000-2001 and 2003-2004, I see huge jumps in performance that make me jump to conclusions…

Curt, it’s best to not run your mouth about steroids: Judge not that ye be not judged. Or did you forget your bible-thumping values already?

Oh Frabjous Day!

Gene Wojciechowski writes of the indictment of Barry Bonds on federal perjury charges: "What a dismal day for baseball."

I respectfully disagree. This is a good day for baseball. The pervasive influence of steroids in baseball has been well-documented, with Bonds as the biggest perceived culprit and the great white whale of the drive to rid the sport of performance-enhancing drugs. Catching Barry - if he has been caught, i.e. if he's convicted - is a giant statement and victory for those of us who love the game and hate how it's been tainted by the steroid scandal.

Will this indictment end the use of steroids in baseball? No. But it feels really good to know that perhaps the most arrogant and egregious cheater could be looking at serious and real penalties for his crimes - against our judicial system, if not against our national pastime.

Vengeance ≠Justice

I’m not one to put too much faith in conspiracy theories – although to dismiss all such theories entirely is an act of closed-mindedness – but I have to say that I can’t help but wonder if the commissioner’s office doesn’t have it in for the New York Yankees.

When this whole steroids investigation started, I objected to Bud Selig’s choice of Senator George Mitchell. Further, when the commissioner’s office leaked Jason Giambi’s confidential test results and then blackmailed Giambi into cooperating with the Mitchell investigation, I cried foul. To me, both acts appear orchestrated to agitate or harm the Yankees. Although one could say that they merely demonstrate Selig’s lack of tact and propriety, it’s hard to dismiss these two events altogether.

In my estimation the steroids investigation has been set up as a giant spider-web meant to ensnare Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi. Any “collateral damage” added to the body count would provide Major League Baseball with the welcome appearance of getting tough on the issue but would ultimately not deter Selig and Mitchell from their top two prizes.

Last week, Gary Sheffield spoke on the record with HBO’s “Real Sports.” In that interview, he admitted to using both “the Clear” and “the Cream”, products that have been identified as performance-enhancing drugs and on the Major League list of banned substances (Section 2(B)42). Although Sheffield asserts that “steroids [are] something you shoot in your butt” the fact remains that Sheffield corroborated his own grand jury testimony that he used products that are designated as steroids (irrespective of how they are taken).

Why is it that Giambi’s translucent reference to steroids, “I was wrong for doing that stuff,” warrants him being hauled into the commissioner’s office while Sheffield’s blatant admission of the same offense merits not even an eyebrow-raising by the media, let alone the MLB powers that be? Is Selig that preoccupied with Barry Bonds’s imminent record-setting homerun that he can’t tap Senator Mitchell for another blackmail session?

That’s more or less the point here: Selig is so fixated on catching Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi – the two most-prominent baseball players discussed in “Game of Shadows” – that he seems to be totally disinterested in meting out unprejudiced justice.

I hate Barry Bonds. But I hope he hits his homeruns while Selig is in attendance today and tomorrow. Those two criminals deserve eachother.

Five Words I Never Thought I'd Say

"Hats off to Frank Thomas."

Not just because of hitting his 500th home run - which in and of itself is a tremendous milestone - but for what he said afterward:

"It means a lot to me, because I did it the right way, and I busted my butt since college and I've always worked hard in that weight room to be strong, and I'm a big guy and I've been blessed with this talent. So I could care less about what others have done. I know that what it took for me to get to 500 home runs - it was a lot of work."

Not as forceful as I would have liked - but I have been waiting for a statement like that from a guy like Thomas (or Griffey or Thome) for years. I read Thomas' words to be a subtle but still strong repudiation of steroids. Thomas came up to the majors as a big guy, always hit for power, and although we cannot be certain, I'm of the opinion that he is simply a naturally gifted power hitter who never took the juice. Guys like that - whose phenomenal numbers are cheapened by the likes of Bonds and Big Mac - are the ones who should be speaking out, advocating testing and harsh punishments for those who try and cheat. It is only through the leadership of players who understand why baseball needs to be rid of steroids that the problem can be solved in spite of Bud Selig, Donald Fehr, Barry Bonds, and all the others who have perpetuated this scandal.

When he played for the White Sox, I absolutely detested Big Frank. I still hate him, actually. But I respect him a whole lot more.

Way to go, Frank - for reaching 500, and for doing it the right way.

More Info on the Insanity of Ben Johnson

I wrote back in December how Ben Johnson claims that Carl Lewis got him to drink a tainted beer, causing Ben Johnson to lose his 1988 gold medal. I didn't have the time in December to fully report on Ben Johnson and his insanity. You see, my Canadian friend told me about how when he lived up in Toronto, he went to this track near his college and saw Ben Johnson who was acting as trainer/coach for Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona. But it wasn’t just the two of them, they also had security guys in jumpsuits and suspiciously large fanny packs… and my friend sincerely believes each fanny pack contained a firearm. I didn’t believe him but wikipedia does at least corroborate that Ben Johnson “also briefly acted as trainer for Diego Maradona in 1987.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Johnson_%28sprinter%29

Then, I found out even more weird things about Ben Johnson – The 1990s apparently were not very kind to Ben Johnson. According to wikipedia at this moment, “Ben Johnson spent much of the latter part of the 1990's living downstairs in the house he shared with his mother and sister. He spent his leisure time reading, watching movies and Roadrunner cartoons, and taking his mother to church.”

After getting sick of watching Roadrunner cartoons, Ben Johnson apparently found another experience in training another person to fail his drug test:
“In 1999 Johnson made headlines again when it was revealed that he had been hired by Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi to act as a soccer coach for his son, Al-Saadi Qadhafi, who aspired to join an Italian soccer club. Al-Saadi ultimately did join an Italian team but was sacked after one game when he failed a drugs test. Johnson's publicist in Canada had predicted in The Globe and Mail that his training of the young Gadhafi would earn Johnson a Nobel Peace Prize.”

What does Ben Johnson do now you ask? Well, he has the Ben Johnson Collection – where Ben Johnson sells clothing and supplements that you can’t get anywhere else. You also can email him because as he says, “I teach people how to run.” He also can be hired for “Performance testing and evaluation.”-http://www.benjohnsoncollection.com/home.php (click on the Services link). I’m guessing, that means he teaches you how to cheat without getting caught. Or so he hopes!

My only question is why Jose Canseco hasn't opened his own website where he can be hired for "Performance testing and evaluation."