I am going light on the steroids today, even though it seems like every other media outlet is not going light on the steroids. It seems everyone wants to opine on the steroid scandal in baseball, with scandal being defined as A-Rod tested positive while 103 other names were not released. Most of the media is taking great pleasure in being morally horrified in the revelation that A-Rod took steroids, and why would they not, they have a plentiful supply of donuts in the office and the stories write themselves!
1. Jayson Stark thinks that A-Rod is like "Lost" in that more information reveals more questions that need answered.
But there are other important areas where A-Rod failed the credibility test Tuesday.
Could it be that he has lied before and probably would do so again? Everyone wants to be the one to catch A-Rod's new lies. It's like a fun little journalistic game.
For instance, try to glue all these quotations together into one coherent, consistent thought:
• He said at one point that whatever he took, whatever his cousin was injecting into his body, he "didn't think they were steroids."
• But he was still so terrified of anyone finding out, it was "one of those things you try not to share with anyone."
• For "all these years," he said at another point, "I really didn't think I did anything wrong."
• Yet just minutes later, he said: "I knew I wasn't taking Tic Tacs. I knew it was something that could perhaps be wrong."
Sure, taken out of the context of the larger discussion, these quotes do seem to make little sense. Anyone who attempts to think it through for a few minutes can figure out what A-Rod was saying.
-A-Rod knew what he was injecting was not steroids, but he never said they were not PED's or any other type of drug that could enhance his performance on the baseball field. My understanding is there is a difference in steroids and PED's. (I use steroids as a generic word, so please excuse me confusing everyone, because I know there is a difference, I am just too lazy to type anything else.)
-A-Rod probably did not want anyone to find out because he knew what he was taking was not legal or at least would be seen in a positive light by the public.
-A-Rod may not have thought he did anything wrong because, as he said before, the culture of baseball at the time seemed to encourage this type of behavior. If you look at it this way, this quote does seem to make some sense. The culture, and players on his team, encouraged it so he thought he was just keeping up with the rest of the league.
-A-Rod knew he was taking a banned substance and that he should not be taking it though. These quotes make sense if you take five minutes to compare them to what A-Rod has said previously. It seems like every baseball columnist wants to be the lead story on Inside Edition nowadays.
Wallace Matthews sounds like he is threatening A-Rod with his column title, "A-Rod should learn what real suffering is."
Hooton is a man who has suffered the true consequences of steroid abuse, having lost his 17-year-old son, Taylor, to a suicide blamed on steroid-induced depression.
And clearly this is A-Rod's fault. He should have done more to help this kid.
Rodriguez, of course, is a man for whom there is neither truth nor consequences, as he demonstrated again yesterday in his latest shameless and insulting attempt to double-talk his way out of a positive steroid test.
By admitting publicly he is double talking. The press takes every chance they get to try and cut sports athletes down. They are like coyotes waiting for their prey to make one mistake and then they pounce.
From blaming some unnamed "cousin" to claiming not to know precisely what he was taking or if, in fact,
If A-Rod had given the cousin's name, he would have been accused of throwing him under the bus, but if he doesn't give the name he is hiding even more secrets. The guy is not going to win at this point, the press out is out for blood.
"I believe he's sincere when he says he wants to help us," Hooton said. But as yet, there is no financial commitment from A-Rod, no commitment at all other than a little bit of talk in the course of a 35-minute Q&A session in which very little could be believed.
I mean, it has literally been two days since the news conference and a week and a half since A-Rod admitted to taking steroids. Give the man some time to help out charities.
Since there will be no discipline from MLB or the Yankees or the criminal justice system, nor should there be,
Actually there should be. I agree with Gregg Doyel, I think Rodriguez should sue the government or whoever was responsible for leaking this positive steroid test. I have come on the side that this is an invasion of privacy and the only reason A-Rod would not sue is because he doesn't want everyone to remember he got caught, he wants this over with.
He can beat himself up about having tainted his legacy and perhaps compromised his chances for the Hall of Fame. But even that is doubtful, because chances are that in 14 years, after the nine remaining years on his $275-million contract with the Yankees have been paid off and he becomes eligible, all of this will have blown over.
Even if A-Rod hit half of the homeruns from 2001-2003 that he hit when he was on steroids, those numbers would still have been good enough to get him Hall of Fame consideration. I think we can all agree he never should have taken steroids, because like Barry Bonds, he was good enough without them. That doesn't excuse his choice, but it's not like he was a borderline starter in the major leagues before he took the steroids.
A-Rod may well recover from all this, but Don Hooton never will. He still will be without his son, and with the haunting memories and thoughts of what he might have done differently.
I am sorry Don Hooton lost his son but I am not sure how A-Rod ties into this. Hooton did not even do anything wrong as a parent that caused the tragedy, and A-Rod caused his own situation, so to try and lump A-Rod together with Mr. Hooton's son draws a comparison between the two situations I don't see.
Gene Wojciechowski writes his usual crap.
Huh? His "cousin" injected him with what? With "boli"? I'm confused. Is that a steroid or a pasta?
(sound of crickets chirping)
"I screwed up big-time," said Rodriguez during his Tuesday confessional, "but the only thing I ask from this group today and the American people is to judge me from this day forward."
He said judge him, not his statistics, but Gene has never had great listening skills as it is and refuses to hear him or even read the quote.
From this day forward, eh? No problem. But the back of A-Rod's baseball card is now almost completely blank.
Those six full seasons with the Seattle Mariners (and the two other partial seasons there) never existed. Poof go 189 home runs and 595 RBIs from 1994 to 2000.
Being a smart ass can be kind of funny but this is just stupid. It's not like without steroids A-Rod would never have gotten an at-bat in the major leagues and been relegated to the minors for the rest of his life.
A-Rod's 36 homers and 106 RBIs in 2004, his 48 homers and 130 RBIs in 2005, his 35 homers and 121 RBIs in 2006 and his 54 homers and 156 RBIs in 2007 are, as Bluto from "Animal House" referred to frat rat Greg Marmalard, "Dead!" But Rodriguez gets to keep his 2008 numbers (35-103) for two reasons: They were his lowest (and perhaps most believable) combined home run/RBI totals since 1997, and a player needs at least 10 years of service to qualify for the Hall of Fame.
I hate it when Gene asks like that stupid fucking kid you knew when you were 8 years old, the one that would take your basketball, then you would ask for it back, and he would say, "you want it back, then go get it" and throw the basketball down the street. That kid deserved to be punched and I'd like to think he is the smallest guy in an all-male prison right now. That's how Gene is and that was a Bill Simmons type comparison.
Hall of Fame voters are instructed to consider a player's record, ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contributions to his respective team or teams. A-Rod has taken the oh-fer in most of those categories.
I could easily make a list of players in the Hall of Fame these guidelines actually pertained to who were voted in regardless. One of them was Ferguson Jenkins and I am sure since Gene seems to be a banner waving Cubs fan he remembers why Jenkins would not pass the moral code for cheating.
You want your baseball legacy back? Earn it. The clock is ticking.
He did it from 1996-2000 and 2004-2007. I am not attempting to defend him but he has never failed a drug test since 2003 and if you look at his numbers from 2001-2003, they are outliers in his career statistics. It is much more fun to not believe him though.
Frank Deford doesn't think A-Rod's admission is bad for baseball.
What we saw with Bonds was that everyone rooted against him, except for the hometown Giant fans, who clasped him to their bosom. Now, we will only see this phenomenon taken to a new power, for the Yankees have infinitely more admirers and, likewise, infinitely more despisers than the Giants (or anyone else).
So baseball will be galvanized with hate against the Yankees and it will create new wonderful rivalries? Not sure I am buying it. If the hate did not start with the other four Yankees and ex-Yankees who tested positive, then it won't start now.
Not only will throngs pay to root for him to hit or not to hit home runs, but all students of the game will spend the next decade or so doubling as baseball theologists, interminably debating whether or not A-Rod should ascend into the Hall of Fame.
This may be great for baseball but very bad for me. I do not want to read "Should A-Rod be in the Hall of Fame" stories for the next 15 years of my life.
2. Now here is a Sophie's Choice for everyone to make:
Jay Mariotti thinks baseball may be too tarnished for fans to enjoy it anymore.
Woody Paige thinks the fans really don't care.
Who to believe? Of course it can't be somewhere in the middle ground because that doesn't make for good journalism. It has to be one of the two extremes. Pick a side at your own caution.
3. Wallace Matthews thinks Derek Jeter may be on steroids. Hey, why not? Just because he has not been a homerun hitter throughout his career doesn't mean he was not all 'roided up.
Let's just accuse everyone and force the players to take lie detector tests.
"We'll go with this so you don't have to address it all the time," he says, his gaze steady, his eyes unblinking. "I've never taken performance-enhancing drugs, never taken steroids. I mean, that's it. You can go down the list, I'm sure there might be more things coming down on a list next week, but let's just cover everything right now.
His eyes are always unblinking. That's why he was the inspiration for the character of Superman and he is the reason Barack Obama got into politics. Obama was just another guy who cared about his community and then one night he saw Derek Jeter's eyes and decided, dammit I need to do something with my life like Jeter has, and there began the journey that started in Chicago and will eventually end in 30 more years when he is named the first Grand Emperor of Neptune.
Jeter's numbers. I guess you can't really base too much on the numbers but it sure doesn't look like Jeter ever used steroids. I greatly dislike Jeter, so I am not defending him.
I understand that Jeter grew up in a strong, two-parent family, with a dad who, as he reminded us yesterday, was a drug-and-alcohol counselor who instilled in his children an aversion to chemical abuse at an early age.
And I know that A-Rod grew up in a single-parent home, without a strong male influence, and gives off every signal of being a grown man in perpetual search of a father figure.
Nothing wrong with a little stereotyping in your spare time. I did not know that being from a single parent home made a person more conducive to using performance enhancing drugs. If this is not true then Wallace has pretty much gone about and stereotyped both players.
I mean, minus a paper cup, a test strip and a private room, how can any of us know for sure when a ballplayer, even one as honorable as Jeter appears to be, is telling the truth.
Well, without a paper cup, a test strip and a private room no one would really know if Wallace Matthews was a drug addict or not. Just because a couple of his co-workers failed a drug test does not necessarily mean he would too. I kind of see what he is saying, but I also don't get why he insists on creating and continuing an aura of distrust around every baseball player.
And even as you feel for guys like Jeter, who probably has done it the right way, you wonder why he and others like him weren't more vocal throughout the "loosey-goosey" era that made the likes of A-Rod tell themselves it was all right to break the law, to cheat and to lie.
That goes for nearly every single player in the major leagues. It's not like it was hidden from everyone.
It's a shame that a player like Jeter has to be asked whether his career has been helped by steroids.
It's a bigger shame that even after his denial, we still can't be sure he is telling the truth.
I guess we just have to assume everyone is telling the truth until they are caught lying. Or we could continue what has already been done and go ahead and release the 104 names on the list. The confidentiality and anonymity is a joke already has it is, might as well compound the problem and see who else was juicing.
4. Ray Ratto, and his mugshot photo that always makes me think he just got caught looking at the neighbor's daughter getting undressed through the blinds calls it Favre Syndrome. I call it You Need to Write About Something Else Syndrome.
No, we're talking about what is rapidly becoming known as Favre Syndrome -- the reflexive revulsion of the sound of someone's name, voice or presence, or the introduction of same by another party.
I have Favre, Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots, A-Rod, and steroid Syndrome.
I mean, Favre has done nothing whatsoever in the last two weeks except say he isn't playing any more, and yet he is still being media-flogged to the point of national nausea.
This is what the media does. I am shocked Ratto does not know this.
Why? Two reasons. One, if you're trying to throw yourself on the mercy of the court, you have to stay for as long as the court wants you. Two, if you want there to be no more questions, answer all of them at the time, or pay the price for deferred maintenance.
I get it now, Ray has played me for a fool. Ratto does understand why the media does this, he just thinks that A-Rod has to sit in front of the media for as long as they want him to and answer the same questions over and over again, while the media hopes a couple of his answers don't match up and they can flog him in a column the next day.
Basically the media is going to hold him hostage until he spends more and more time out of his day answering their questions, rather than getting ready for his job, which is to play baseball.
He didn't, because he either didn't want to or because he was advised not to. He thought 35 minutes was enough treatment for Favre Syndrome, and it isn't nearly enough. And now it may be too late.
Because we in the media are going to ride his ass until he gives us everything we want. It turns out Favre Syndrome is not being tired of something, it is the media wanting the same answer over and over again because they can't think of anything else to write about.
5. Rick Reilly gets paid millions of dollars to write columns like this.
I've been able to retrieve every single MVP award that was wrongfully won by every single suspected 'roid ranger over the last 20 years. You can see them all shining on the table next to me. Got the stains off them and everything. Now I'm ready to give them to their rightful owners.
When I first read this column, I thought, "man, this is not as bad as Reilly's usual stuff." Then I realized even his decent columns for him are not good. He is the Barry Zito of sportswriters. He gets paid a ton of money for not a lot of production and the people who signed him should have known a whole lot better.
Let's start by bringing former Red Sox Mike Greenwell up to the podium. Greenie lost the 1988 AL MVP to Jose Canseco, who admitted in his book, Juiced, that he cheated worse than Rosie Ruiz that year to win it.
"Man," Greenwell said when I called him. "I guess I'll just say it's been a long time coming. I even remember telling Jose once, 'Man, I'd love to have your power.' And he said, 'Come to Miami and I'll hook you up!' But I never did."
So Mike Greenwell knew that Jose Canseco was on steroids and he did not tell anyone. That's interesting. It seems to me that those players who lost out on awards to players they knew were using illegal substances can't really complain too much, simply because they did not do anything about it. I realize it is not cool to be a narc or anything, but if you are not willing to stop the problem, then you can't complain about the problem.
"My wife and I were trying to have a baby and she basically said if I went on steroids, she'd kill me." Now he's got two boys. Healthy ones.
Yeah, take that Octo-mom. Mike Greenwell knows that taking substances can affect the health of your baby and that is why his wife never used steroids. He really showed you.
This also serves as a good public service announcement to others. If one of your children is not born healthy, more than likely one of you was on steroids at some point. We can thank Rick Reilly for this knowledge.
Step up here, Mike Piazza.
Really? If I could see the list of 103 other ballplayers not named Alex Rodriguez, I would bet $100 there would be a certain Italian baseball player related to Tommy Lasorda on that list.
Now, for the man of the night. I have a U-Haul of hardware here for Jose Alberto Pujols Alcántara of the St. Louis Cardinals. You already have two MVPs, Albert, and you're about to get three more, since Barry Bonds ripped you off worse than Bernie Madoff to win the award from 2002 to 2004. You hit .335 and averaged 41 bombs those years and yet you finished second behind the clearly creaming Bonds in '02 and '03 and third behind Bonds and Adrian Beltre in '04. We're throwing out Beltre since, while he denies ever using PEDs, he fell off the face of the planet once baseball put in stricter steroid suspensions in 2005.
Sure because Mike Greenwell had a long, storied career that peaked with his best numbers... what do you know, the same year he was second in the MVP race to Jose Canseco. This is quite similar to Adrian Beltre's situation, but for some reason Reilly feels the need to say Beltre was using steroids, while Mike Greenwell was not using steroids because his children are healthy.
If he wasn't cheating, I'm the Queen Mother
I realize Rick Reilly isn't into sports and doesn't watch any, but this is also called a contract year for Adrian Beltre. Other athletes who were not on steroids have had contract years that blow their normal numbers out of the water as well.
There you go, gentlemen. Please accept our belated congratulations. And don't make us regret this later on.
I regret reading Reilly's articles every week.
6. John Henry thinks there needs to be a salary cap in baseball.
Henry's call came exactly five years after he first proposed a salary cap in the wake of the Yankees' trade for Alex Rodriguez after the Red Sox failed in their attempt to obtain him from the Texas Rangers.
At that time, Henry advocated a cap "to deal with a team that has gone so insanely far beyond the resources of all the other teams."
It seems like every time the Yankees outspend the Red Sox for a player the Red Sox want a salary cap implemented. This is kind of interesting.
Lucchino acknowledged that a salary cap could hurt the Red Sox but the Yankees "would be impacted even more."
Which would be his entire point of advocating it.
Big payrolls don't always produce championships.
That is not really the point I would like to make. My point is I can see the league having a salary cap because other teams are not able to compete financially with some teams. I don't think I believe in a salary cap, but I can see where it is not the championships are the problem, but instead teams deserve a chance to keep their own players and they can't do that when one team can significantly outspend another team. The whole league can't be a farm system for two or three other teams...of which the Red Sox are one of those big spending teams.
Still, a salary cap "has proven to be an effective method in other leagues" of providing long-term competitive balance, Lucchino said.
I know the NBA has a different system but the salary cap they use there is an absolute mess in my opinion. I hope if MLB adopts one they look more at the NFL model because it actually makes sense.
New York thinks it has the right to spend after paying at least $110 million in revenue sharing and luxury tax last year.
"As long as we're doing that and giving all this money to other teams in revenue sharing, a staggering amount, we should be able to spend on salaries what we want to," Steinbrenner said. "Because of revenue sharing and because of the popularity nationwide, the Yankees are critical to baseball."
One reason I don't like the salary cap idea is that the Yankees do have a point here about how they do contribute a lot of money to revenue sharing, so they in fairness should be able to spend the amount of money they want. This still doesn't take care of the problem that they are able to buy up any available free agents as soon as they come on the market.
He also said some corporate sponsors left the Red Sox but have been replaced. Overall, the Red Sox, with their passionate fan base, are holding up well.
I like how an Associated Press release says that the Red Sox have a passionate fan base, rather than saying loyal or any other adjective, even neutral papers think the Red Sox have a disproportionately passionate fan base.
They have THE ONLY fan base in Boston, remember that as well. The rest pale in comparison.
"An old adage says [there's] three things money can't buy -- love, happiness and the American League pennant," Lucchino said.
Haha! I guess that is why for as long as I can remember either the team with the highest or second highest payroll in baseball has won the AL East. Haha! That adage makes no sense!
7. Very few things are as exciting as a Woody Paige giving his opinion on what players the Broncos should acquire.
The Broncos will have money for groceries. They recently dumped salaries clearing about $22 million. The NFL is expected to raise the salary cap to around $123 million and the Broncos will have in the region north of $38 million to spend, a majority for the defensive side.
Woody Paige thinks the Broncos have about $38 million to spend on free agents, assuming the salary cap goes to $123 million.
The Broncos' brass has a wish list already. I have one of my own:
Sounds good and I will tally how much all of this is going to cost to see if you can add. (I know it is always dangerous for me to deal with numbers since I rarely get them right, but I refuse to quit.)
With the 12th pick in the first round, the Broncos probably can select USC inside linebacker Rey Maualuga or Boston College nose tackle B.J. Raji (334 pounds).
Ok, I will say these guys will cost about $3 million dollars this year. So they have $35 million left to spend.
I'd love for them to go after free-agent defensive ends Igor Olshansky of San Diego (who played for Nunnely) and Chris Canty of Dallas
I am not sure if Woody wants the Broncos to get all of these players, but since he said "and" instead of "or" I will assume he wants both. I will say they will cost $9 million between them, giving the Broncos $26 million left over.
and I've stated this previously, the Broncos should pursue the Dolphins' Channing Crowder, with a big upside, and Bart Scott from the Ravens.
Everyone knows the best way to build a team is through free agency (sarcasm), so let's continue the spending spree and say both of these guys will cost a total of $12 million between them for next year. That is $14 million left over to spend.
And the secondary will be as critical as usual, without suspects. Only Champ Bailey is assured a spot, and he needs a guy, not a Bly, on the other side. How about Phillip Buchanon of the Bucs, if he doesn't get a franchise label, and a fellow named Domonique Foxworth, who became a starter in Atlanta after being jettisoned by the Broncos?
I really hope Woody wants all of these players, because this is a lot of fun to do and from reading the column it seems like he wants them all. Buchanon and Foxworth will most likely cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $8 million to sign. That leaves $6 million left.
The best free-agent safety the Broncos could bring in is Oshiomogho Atogwe from the Rams, and they probably will want to take a run at James Sanders of the Patriots.
Let's just say both of these players are going to cost a total of $6 million and assume Woody Paige has just spent the entire salary cap on the defense and the Broncos still need a running back and to sign their draft picks. Woody Paige GM has just gotten the Broncos in salary cap hell in one year after having $38 million to spend. This is why he is a professional sportswriter, he rebuild and destroy a team in one year.
8. Ross Tucker, fresh from his wonderful analysis on why Carolina should not franchise Julius Peppers again, even though he has never been franchised as of 3:30pm today thinks the Ravens should not overpay for Ray Lewis.
Brilliant analysis and this is why the guys who used to play in the NFL get paid big bucks, just for insights like this one. I bet a lot of people think the Ravens should overpay for Lewis because overpaying for players is smart.
After coach John Harbaugh's and owner Steve Bisciotti's public proclamations, it may already be too late. Bisciotti has even intimated the team will allow Lewis to test the market and then beat any offer Lewis receives to ensure he finishes his career with the Ravens.
This is clearly stupid. Ray Lewis is a great linebacker but just to come out and say they will match whatever he is offered by someone else is dumb. I can't believe the Ravens would come out and say this. Knowing Tucker's previously seen fragile grip on facts, I am not sure I believe this.
I suspect Lewis wants to stay in Baltimore, but is doing everything he can to drive up his value and get the Ravens to pony up. That may be why he's flirting with every team from the Dallas Cowboys to the New York Jets. More power to him, but hopefully the Ravens won't fall for it.
I suspect Ray Lewis is a free agent and is seeing what his value on the free agent market is. Also, I believe players are not allowed to even "flirt" with other teams right now or it is considered tampering.
You may ask, "why should the Ravens not overpay for Lewis?" Let Tucker tell you.
Lewis is one of those rare players whose infectious personality can affect those around him. Ravens defensive tackle Justin Bannan was an average player in Buffalo. Now he is one of the better run-stuffing interior linemen in the league. Lewis had a similar effect on former Bills' defensive back Jim Leonhard.
He makes others around him that much better football players. Interesting. That is a good reason to keep him. Peter King loves himself some Jim Leonhard, so with a recommendation from him, you know you can't go wrong.
Speaking of Leonhard, he is just one of the reasons why the Ravens can't break the bank for Lewis. They have ascending players in their prime such as Terrell Suggs, Jason Brown and Leonhard, as well as underrated and overshadowed linebacker Bart Scott, also a free agent, to worry about.
Ross Tucker infers that Jim Leonhard was an average player at Buffalo and then Ray Lewis' presence made him that much better in Baltimore. So he thinks one of the reasons Lewis should not be resigned is because Leonhard will need to be re-signed. The same guy who was made better by the presence of Lewis and was average without him, needs to be paid, even though he may be average without Lewis. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
The Ravens must attempt to keep Lewis in the fold ... but only if the price is right.
Genius. The Titans must attempt to keep Haynesworth in the fold...and be willing to overpay for him. See, that doesn't make sense in the salary cap world we live in. I think everyone would agree you should never overpay for a player.
9. As if anyone needed more proof the Braves front office consists of a group of losers who can't seem to grasp the concept of keeping negotiations private, comes the Ken Griffey, Jr. failure.
It is not a failure in that the Braves needed Griffey, he really would have made no difference, but again the Braves announce they have a player and the player backs out on them. It happened with Furcal, and Burnett was sure to sign with the Braves and then it never happened. The Braves tend to announce things before they actually happen.
Depending on whom you listen to, in fact, Griffey either had reached a deal with the Braves that subsequently fell through, or he never reached a deal but was this close.
Whether you want to believe the Braves who just announce they have players without actual contracts signed or you want to believe the player who never had actually chosen his team. Yeah, whoever you think has more credibility.
"I think everybody in Seattle would like to see him retire in a Mariners uniform," M's president and chief operating officer Chuck Armstrong told USA Today's Bob Nightengale last May. "He was born a Mariner. And I'd like to see him finish up as a Mariner."
Knowing Griffey's injury history, he will most likely finish his career on the disabled list...but I am sure he will wear a Seattle Mariners shirt at some point while he is nursing an injured hamstring.
Now, a team whose outfield combined to hit only 27 homers last season, fewest for an NL outfield since the Los Angeles Dodgers produced only 26 in 1992, swings and misses on Griffey.
If it tells you anything about Griffey, few Braves fan actually wanted him on the team, and the Braves outfield looks absolutely horrible right now in terms of offense. Let's just say a whole lot was not expected from him this year.
Seriously the GM of the Braves needs to learn "Negotiating for Dummies" or something. He has overseen one big negotiation mess after another. Whether it was the Jake Peavy negotiation or even somehow reportedly making Andruw Jones a larger offer than the Texas Rangers and still losing him.
10. Today was one of those days I wish I had some help on this here blog. It took me 8 hours to type this. Mom kept bothering me while I was in the attic typing and it was very annoying.
I'm willing to work with the idea that there was a ton of steroid use going on from 1999-2003. There was some going on before 99, but I don't think it was as widespread until people saw how great tehy were for bossting stats, and that there clearly was no "legal" downside from baseball management.
ReplyDeleteAfter 2003 and the first round of testing, I'm positive that the amoutn was reduced, and I'd say by '05 the use was greatly reduced. That doesn't mean PED usage has fallen off, heck it might have increased. HGH would be a PED, but not a steroid, so Arod could very well have known he was taking a PED, but not specifily a steroid. I will take issue with the fact that he has managed to come off as a moronic bumpkin. He really needed to come across as more sincere/owning up to it. He has come across as fairly wishy washy while saying that yes he did them. I jsut think he would be better off going
"My cousin and I talked about it, he said he could get me some "boli" which is a teerm used in the Dominican for a PED. I'm not exactly sure which one it was, which sounds stupid, but I trusted my cousin. I used it a bunch of times, but I didn't keep track."
Or some such. It just seems like the kid who you are dragging the truth out of about who broke the vase in the family room.
As for Gene W., ~sigh~ . He's just a moron. I agree that Arod and Bonds both messed up, and are probably very insecure guys, because both were sure fire Hall of Famers without ever taking steroids. For Gene to decide that Arods stats only start "now" is stupid. Take the position that they start in 2004 if you must Gene, but we know that if Arod had failed another test after 2003 he'd have been suspended, so he's been clean. Every stat from then on is as legit as last year, this year and next.
And though I think Pujols is great, I would bet money that he's taken something. if anybody is dumb enough (like the Rickster) to just decide that Beltre must have been on steroids (yet again someone who doesn't realize that testing began....he couldn't fool the MLB in 2004) and NOT assume Albert was also is just beyond ratinal thought. I'm a Dodger fan, and what Beltre did that year was due to 2 things: 1) he finally focused and played hard, getting the most out of his talent In A Contract Year 2)Quite a bit of fortunate hitting. Beltre came through in the clutch that year more then any hitter I can remember. Sometimes it was home runs, or other possible steroid enhanced hit, but the guy had more singles up the middle and two hoppers deep into the hole that just barely got by two fielders then I'e ever seen one guy produce in a single year. If he had stayed in LA, or signed with a good club in a good hitters park, things might have turned out different, but he didn't. The Rickster has no idea that Safeco Field is where power hitters go to die in the American League. Beltre got fat and happy and became lazy again....AND he signed a huge contract in jsut about as bad a stadium as he could find.
So let me see, the list of consistantly bad writers would be
Gene W
The Rickster
J. Hill the Racebaiter
Peter "Ballwasher" King
FJM II
Woody
TMQ
with guest star appearances by Bill Simmons, Gregg Doyle, and John Heyman? That's a lot of semi-famous sports writers.
I guess my take on everything is that I do semi-agree with Woody Paige's column. I don't really care who used steroids 6 years ago anymore. I have been let down by so many players, I have learned to question everyone and everything that happened. A-Rod does need to take ownership of what he did instead of just saying he wasn't sure what was being put in his body. I can't believe someone would not know what was put in their own body, that is ridiculous. I just wish we could stop talking about, we have implemented a steroid policy that has slightly more teeth than what I expected, though I would like to see it implemented harsher. I guess I am naive to think that A-Rod is actually a great baseball player who made a mistake. The steroids or whatever they were took him from an A minus player to an A plus player.
ReplyDeleteGene just took what A-Rod said literally and I don't think anyone takes what he says seriously. He is like Woody Paige in that fashion. Woody is always telling his readers everything that he has gotten correct in predicting, which is actually sort of true, but no one takes him seriously. Gene sometimes writes columns that I find hard to take seriously. We have to assume A-Rod has been clean since 2003 because he hasn't failed a test that we have heard about. I can't believe I am defending A-Rod and Jeter this much.
Rick Reilly is beyond a moron. I remember when the Mitchell Report initially came out Pujols was on the fake list that was passed around to The Big Lead (I think) and other sites. I don't know if Pujols did steroids, but I know if you are going to be talking about Adrian Beltre having a career year and suspecting he was on the juice, you can't conveniently ignore that 1988 was a career year for Mike Greenwell, there is a ton of circumstantial evidence Mike Piazza was on steroids (he played for the Mets with Radmonski, he went from a late round pick to one of the best catchers of all time, and his numbers started declining after 2003, but of course he was a catcher and getting older), and you can't ignore Pujols either. The guy comes up at 21 and has not stopped knocking the cover off the ball since. Reilly has no interest in doing any type of research or thinking about what he is writing, he just starts churning out his cute little columns. Beltre had a contract year, that is about it and then he stupidly signed with the Mariners.
The list of consistently bad writers seems pretty complete to me. I would include Scoop Jackson but I can barely read his columns, they are hard to read for me.
Seriously, when was the last time Scoop wrote a column? I can't remember. As long as Scoop is just writing about stuff and not trying to make a point I thinks he's ok. When he goes all Jemele Hill or Gene W. he gets all bad. I've enjoyed his columns he's written about watching the NCAA Tourney, and his thoughts from a fans point of view.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about who gives a rats ass about who used steroids 5-6 years ago? It's over and done, move on. Find me people who are using now. I'm also just begging one guy to come out, and I wish it had been Big Mac, to go
"HELL YEAH I USED STEROIDS! I got paid to win. They weren't against the rules and don't give me any crap about the purity of the game Mr. Rampant Amphetimine usage that began in the 50's and 60's Frank Robinson. i did everything to help me play the game at the highest level. To win for me and my team. To get big ass paychecks, and YOU LOVED IT! This is a country that thinks cheating is fine until dear god in heaven, baseball statistics might be tainted. People cheat on their taxes, they cheat on their spouses, they speed on the freeway, they drive when drunk cause they think they won't get caught, deal with it! How much of that per diem and expense account money you want us to go over with a fine tooth comb Mariotti? How bout we put the IRS on your ass Senator and see what they turn up? Yeah, I thought so."
Massive offense in the 90's helped bring the game back to life by creating new fans. Everybody in baseball benefitted except the purists and those who had their records surpassed. See any of them tossing back their increased pension money? They want to blame the players and the Union, when it was everybody in it together. Selig has said that the Union kept testing from happening. Yeah, cause if he had stood firm and got Congress even remotely interested in, say, 1996, that MLB wanted to do testing and the Union was oppossed, the players would have absolutly been forced to give in on that issue. It was the wonderful Dirty Secret that was generating heaps of cash. I really think that alot of this would still be undercover except Bonds was such an obvious target that it had to be investigated, BALCO not withstanding.
A player could never come out and say all of that simply because it would look like they are blaming everyone but themselves for the problem. The steroid era benefitted everyone and got the game back on track after the strike, sure now a lot of the records are tainted but that is in the past. All I care about is steroids now and who is using them. There is a policy in place so theoretically someone will be busted if they do use them. It's very simple. This whole thing is not just one person's fault and the steroid in baseball story doesn't have one face. It has the face of the players that used, those players that knew a player was using, the organizations and baseball as a whole.
ReplyDeleteIf Bonds was not around, then we may never know the extent, simply because there would not have been a BALCO type case to break it open.
Scoop posted a lot of stuff from the All Star Game, so I think he is kind of taking a break now. He is not overall that bad, I just don't understand half the things he writes.
Well I think you guys are missing a key point, that not failing a test since 2003 doesn’t mean someone isn’t taking a PED. HGH is still not detectable by tests, as far as I’ve heard. And I’m sure there are plenty of other PEDs that aren’t detectable by tests either. So just because ARod didn’t fail a test since 2003 doesn’t really mean he wasn’t still taken something. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out, he was taking something after 2003. Just by going by what he is saying, about the pressure (that didn’t exist) in Texas is why he used them, then why wouldn’t he continue to use them when there was real pressure? Maybe he didn’t, I don’t know for sure, but the thing is, he is a liar plain and simple. Why should I believe he didn’t continue to use them when he was in very high pressure situations? Just because there isn’t PUBLIC proof that he tested positive for something since then?
ReplyDeleteAll I know is that HGH and other natural PEDs are not able to be tested. So not failing a test since testing has started means nothing if the tests are not testing everything. HGH may not be considered a steroid, but the fact is that PEDs act just like steroids, they just aren’t called steroids.
I’m just getting sick of the excuses these “pros” are giving out. You got caught, we all know it, so just come out and say it and stop bs’ing. We would respect you more even if we don’t like you cause you cheated. I know Ortiz (like he is one to talk) said that he thinks people getting caught should get suspended a year. I don’t completely agree with that, I think if you get caught cheating (since that is what it is) then you should be suspended for life. You want to clean up the game, you want players to stop using this stuff, then tell them if they test positive that they will be thrown out of the game for good and that any money they made would be forfeited.
I see your point. I guess I am being naive in assuming a person who has lied in the past is telling the truth and not taking HGH. You have a valid point in that if A-Rod felt pressure in Texas in 2001, then he must feel even more pressure to use PEDs now that he plays in New York and actually has an even bigger contract. I don't know why I am doing this, but I would want public proof he is still using, though I am of course suspicous.
ReplyDeleteI am just tired of all the talk about steroids and all, I just want everyone to say what they did because I really don't care what the players did in the past, I just want to make sure they are clean now. I think the players should be suspended for the year even with one incident, but I don't really care what went on in the past. In my mind, pretty much any record put up in the late 90's is suspect.
I do think it is funny Ortiz is coming out so hard on steroids, I compliment him for it on one hand, but I also can't help but notice that he is linked with the same suspicious trainer that A-Rod used.
I guess I am a little naive to trust these players are telling the truth now, I would like for them to be testing for HGH. I don't know how they could do that though. I just want there to be a clean game NOW and don't really care who was using in the past because I just assume everyone was.