The Mitchell Report is going to come out today. Supposedly it will expose at least 70 players by name as steroid users. ESPN is already reporting that Roger Clemens is one of them. This is going to change the perception of Barry Bonds and others as "cheaters" because we’re going to find out that both pitchers and batters used steroids. Here is my old post where I speculate on Hayek’s perception of the scandal.
The Mitchell Report
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As I mentioned on Truemors.com yesterday, I hope the Steinbrenner kids sign the scofflaws up before the Red Sox do. This changes things for exactly one guy: Barry Bonds. The outrage over this had to be focussed and directed. Now that it can't be, it will fade into the background noise. Put into perspective… This isn't like dog fighting.
Unfortunately, I do not think that this will improve the image of Barry Bonds.
Bonds is almost-universally vilified by baseball fanatics as it is. This will be gas on the fire, because I know that he's going to be one of the cheaters in this report.
Who cares!
Keith,
I care a whole heck of a lot. Does that answer your question?
Keith, better congress work on this rather than screwing up important issues.
This is the exact definition of "conflict of interest." The bias is not in who is named or covered up but in who is pursued in the first place. Why didn't Mitchell (a former, and once again current, RedSox Director) follow this lead rather than a NY Mets clubhouse guy and former trainer for Yankee stars:
In a piece he wrote for this week’s ESPN The Magazine (subscription required to read), Crawford admitted to using steroids and HGH while with Boston from 2000-01. Check out this excerpt, which also seems to shed a controversial light on the Sox clubhouse at that time.
“During minor league spring training with the Red Sox in 1999, some of the other guys saw I was hurting. They told me that if I took this stuff, it would make the pain go away and cut my recovery time in half. Shoot, why not? I'm just a country boy; I didn't even think twice.
“I was probably using the most back in 2001, when I made the Red Sox rotation out of spring training. About that time I was getting pretty big, and another player introduced me to human growth hormone, which had started to make the rounds in the majors. I got a kit with two bottles: One was filled with some kind of water, and the other was filled with these tiny crystals. I put a few drops into the crystals and — poof! — it became liquid. I thought, Boy, what the hell are you putting into your body? But I did it anyway.
“Back in 2001, I thought I was the man. I had no shame, and I thought nobody could touch me. One time, I walked right into the Red Sox clubhouse with a bunch of needles wrapped in a towel and left them on my chair. A few minutes later, one of my teammates came running over, saying, ‘Paxton, someone knocked your chair over and your freaking needles are all over the floor!’ Man, we just died about that. He said it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen, told me I was nuts. But that's the way it was back then.”
The 28-year-old Crawford went 5-1 for the Red Sox in 2000 and 2001
Um… from page 111 of the report:
"In an article in 2006, a similar story was recounted by Paxton Crawford, a pitcher
who was on the roster of the Boston Red Sox in 2000 and 2001. Crawford admitted to using steroids and human growth hormone while with the Red Sox. He described an incident in which syringes he had wrapped in a towel were spilled onto the floor of the Red Sox clubhouse, which he said caused laughter among his teammates.291 Crawford declined our request for an interview, saying that he did not “do that stuff anymore,” that he was sorry he had used those substances in the past and that he just wanted to be left alone. In the course of this investigation,we interviewed 23 individuals who are, or had been, affiliated with the Red Sox organization
including 6 persons who were with the Red Sox at the time of the reported events."
Also mentioned were Eric Gagne (good riddance), Mo Vaughn, and several other past Red Sox players. The report also mentions that Theo knew (or at least had good reason to suspect) that Gagne used steroids and quoted emails to that effect.
Kid Gloves as he just repeats an already published article (it seems like a lot of the report does this). Mitchell creates the appearance of objectivity. Gagne and his use is clearly NOT associated with Boston, and I'd guess that Vaughn's association stems from him time on The Mets. When you concentrate your efforts on two people you know to have certain connections and (seemingly) ignore other good leads (i.e. the trainers, etc. associated with the Paxton Crawford era RedSox) you know which big names will be fingered and which probably won't. I know there are 100's of other players using this stuff around MLB- past and present- and I'd be very willing to bet the list would include names like Nixon and Varitek…of course if you never turn over that stone you'll never know what's underneath
"Keith, better congress work on this rather than screwing up important issues."
So is this the choice now? Flush your money down the toilet, or use it to build giant towers of shit?
At least you can walk on a bridge to nowhere.