More on the Mitchell Report
First of all, I hate Curt Schilling. Can he keep his big fat mouth shut for one freakin second? He had his chance two years ago sitting in front of Congress to voice his opinion about steroids and he chose not to. Now, since he has never won a Cy Young, he is calling out another great 40+ pitcher since someone accused him of doing steroids (more on that later). Seriously, am I the only person living in the Boston area that sees right through Schilling’s crap? I know this town is the biggest bunch of homers in the nation, and will defend their own players even if they are caught driving around with a dead body on the hood, but give me a BREAK!! So Schilling wants Clemens to give back his Cy Young awards. Ok. I agree. And the Patriots should give back their Super Bowl rings if someone can prove they had a video guy on the sidelines? Oh, I know, two different things. Ha. Typical response. In fact, someone called the D&C show on EEI the other morning and brought up the fact that this town is ripping Pettitte for doing HGH but they gave Rodney Harrison a free pass. You know what his response is?? “Football and baseball are two different sports, it’s different.” WHAT??? Oh, so if my own blood does something, its ok, but if someone else does it, then no good. I guess that’s human nature. But if you follow the NY media, especially the newspapers, they ripped the Yankees for so many players on the list (more on that later). NY has been much harder on the Yankees than I thought they would with this stupid report.
So let’s get to the Mitchell report. Couple of things.
1. There are what, 30 teams in baseball. 40 active roster spots by the end of the year. Plus players going on the DL and being brought up. So probably 1500 to 2000 active major leaguers every year. Look back over the past 10 years and with players that retire or come up, you are looking at 10 thousand or more players. Roughly. And Mitchell named 80 or so players? So less than 100 players have been named out of 10,000. I could be wrong, I’m no Red Sox senior exec Senator lawyer, but I would guess that more than .01% of players are associated with roids.
2. This report is the result of basically three interviews. Three people, with the Mets guy and the Yankees guy (hmm, interesting they are two NY guys) filling up the most yellow pads. There is no hard evidence that any of these guys has done steroids, meaning none, or very few, have tested positive. Now, personally, I believe almost all of these guys have done steroids, even my hero Chuck Knoblauch, but let’s set aside personal feelings with legal processes. If you are going to ruin players names, careers, legacies, don’t you think that there should be proof beyond what three losers tell you during an interview. Again, I don’t own part of the Red Sox and wasn’t paid 20 million to put this report together, so I could be wrong.
3. I have no doubt George Mitchell is a good guy, a stand up guy, an ethical guy, honest guy. But what the f**k was Selig thinking putting him in charge. Funny how a guy who is number 5 or so on list of most important people in the Red Sox organization didn’t come up with a SINGLE Red Sox player from the championship teams. Oh, Gagne and Donnelly. They don’t count because in this town’s warped and alcohol damaged minds, those players had nothing to do with the Red Sox. So you are telling me that the Red Sox, and the Cubs, are squeaky clean when so many other players, and especially the YANKEES, are infested with roid and HGH injecting monsters. COME ON!!!! Even the most subjective narrow minded Red Sox fans have to find something odd about THAT?? Why didn’t they interview some strength coach or clubhouse attendant from the Red Sox organization? You know why?? Because GEORGE MITCHELL IS ON THE RED SOX PAYROLL!! Look, I am sure he can separate the two, I mean after all I am sure there are government prosecutors who investigate and prosecute their own family members, it’s done all the time, or there are SEC accountants who audit their own parents or children, it’s very common, but shouldn’t Selig have brought in SOMEON ELSE!!! ANYONE!! Are you telling me there was NO ONE out there who wasn’t a director level member of a baseball organization?? NO ONE!! WHAT A JOKE!! I don’t have two Red Sox diamond encrusted World Series rings on my Mitchell family mantel, so I could be wrong about this.
4. As a Yankee fan, sure it sucks that so many Yankees were implicated. But if you read Newsday, or the Daily News or the Post, New Yorkers are coming down hard on the Yankees. And they should. Just like Barry Bonds, this puts into question many of the accomplishments of the great Yankee teams from 10 years ago. Now, if you look at the stars from those teams, guys like Jeter, Posado, Mo, O’Neil, Tino Martinez, they were not implicated. But who cares. It was the little guys who were part time players that helped those teams win so many games as much as the stars. But getting back to this incredible single minded town, if it happened on the reverse side, like the crap with the Patriots, then people would be singing a different tune.
5. I’ve said this before, I personally think most of these guys have done something wrong. It might not have been illegal in MLB when they did it, but they knew it was wrong. But if you read any of the official statements given by those players, most of them naturally deny it. And some guys, like David Justice, claim to have never even met the person who accused them. Now, what would the guys who did the accusing, Radomski and McNamee mostly, have to gain from lying? I have no idea, nothing comes to mind other than being a totally dick because maybe some of the major league guys treated them bad. I doubt that though, it’s a stretch. So take for a second the stance that these guys had no reason to lie. It still comes down to one person’s word against another. Even Mitchell said Radomski didn't see players inject drugs, but that his records and story were compelling. COMPELLING??? You just destroyed some lives over COMPELLING statements. Now, its human nature to believe the worst, and that “worst” will tarnish most of these players. I think Pettitte and Roberts did the right thing, which was admit to using it in a limited timeframe, and apologize. But what if they are really truly innocent? I know it’s hard to believe, but it could be true. If someone says they never used it, people will automatically say “LIER”. I don’t file Red Sox logo printed pay stubs like the guy who put this report together so I could be way off base on this.
6. I am in the 1% of baseball fans, less probably, who thinks this report was not a good idea. I don’t like it. I know most people want to know who has been using steroids or HGH, but this report did not provide that. This report provided names of baseball players that were identified by basically two guys during interviews. And what good did this report do? Honestly? It exposed the problem in baseball of steroids? And we didn’t know that before. Have you seen Bonds, Palmeiro. We know it’s a problem. So what else did this report do? Embarrass and expose players who were probably doing steroids and HGH up to 10 years ago? Good, glad it accomplished that, it makes some people feel better when others are embarrassed. I am not one of those people. I do not like to see players that I had on my fantasy teams, players that I saw in person, players that played for teams I like and hate, embarrassed. Even the ones that are jerks, like Bonds, because you know what, they were never a jerk to me. I know the media hates some of these guys, but then it’s a revenge vindictive thing and not getting to the truth to improve baseball. And it wasn’t even or fair, because it surfaced only a fraction of names. So the question is, what did this report really accomplish? Well, I guess it set in motion a series of actions and policies to stop or curb the use of drugs that give some players an unfair advantage. That is a good thing. But that could have been done in a way that did not accuse players without any hard evidence. Yes, most or all of those players named probably did steroids or HGH, but so did a lot of other players NOT named. Why not require every single player to provide urine and blood samples monthly, and randomly test some of them. It’s impossible to test every single players, but if you take the samples, or threaten to, without warning of when the testing will take place, then it might stop some players. Or it might not. Again, I am no Red Sox trustee and senior exec who ran this investigation, so what do I know.
Anyway, the bottom line is that I am not surprised more Red Sox players were in the report, I am ashamed so many Yankees were (although it was a Yankee conditioning coach who was one of ONLY THREE PEOPLE INTERVIEWED), and I would like to have seen this report create more tangible and strict drug testing policies.
All of us baseball fans need to get ready for a reduction in home runs and a new performance enhancing drug to come out of Mexico or some lab in Mississippi. You know its going to happen?
But that’s just my opinion, I don’t have a Red Sox business card that says ‘Director’ so what do I know.