Thursday, December 13, 2007

Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing

A lot of anticipating resulting in a good lesson learned, and the end of an era... the steroid era. There were a few surprises, but more yawns throughout the day. John Rocker was as surprising as snow in December and Sammy Sosa has more controversy surrounding his corked bat than his involvement with steroids. Clemens was not as much of a surprise, but Andy Pettitte was and, as a baseball fan, was rather disappointing. I am not going to judge all of these 'athletes' and I will keep an open mind as the court of public opinion is now in session.

Question: Since Juan Gonzalez was tagged as a violator during his time with the Texas Rangers, how does this make our President look since he was part owner of the Rangers in the '90s?

Selig stood up at the podium, set up very well by Senator Mitchell batting in front of him, and vowed to take action with a strong fist. Donald Fehr is a puppet and I hate unions so I wont dignify his comments with an opinion of my own.

Who was hurt most today? In my humble opinion, the future was hurt today and by future I mean our children. There is a 10 year old who has a Pettitte jersey hanging in his closet and a 7 year old with a Rocket poster in his room. These are the purest years of our lives and we hope and dream and act out those dreams in the backyard as a kid. Today, those dreams were corrupted. I don't feel bad for the adults who made the decisions and took the purest thing in their lives and corrupted it, I feel bad for the kids who were forced to grow up today before their time.

11 comments:

old professor said...

The report finalizes the Mitchell drama that relied on for the most part two disgruntled former employees who if they didn't come up with names, they would face long prison terms. Kind of sounds like the McCarthy Era when citizens were called to testify before the senate - and of course if you wanted to prove you were a good American, you had to name people who you knew were communists.

As Mitchell did point out, everyone associated with the game can take some blame - Owners (Selig and Bush included), Players, the Union and the Commissioner's Office. Of special note, A-Rod was not mentioned in the investigation.

Anonymous said...

I hate that Roger Clemens has decided not to be a man about this.

These fake denials through carefully crafted verbage from an attorney means nothing.

His denial is the same as Bonds - I never failed a drug test -

Which means, yes, the guy did stick him with a needle.

I want to hear how Pettitte is going to answer this.

Anonymous said...

OK, first of all, is 57 still heading up this blog or is Mid back? I want to know which one of them posted this little gem:

"Who was hurt most today? In my humble opinion, the future was hurt today and by future I mean our children. There is a 10 year old who has a Pettitte jersey hanging in his closet and a 7 year old with a Rocket poster in his room."

Please.....if there was a WINNER from yesterdays madness it was the youth of today. The more that steroids are eradicated from our professional sports, the less pressure our high school athletes will feel to take them.

Mike Francessa talked about a survey that was taken of Olympic athletes under the age of 22. They were asked, if they could take something that would guarantee them a gold metal, but they KNEW would kill them by the age of 50 would they do so. 80% that's not a typo...80% said that they would. This is the culture we live in. This culture must be changed to protect an entire generation and future generations of student athletes.

I don't blame Bonds (who for the record I can't stand) or Clemens (who for the record I like) for this stuff...Nor do I blame the Giambis or the Cansecos or the Caminetties; these guys are competitors who have been programmed to attain dominance in their sport.

I blame the Victor Contis of the world....and the Greg Anderson's and the McNamees.

And I blame Major League Baseball. The Union and the Owners equally. They created an atmosphere where the use of performance enhancement drugs were at best ignored and at worst promoted.

If someone came to me and said they could give me drug that would make me a better salesman and increase my revenue stream tenfold...you know what, I would have to consider taking it. But ONLY because my profession doesn't test for it....If I knew my profession had NO TOLERANCE for the aforementioned drug and that there was a real chance I would get exposed, then I probably would NOT consider it. Same thing happened in Baseball, and I'm sure the other major sports as well.

I was never a high level college athlete but I know 57 was (not sure about the rest of you)...I am interested in hearing your take on this...Were you ever tempted? Were you aware of rampant use? and finally......If juicing up would have guaranteed you a spot on a NFL roster would you have considered it? Don't worry about being candid...nobody reads this blog anyway.

Anonymous said...

Can I say the one thing that is most surprising out of all of this is how stupid the players are. Why the hell would you write a check for illegal drugs??? That is simply incredibly stupid. Let me leave a paper trail that can be tied directly back to me for my illegal drug purchases. Idiots, they deserve to be caught.

Since Pettitte is active, he'll say nothing and wait for the union. Buster O was saying because Pettitte is so personal, he may not want to take the heat from the fans and retire. I personally think there is a direct correlation between the timing of Pettite's decision to sign with the Yankees, and the Mitchell report. I think he knew he was named in the report, and knew the Yankees may withdraw the offer with knowledge of his use, and decided to take the money now. Personally, I hope Andy comes out and admits it. If the report is accurate, he used to rehab an injury. He should say it was a mistake, he regrets it, and he has not taken it again since 2002(if that is truth).

Unless a player takes formal legal action against Mitchell, MLB, etc. The findings of the report, in my opinion, must be considered as factual. The players had the opportunity to step up, explain/clarify/defend themselves and they didn't.

The union wants to cry now about how unfair this is, but they advised they're players not to cooperate.

I agree with Mid that Clemens is now the same as Bonds. What is really surprising about this is that Clemens wasn't limited to HGH. He was rolling big in the gear. Test, Deca, Winstrol, and A-bombs are serious anabolic agents that pro bodybuilders use. Does anyone else remember Clemens havin significant problems with his groin and legs the last several years. All side effects of steroid use, not HGH.

Yes we can be thankful guys like Jeter, Mo, and A-Rod didn't show up, but keep in mind this is not an all-inclusive list. This isn't even the tip of the ice berg. This is the tip of the tip. More names will surface and soon. Here is something to consider. Jose Canseco has been right about everyone he named. Recently he has thrown A-Rod's name around.

Lastly, 57 I was a highly tuned collegiate athlete. I finished first in the Beer-Olympics 3 years in a row, both as an individual and in the 4-man relay...and I did it naturally.

Anonymous said...

Scooter - this gem was published by Mr. 5 7 - you couldn't tell from the liberal, bleeding heart overtones laced in this one???

Anonymous said...

I figured as much, Mid..but I was concerned that Old Prof had found those pictures of you on the internet (you know the ones) and was blackmailing you to be a liberal pussy.

Anonymous said...

David Justice did an interview with The Herd on ESPN Radio. I thought he came across pretty well. Adamantly denied all use.

Said he never saw Clemens use, never even talked to him about it. McNamee approached Justice when he was rehabbing an injured groin, he researched it, and decided against.

old professor said...

I will go back to my original statement: Most of the information that was published in the Mitchell Report about Justice, Clemens, Pettitte and the rest of the Yankees, came from one source. He was told to give names or face a harsher prison sentence. The guy is a felon who will be going away for some time. Strange that no one on the Red Sox seemed to come up in the report. Does that have anything to do with Mitchell being associated with the Red Sox?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Old Prof you obviously did not read the report. The very first person mentioned was a Red sox player. Additionally there were segments of email taken from Theo and a talent evaluator regarding Gagne and questioning his use. The fact that the # of Yankees was more than any other team simply had to do with the fact that 2 of 3 sources for the report were from NY. I would not question Mitchell's integrity here.

Anonymous said...

This story picked up a little steam toward the end of the winter meetings and it now looks like it's official. ESPN is reporting Dan Haren was traded to Arizona. It was a 2 for 6 swap. Arizona gives up left-handers Brett Anderson, Dana Eveland and Greg Smith; infielder Chris Carter; and outfielders Aaron Cunningham and Carlos Gonzalez.

Carter, Smith, Anderson, and Gonzalez are all very good top organizational prospects. Gonzalez probably being the best, he was #3 in 2007 behind Upton and Young, as ranked by Baseball America.

Arizona also shipped out Valverde to Houston. This gives Houston a reliable closer, as Valverde led the majors in saves last year.

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