As I Always Expected

The Mitchell Report was released. As many have stated I am not sure if there is any value and identifying a list of players (most of which are inactive) as users of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). I really do not see that there is anything that can be done at this point. Maybe there will be some attempt to keep some of them out of the Baseball of Fame which I would say probably not a single person reading my blog will ever visit. At the end of the day the biggest surprise is the amount of money and time that was spent to produce much ado about nothing. There just might be a few more prevalent items that need some attention.

At the time there was no rule in MLB against the use of PEDs, or at least there was no formal testing policy. So to make matters worse none of the players identified ever tested positive for using PEDs, it is basically based on financial records and witnesses who attest to the purchase and in some cases subsequent use.

There were really no surprises, and most people don’t even believe the report uncovers a significant amount of the players that used PEDs because of the lack of support from MLB and the MPLBPA.

So really the point of this blog, is to throw stones at a few of the findings in light of the lynching that Barry Bonds receives for his alleged use of PEDs. Only 2 stones, the first of which:

The New York Yankees…. The report basically substantiated that the entire period of Yankees dominace in the 90’s and beginning of this century is completely tainted. It is actually easier to list the Yankees players that were not listed on the report. Every level of player, from their biggest stars, to guys that just passed through and made an impact for one season. This brings into question every bit of success the Yankees and their fans enjoyed. For all those that want to disregard all achievements made under the auspice of PEDs, the Yankees have made a mockery of themselves and MLB. I realize that the reason that so many players from New York were identified because of the source that provided the information was from the organization, but to me that further reflects the detestable nature of what they did. They cheated, and did not even have enough character in the organization not to disclose the information that has resulted in destroying the team’s image. In the case of Barry Bonds, Greg Anderson sat in jail for 15 months and never once disclosed any information on Bonds use of PEDs. Bonds is the one with the character flaws, but yet is able to gain this kind of loyalty??


The other stone goes to Roger Clemens. I admit I mainly dislike him because he is a Longhorn, but at this point he has to become enemy target #1. He is every bit of a decorated athlete as Bonds, and has achieved a number of records, and was certainly a Hall of Famer. They showed that in 1998, Clemens started the season 6-6, took some PEDs and preceeded to win his next 14 games ending the season 20-6. I will give Clemens credit this is not quite as staggering as Bonds 73 HR's having hit no more than 49 in any other seaon in his career. I would say in 2005 when playing for the Astros at the age of 43 being able to pitch 211 innings with a 1.87 ERA would be equally as questionable as 1998 for Clemens.

So for the next several weeks we'll all have to hear damage control from the accused players and agents, talking about how they took it one time while recovering from an injury, it was a bad decision, and they never ever used it again.... This is probably the most sickening part of the entire charade!