Clemens and performance enhancing drugs

I am so sick of talking about (and hearing sports talk radio talk about) performance enhancing drugs. We will never know all of the cheaters. We can talk forever about our speculation about who was juiced. I want to get back to talking about trades, rotations, lineups and expectations. The hot stove league has fizzled because of all of this noise with the Mitchell Report. The fact is that the Mitchell report is the tip of the iceberg. To say that these 75 people are cheating is one thing, but it is far from an exhaustive list. It also is bogus that most of these names have no real proof associated with them at all.

At the risk of being a hypocrite, I do think that a ton of players in this era were juicing. We can all point to the Brady Anderson, Lenny Dykstra, Barry Bonds, and others and look at the size of their head, or the change in their physique and draw our own conclusions. It happens in all sports. I think that this is so much more significant in baseball because of the importance that we place on statistics and records in this sport. Name the top 5 single season HR hitters of all time and most average baseball fans can do so. Ask an average NFL fan to name the top 5 rushing leaders of all time, or an NBA fan the top 5 scoring leaders of all time and they would have a much harder time doing so. The stats mean so much to us as baseball fans. The steroid era has irrevocably harmed us for that reason.

On to Clemens “performance” last night on 60 minutes. I do think that he juiced. I think that he was so pissed off at Dan Duquette for saying that he was washed up that he decided he would risk the side effects to regain his glory. I see his motivation, but that doesn’t mean that it is right. How would Griffey Jr’s numbers look if he had doped up to recover from injuries? What would Mickey Mantle’s career numbers look like? How about Joe DiMaggio or Sandy Koufax? If they went to HGH or steroids to recover from injuries and lengthen their careers their numbers would have been even more amazing then they are.

I cannot stand the argument that Clemens or Bonds should be put into the hall of fame because they were hall of famers before they started cheating. That is such a farce of an argument. If I am honest on 90% of my tax information and then cheat on the last 10% and get a refund is the IRS going to say to me, we won’t prosecute you because we looked back at the accurate information that you provided and you would have gotten a refund anyway? Of course they aren’t. They are going to nail my ass to the wall, and rightfully so.

If your argument is that they should be in the hall of fame because the era was riddled with the use of steroids and nobody did anything about it. I still don’t buy the argument, but at least put them all in (McGwire et al included) a separate wing. Call it the steroid era wing. That way when I bring my kids there some day they will easily be able to tell that this era in baseball had a lot of questionable stuff going on. And when I do get to do this trip, I will be telling my stories about the “real” record holders. Ruth, Maris, and the rest.

A few thoughts

A bunch of friends have asked me why it has been so long since the last blog posting. With the holidays over it is time to get back to talking baseball.

Here are some things that will be water cooler fodder as the hot stove league continues:

• What will the fallout be over the Mitchell Report? My guess is that the players that decided to come clean have already done so. There is the thought that if you remain silent you are essentially admitting guilt. So I fully expect a lawsuit or two to accompany Clemens hiring of the private investigators to find out what really happened. Is it just me or does this remind anyone of OJ Simpson’s quest for Nicole’s killer? My guess is that most of the information in this report is true, however the evidence that brought this information out isn’t exactly convincing. The skeptics among us are asking why so many former Yankees are on the list. It only makes sense since one of the main sources of information was a former Yankee clubhouse guy.
• Where will Johan Santana land? Frankly I am surprised that the deal hasn’t been done yet. I am guessing that the Twins are less than impressed with the offers that they are getting for him. I think that both the Yankee offer of Melky, Hughes and a couple of decent minor leaguers is a strong one. I also think that the Sox offer that included Ellsbury, Lowrie, and a couple of other minor leaguers is a good one. I have no idea why they are reluctant to include Lester in that deal. I don’t think that he is going to be a top of the rotation starter, and landing Santana would be an almost certain ticket to a couple of more world series in the near future. Not including Lester is especially confusing because if they do the deal their rotation will have Beckett, Santana, Matsuzaka, Schilling, Wakefield and Buchholz to fill the 5 spots.
• On a similar note I have a lot of concern about the current state of the Yankee rotation. They still don’t have an ace. The only guy that might step into that role is Chamberlin, but that is a lot to ask for a guy that has never started a major league game. Wang is a #3 at best, Pettitte is about the same, and the other three spots are likely to be occupied by the aforementioned Chamberlin, Hughes and Kennedy. Mussina is waiting in the wings in case one of the kids doesn’t work out, and he is a shell of what he was just a couple of years ago. I think that this is the biggest hole that the Yanks have. They need an ace. This is why, as much as I like Hughes, I would include him in the deal to get Santana. The other piece to this trade puzzle is that if they include Melky in this deal, that makes Matsui and Damon the every day LF/CF combination. That is not a strong defensive pairing.

I look forward to hearing your comments on these topics and will try to be better about keeping up with posting as the hot stove heats up again.