| | So, yesterday we were all treated to Mitchell Joke ... er, Report ...
which was supposed to shine a light on the dark and nefarious steroid
abuse that is threatening to derail the national pasttime. In the
report, we got names. Boy,
did we ever get names! Roger Clemens, David Justice, Barry Bonds... The
light has now been shone on the seedy underbelly of baseball!
Puh-lease...
Let
me get this straight: Bud Selig (quite possibly the worst commissioner
any major U.S. sport has ever had) commissions his buddy George
Mitchell (who is associated with the Boston Red Sox) to conduct a "fair
and impartial" study of steroid abuse in baseball (something every man,
woman, and child in America has been aware of for the past five years,
at least). Mitchell basically finds two sources who will talk to him
(one of whom happens to be a trainer for the New York Yankees), rounds
up some check stubs, and begins dropping names like there's no tomorrow.
Now,
interesting point number one to me is the fact that no Red Sox players
appear in this report. Both Selig and Mitchell have repeatedly brushed
off complaints of a conflict of interest (Selig should know, as he
still maintains an interest in the Brewers. Luckily for the rest of
baseball, he's too stupid to know how to use that to his team's
advantage.), but this is blatantly obvious. You mean to say that not one player for the Red Sox used banned substances? Nobody you talked to could even think of one? This is nothing short of miraculous.
The second (and most troubling) aspect of this report is that it does and proves nothing.
Surely someone with the courtroom experience Mitchell has would realize
that heresay evidence is completely useless with physical evidence to
back it up. That evidence does not exist, though, because Selig was too
busy turning a blind eye to the sport's problems to mandate drug
testing. I highly doubt any player wrote in the memo section of their
checks "illegal steroids", so the checks are probably useless. You have
no positive (or negative, for that matter) drug tests before the last
couple of years. You really think Roger Clemens - perhaps the most
dishonest man in baseball ("I'm playing for Houston to be closer to my
family. What's that, Mr. Steinbrenner? More money? Hello, New York!") -
would keep using once the heat started coming down? Or that after this
report he's going to come out and say, "Oh, yeah, you caught me. Sorry
about that."
This just continues to reflect on the idiocy of Bud
Selig. The only thing I can even remotely think of he's done right is
the wild card playoff system, but even that started out as a blatant
post-season money grab. He's ruined the All-Star Game, acted like a
spineless coward in the face of Bonds breaking the home run record,
flip-flopped so much on Pete Rose that Rose actually confessed to
gambling because he thought he was getting back into baseball, and let
the players' union lead him around like a dog. His speech yesterday was
utterly ridiculous, talking about a new day for testing in baseball.
Even I knew the steroid
situation was bad in baseball five years ago. He just flat buried his
head in the sand, and he was using Mitchell to try and bail him out.
Selig
is a disgrace to the game of baseball and all of sports. The only
person I can think of off-hand that's more deserving of a firing is
Isaiah (spelling?) Thomas, and I'm not even sure he can compete. My
lasting image of Selig is still from the infamous All-Star Game tie,
where he's standing in the front row shurgging his shoulders, palms
facing the sky. It's indicative of his whole term as commissioner, and
it's time for this absurdity to end once and for all. |
| | Posted 12/14/2007 2:48 PM - 34 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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