The Mitchell Report on steroids, the latest major salvo in baseball’s longstanding public-relations war against itself, will be made public about 12 hours from now.
Journalists who’ve seen the report or talked to people who have say upwards of 100 players will be named as abusers of performance-enhancing substances. Mitchell had no subpeona power, and the report is said to rely heavily on “testimony” from team trainers and clubhouse people. The headlines already on the Web are of the “Report blames clubs and players…” variety.
No kidding. Anyone who has any sense at all can see that baseball (”the clubs”) was at least complicit in the Steroid Era, because it believed it was good for business. But I’m gonna guess no actual person from the club side of the player/club divide is going to be named, or face any serious consequences.
With that in mind, consider this quote, procured by Howard Bryant of ESPN.com.
”We have committed to take this thing as far as it can go, all the cards on the table,” a source in the commissioner’s office said in September. “It was what everybody wanted us to do. Everybody said we were hiding things, so we did it. Sen. Mitchell has the authority to talk to anybody he likes. We haven’t stood in the way. But you have to understand you’re not dealing with one entity here. You’re dealing with two; and for the entire time of this investigation, that other entity has been completely and totally uncooperative. You have to take that into account.”
That’s right. You have to take into account that people who faced serious legal action as a result of this report were less cooperative that people who didn’t.
Go figure.
In the post below on this blog, Dan Murray and Marc Hondares sell the idea of the Phillies moving Chase Utley to third base and bringing back Tad Iguchi to play second.
Admit it, this makes a lot of sense. Don’t see a down side. Utley at 2B and Iguchi at 3B would probably be slightly better, but that’s apparently not a possibility.
Here’s why it’s not going to happen: Pat Gillick is working with a budget, and the only part of that budget that’s earmarked for the infield will go to Ryan Howard’s new contract. (Oops- Iguci signed a one-year deal with the Padres the other day).
Wes Helms Mania: Admit it. You’re feeling it.
Here’s something I hate: Late in a close game, like Ravens-Patriots 10 days ago, there is questionable officiating. What we need from the media is some serious analysis of the calls in question.
Occasionally we get it. In this case, Peter King gets it exactly right here.
Too often, though, we get this sort of thing, from Bill Simmons: “The Ravens lost that game because of all their three-and-outs in the fourth quarter and because they lost their composure down the stretch. They had that game and they blew it.”
Of course the Ravens screwed up. There has never been a game in the history of sports in which the loser (or the winner) didn’t screw something up. So what? That’s not what we’re talking about now. We’re talking about things the players had no control over.
For the record, I don’t think the Ravens got shafted against the Patriots. Sure, the defensive-holding call in the end zone was the sort of thing that often goes uncalled. It often gets called, too. Gaffney really caught the TD pass and the Ravens really called time.
But let’s at least talk about it.
Three and outs in the fourth quarter? Geez.
And finally: Did the NFL plant a story in USA Todayto discredit Mike Ditka?
