Just for Sport

11:40 AM CST: I haven’t posted here in quite a while, and probably won’t be able to regularly until I’m done with this MSW, but what better time than the day the Mitchell Report comes out?  As information comes out, I will write about my reactions, updating this site periodically.  This should be a huge day for baseball. 

 
So far, Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte have been leaked as names that will appear in the report.  I have a draft on this site that I never posted about how media and the fans are hypocritical because of their hatred of Barry Bonds and their apathy toward Roger Clemens.  I wonder if that will change at all.  As for Andy Pettitte…he’s always been attached to Roger at the hip, so should we really be surprised? 

An interesting storyline to watch will be the reactions of Hall of Fame voters.  If several big names are brought to light through this report, we may be finally forced to admit that the Steroid Era is just that, an era.  Does the fact that both big-name hitters and big-name pitchers are named mean that the playing field is more or less even?  Will voters shun an entire generation of players, or will they relent and vote in the best players from this era?  If that’s the case, will players like Mark McGwire see a surge in their voting percentages?

I expect the following names to be named: Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Jose Canseco, Gary Matthews, Jr., Jason Grimsley, and of course Clemens and Pettitte.  I’m worried, like most fans, that prominent members of my favorite teams will be named.  As a Rangers fan, that’s even more of a possibility.  Surely Canseco and Palmeiro will come up, but what about Juan Gonzalez, Alex Rodriguez, Ivan Rodriguez, or even local heroes like Rusty Greer?  I do know this: there are certain names that would be absolutely devastating for baseball.  I think the most devastating one would be Albert Pujols.  He plays in the Midwest, which most people assume is purer than the rest of the country, and he’s been held up as an example of a player who hits for power without artificial enhancement.  He’s also a community leader and gives credit to God for everything he does.  I cannot imagine a bigger shock than to find Pujols’ name on the list, and that’s pretty telling, because it wouldn’t be all that surprising.

More to come as more is revealed. 

12:14 PM: This whole thing is going to look really fishy if no Red Sox players are named, given Mitchell’s association with the team.  Colin Cowherd insinuated this morning that "one Red Sock" will be named, but I wonder how much he and other members of the media actually know.  Who could that Red Sock be?  David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Josh Beckett?  Certainly not Curt Schilling…right?  The more I think about this, the more I realize that we don’t know anything. 

12:21 PM: Just found this link - I’m sure this list will grow exponentially in the next few hours. 

12:29 PM: Be watching this page as well. 

12:45 PM: Apparently, Jose Canseco is present at the press conference.  He’s not a very shy guy, is he? 

12:55 PM: Paul Lo Duca, Fernando Vina, David Segui, Miguel Tejada, and Rondell White have been implicated.  Isn’t Lo Duca a free agent?  That’s going to hurt the bottom line a little.  I wonder how the Astros feel about Tejada, having just given up 5 players for him. 

12:58 PM: Mitchell just announced that the Report will be made available shortly on mlb.com.  I will post a link when I find it. 

1:00 PM: And here it is.  I will probably be doing more reading of this than listening to George Mitchell, although I will be keeping my ear open. 

1:03 PM: Mitchell just said that each of the 30 clubs have had players that have used steroids.  He also estimated that 5-7% of players have used.  If that’s true, and the Mitchell Report does indeed name 80 people, he’s at least 170 people short (give or take).

1:12 PM: Apparently, Giambi did not name names, and says he hasn’t used PED’s since the All Star Break. 

1:18 PM: Mitchell: "I urge the commissioner to foregoe imposing discipline on players for past violations of baseball’s rules on performance enhancing substances." 

1:22 PM: From the report: "I did not include in this report the names of three players to whom Radomski said
he sold performance enhancing substances: two of them because the players had retired from
Major League Baseball by the time of the alleged sales; and one of them because the player
admitted that he had purchased and possessed the substances but denied that he had used them
and his version of events was corroborated by other credible evidence."

1:23 PM: A very telling paragraph: "The players for whom evidence has been gathered of possession or use, or both, of illegal performance enhancing substances defy categorization. They include winners of Most
Valuable Player and Cy Young awards, members of All-Star teams and World Series rosters,
players whose tenures in the major leagues were long, and others whose tenures were brief. We
heard often about the pressure on marginal players to use performance enhancing substances
because they believed they needed to do so to keep up with the competition or because the
money was so much greater for those who could make the jump to the major leagues."

1:27 PM: Brian Roberts and Chuch Knoblauch: I did not really see those coming, although Roberts played with Miguel Tejada and Knoblauch on the Yankees.  It seems that a lot of these allegations are connected to five teams: the Giants, Yankees, Blue Jays, Orioles, and Rangers.

1:33 PM: More big names: David Justice, Mo Vaughn, and Eric Gagne.   

1:36 PM: Page 232 implicates two 1999 Chicago Cubs, but does not name them.  Sosa, anybody?

1:47 PM: Here is a list of players named in the report.  What this page doesn’t show is that there are several references, like the one listed above, to unnamed players, including a mysterious Player X.  I wonder if anybody has any theories about who this Player X might be.

2:02 PM: I’m going to stop until Bud Selig’s conference in an hour and a half.  I hope this wakes some people up.  The Player’s Association has been exposed for the evil organization that it is, and maybe they will be compelled to cooperate for a secondary report.