Canseco = Fail

Jose Canseco's press conference to announce his fight with Hong Man Choi, the 7'2" behemoth MMA fighter, does not get the clamoring crowds he'd been hoping for.

To which I say, Ha. Ha. Ha.

I'd be tempted to suggest that the one guy in the chair there is actually asleep or a blow up doll. Or Canseco's lover. Or a corpse. Or an escaped mental patient. Or Roger Clemens.

Why do I dislike Canseco so much even though he's been a major catalyst in splitting open the pinata that is performance enhancing drugs in major league baseball? Because he didn't do it out of the goodness of his heart, he did it for money and because he's a bitter, washed up and poor jackass. He has no interest in helping to clean up the sport, he is only interested in making money because he blew all his money on hookers and blow or whatever his chosen vices were that he can no longer afford.

Jose Canseco happily took part in the steroid era and then, when he bounced out of baseball, he tried to make a buck off of it again.

And now he's been reduced to fighting and getting knocked out in freak shows. Boo-hoo.

The Crippler Becomes the Needler

Chris Leben tests positive for steroids and is suspended for nine months after UFC 89 loss.

I've been a fan of Chris Leben's for a few years now. I liked how he carried himself, I liked his heavy, heavy fists that can knock out anyone at any time (see: Martin, Terry for a fantastic graphic example).

But I'm going to really have to re-evaluate my admiration and respect after he was busted for cheating. I can't stand cheaters and I really hate it when cheaters win. Which Leben did not do when he used steroids in his fight against Michael Bisping a couple of weeks ago.

I do have to give props to the UFC for instituting its own drug policies and enforcing them. There is no governing body forcing them to drug test their fighters, they do it of their own accord and that is pretty damned admirable.

SI's All-Scandal Baseball Team

A rare forward from my busy brother....(my comments in italics)

Baseball's All-Scandal Team featuring:

First base: Mark McGwire Mob informers are easier to find than Big Mac
Second base: Billy Martin
Shortstop: Miquel Tejada The only active player on the list
Third base: Wade Boggs
Catcher: Paul Lo Duca Lo Duca was news to me but it makes sense
Left field: Barry Bonds Even without the steroid taint, he's got more skeletons than a coroner
Center field: Ty Cobb Truly one of the nastiest and least sportsmanlike stars of all time
Right field: Darryl Strawberry Should have been named Sniffberry but they got the straw part right
Designated snitchhitter: Jose Canseco Self-absorbed bitter needle junkie with terrible hair and a penchant for turning on former friends and teammates
Pitcher: Roger Clemens The poster child for bluster, lies, obfuscation and, eventually, tearful admissions and then jailtime, I hope
Pitcher: Dwight Gooden Dr. Feelgood and Straw were like a coke sniffing baseball star duo, they strike out and hit home runs during the day and snort massive piles of Columbian flake
Pitcher: John Rocker Racism IS alive and well in major league sports
Bench: Albert Belle, Rafael Palmiero, Sammy Sosa, Mickey Mantle Palmiero is the poster child for stupidity and hypocrisy, Sosa's the poster child for post-steroid pump shrinkage (he turned into his little brother when he went off the juice) and Albert Belle's the poster child for 'roid rage
Manager: Pete Rose I believe Pete Rose has gotten a raw deal and should be in the Hall for his accomplishments as a player and its a joke he's being held out because of a personal vendetta
Owner: George Steinbrenner Owners should own, players should play, coaches should coach and the Steinbrenners should SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY!
Trainer: Brian McNamee I have no animosity towards McNamee except for that his injections helped the Yankees cheat and win more games than they had a right to. On second thought, burn him!

I skipped over some of the lessor known and not so contemporary players to focus on these fellas. I find it rather interesting that, of all of those listed above, one is still playing, Miquel Tejeda. The rest have gone into hiding or are scaring the shit out of local yokels on company teams (can you imagine facing John Rocker at the company picnic?).

It may not be actually true but it seems like the majority ran afoul of cocaine and hot chicks (or in Clemens' case, HGH and fugly country singers).

Who else should be on the list?
I'd say Ken Caminiti's one, Jeff Kent should get an honorable mention for being such an ornery liar (broke his wrist riding his motorcycle in contradiction to his contract and lied about it), Scott Boras (not a ball player but he's done as much more harm to the game than any other non-player by disvirtue of his contract negotiations and escalating salaries) and Bud Selig (complicit and profited from rampant steroid use as owner and commissioner). I'm sure there are plenty, plenty more that could be added here.

[Update: Big Joe read the post before I'd had a chance to amend it to remove Tony Gwynn from the list. I'd crossed my wires and was thinking about Kirby Puckett who got crazy after his retirement and might have been crazy during his playing days. Apologies to Padres fans and fans of Mr. Gwynn. My brain isn't quite up to full speed after last week's meltdown.]

Clemens-cy

New drug policy lets cheats off the hook like, oh I don't know, Roger Clemens.

I get that there is no way to go back and verify who was cheating and who wasn't. But to broadbrush the Mitchell Report and just say anyone noted in it gets a "Get Out of Jail Free" card smacks of sweeping it under the rug.

I mean, now that Bud Selig has gotten Barry Bonds out of baseball, he seems to have lost his bloodlust for steroid abusers.

Is the game cleaner now than it was five years ago? Undoubtedly.
Are there still cheaters playing?
Also undoubtedly.
Should cheaters get a free pass?
Nope. Not in my book. You cheat, you earn millions of dollars for cheating and then you get a free pass? Sorry but fuck you and the needle you made your millions on.

This decision to let the named cheaters wriggle off the hook is Selig's attempt to sweep all of this into the past and lay it all on a few very high profile players when the reality is that PED use in baseball has been rampant and it took place on his watch. Bud Selig is as much to blame for the steroid era as the players who had to do drugs to stay at the top of their game.

Hope Springs Eternal

Tonight is the stateside start to the Major League Baseball season after the odd and unnecessary kickoff in Japan by the A's and Red Sox last week.

Today is a great day for baseball fans everywhere. Because there are no records, there are no sub-.500 teams, there are no cellar-dwellers. And there haven't been any sparkles and fades. Yet.

But some things seem to never change, like, oh I don't know, Nomar, and Schmidt going on the DL for the Dodgers. I don't wish ill upon any individual player unless they suit up for the Dodgers or the Yankees and then I just hope they get hurt enough to miss the season.

I hold out little hope that my San Francisco Giants will be much of a threat aside from their superior pitching talent. Lincecum and Cain are superb pitchers and both are definitely staff-ace quality. Zito should have a better year than last. Lowry is a very solid 4th and Correia is an understated 5th. The lineup the Giants are putting up isn't especially scary in terms of power but they are pretty fast and might surprise teams by playing small ball.

Which reminds me, this will be the first season in a very long time without Barry Bonds. His on-field presence will be missed but the circus that follows his every move will not. I do not deny that he almost certainly used steroids and other cheater drugs but he was, by no stretch of the imagination, the only one and my main complaint against the investigation of Bonds is that he is being used as the poster boy for steroids when he's barely even the tip of the iceberg. But at least Roger "Needleass" Clemens has done his part to take away the spotlight with his ridiculous denials and "they must be misremembering"'s.

And yeah, I do kind of hope that Clemens gets some jail time for his blatant and insane perjury and utter misrepresentation of the facts and reality. And for shooting his wife up with HGH too, that was a major league class act.

But enough of the spotted past of the game. Today is the start of a brand new season, a brand new era and a whole bunch of new stars are poised to leap into the imaginations of children and grown up children everywhere.

Today my Giants are in a tie for first place and that's likely about as close as they'll get this season but I don't mind, I'll be enjoying watching the Yankees lose, the Red Sox win, the Dodgers sparkle and then fade away and all the myriad microdramas that make up a baseball season.

Hot damn, its time for baseball again!

Squirm, Rocket, Squirm

It was with delight that I got to listen in to Roger Clemens' speak to the congressional committee investigating illegal performance enhancing drug use in baseball on the way to work this morning. The squirm is palpable and absolutely hilarious.

And the thing is that there are two conclusions to this particular facet of the roid drama playing out. Either Brian McNamee is lying and will be going to prison for perjury or Roger Clemens is lying and will be going to prison for perjury. But McNamee's reason for disclosure is "truer" in that he has everything to lose by lying whereas Clemens has everything to lose by telling the truth. Motivations are very, very important and key to coming to some idea of who's reliable and who's trying to protect a, previous to this, Hall of Fame career. Hint, it ain't the trainer.

As each of the other pieces of the story come out, Andy Pettitte's corroboration, Andy Pettitte's wife's corroboration, the syringes and more, each piece goes further and further to cementing Roger Clemens as both a cheater and a liar.

And it sure is fun watching his big inflated ego bobble around like a balloon in a hurricane trying to stay up and keep from getting skewered. The only thing is that he's already skewered, just nobody has been able to get that bit of information to penetrate his cult-of-personality false reality.

I actually believe that Clemens has convinced himself of his innocence. He's so bought into his story that he no longer thinks its a story, he buys his own bull. The only trouble is that not a single person outside of Roger Clemens buys it. And the end result of all his bluster, attack dog lawyerations and interviews is that he'll have spent millions of dollars to convince no one. And I'm sure he'll still be protesting his innocence to his cellmate.

Named Names in the Mitchell Report

Brace yourself, its a pretty big list. Broken down into three groups: No Doubters, Probablys and Purt Damn Likelys.

Sadly, a good number of players I like(d) are among the named names. I don't know what the impact of the report will be but hopefully the game of baseball will emerge as a better, cleaner sport.

The following players were connected to steroids, either use or possession, in the report:
Chad Allen
Mike Bell
Gary Bennett
Larry Bigbie
Ricky Bones
Kevin Brown
Ken Caminiti
Mark Carreon
Jason Christiansen
Howie Clark
Roger Clemens
Paxton Crawford
Jack Cust
Brendan Donnelly
Chris Donnels
Lenny Dykstra
Matt Franco
Ryan Franklin
Eric Gagne
Jason Grimsley
Jerry Hairston
Phil Hiatt
Matt Herges
Glenallen Hill
Todd Hundley
Ryan Jorgensen
Wally Joyner
Mike Judd
David Justice
Chuck Knoblauch
Tim Laker
Mike Lansing
Paul Lo Duca
Exavier "Nook" Logan
Josias Manzanillo
Cody McKay
Kent Mercker
Bart Miadich
Hal Morris
Daniel Naulty
Denny Neagle
Rafael Palmeiro
Jim Parque
Andy Pettitte
Adam Piatt
Todd Pratt
Stephen Randolph
Adam Riggs
Brian Roberts
F.P. Santangelo
David Segui
Mike Stanton
Ricky Stone
Miguel Tejada
Derrick Turnbow
Mo Vaughn
Ron Villone
Fernando Vina
Rondell White
Jeff Williams
Todd Williams
Kevin Young
Gregg Zaun

The following players were cited under "Alleged Internet Purchases of Performance Enhancing Substances By Players in Major League Baseball" in the report:
Rick Ankiel
David Bell
Paul Byrd
Jose Canseco
Jay Gibbons
Troy Glaus
Jose Guillen
Darren Holmes
Gary Matthews Jr.
John Rocker
Scott Schoeneweis
Ismael Valdez
Matt Williams
Steve Woodard

The following players were linked through BALCO in the report:
Marvin Benard
Barry Bonds
Bobby Estalella
Jason Giambi
Jeremy Giambi
Benito Santiago
Gary Sheffield
Randy Velarde

The Mitchell Report: Alot More Than Just Barry Bonds

Sources: Mitchell Report to name MVPs, All-Stars, won't address amphetamines and here's a link to PDF copy of the report.

Names like Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Jason Grimsley, David Segui, Jose Guillen and Jay Gibbons. Of course, it has just been released so the flood of alleged cheaters will be coming out for the rest of the day and, probably, into next season.

On KNBR they were talking about names that might be on the list but may not be. Guys like Jason Schmidt, Paul O'Neill, Marquis Grissom and a whole bunch of others.

Let's face it, the great American pastime is rife with athletes taking performance enhancing drugs. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it. Major League Baseball has a serious drug problem but it isn't just the athletes that are guilty, the owners, managers, trainers, pals and other assorted support personnel are as guilty but will, largely, go unpunished.

Does it diminish my love of the sport? Yeah, maybe just a little bit. Do I hope this is the first major step to cleaning up the game and re-levelling the playing field? Heck yeah.

Not only because PEDs undermine the integrity of the game, which is a big deal, but more so because younger players and kids look up to big leaguers and are getting the wrong message about drugs from them. They are getting the message that using PEDs is okay, that cheating to win and get that big contract is not only acceptable but encouraged. And that goes a long way to undermining the future of sport in America.

If some legacies have to be torched to clean up the sport then so be it. But let's not let the managers and owners get off scot-free. Let's punish every level of guilty party from the minors to the front office.

[Update: The player list originally sent over by my cousin is not the actual player list. I have a copy of the report and will add the named players when I get a chance.]

Marion Jones: Cheater and Fraud

Marion Jones Admits Doping for 2000 Olympics and Olympic winner Marion Jones now loser after doping plea

Which, effectively, deletes her life in professional sports. She's an admitted cheater, she should lose her medals, lose her endorsements and be subject to lawsuits for fraud. Oh yeah, and all of her race results should be voided.

I watched her admission, apology and retirement and felt some pangs of sympathy for her as she basically came as clean as she could. And then I remembered that she was one of the loudest deniers of steroid use back when it was alleged, she swore up and down that she was clean, she profited wildly from her lies and fraud and then any sympathy I had for her is gone.

The worst part isn't the fact that she cheated and won, well maybe it is, but it is intensified by her loud and vociferous denials. Her public outrage at being accused even! And now we learn the truth that she was just another cheater all the time.

I hope the winners who got cheated out of their medals in 2000 sue her for damages and lost opportunities. I hope her life becomes a cautionary tale of what not to do. I hope someone somewhere, who's wavering on the fence about doping to win, sees her personal agony and public humiliation and says no to the needle and the cream. And just tries harder.

History will not and should not be kind to Marion Jones and her deceit.

Good on Barry

Bonds ties Aaron, belts 755th home run but the Giants still lost, again.

Anyway, I'm glad the record has been tied, I hope the Giants are able to concentrate on something else for a little while.

Also, I know there are a lot of people who believe that Bonds breaking the record and being excited about it equates to condoning the use of PEDs and cheating in general. While I respect that point of view, I also respectfully disagree that they are one and the same.

It was a baseball moment, regardless of the circumstances, it was a baseball moment and I wish I could have been there for it. The San Diego fans showed themselves to be baseball fans when they stood up and cheered as loudly as they could when he hit it. They felt what an occasion it was and they enjoyed it as baseball fans beyond being Padres fans (besides, they probably knew the Giants wouldn't beat them).

Call me a Barry apologist, call me a fake fan, call me whatever. It was pretty cool to see it happen, even if I had to rewind the Tivo to see it because I was outside at the exact time the home run was hit.

The Difference Between a Sentiment and an Opinion

There are an awful lot of people who go around espousing what they think are opinions but they are really expressing their sentiments. What is the difference between the two?

A sentiment is a belief held because it makes you feel a certain way, it is not based on rational, deductive logic.

An opinion is conclusion arrived at after careful consideration of the available information.

Where a sentiment can be held in spite of obvious evidence to the contrary, i.e. the Yankees suck, the reality is that they are an incredibly talented group of players being paid exorbitant sums of money. My opinion of the Yankees is that George Steinbrenner is ruining the sport of baseball because he has an addiction to trophies. That opinion is based on him spending ridiculous salaries for aging stars in an effort to get back to the World Series.

Yes, it is a nuance between a sentiment and an opinion but the difference is important because an sentiment isn't likely to be changable whereas an opinion can be (and should be) open for debate and deeper consideration. Say I learned that Steinbrenner wants to win the World Series one more time before he dies of congestive heart failure that he had diagnosed a year or two ago, that puts his spendy ways in a very different light. Doesn't change my sentiment towards the Yankees though, I am, afterall, an Orioles fan (and a Red Sox fan because so much of my family is in New England).

By the way, I am not a fan of Curt Schilling anymore. Not in the light of his spaz-mouth episode a couple of weeks ago. Keep your deeply biased (and factually incorrect) assumptions to yourself, Mr. Holier-Than-Thou. Or let's see your proof, otherwise you're just another jackass spouting off. Or are you going with the best defense is a good offense? I know there have always been whispers about you and 'roids too, Curt.