Mitchell's Report, What We Already Knew, And What To Take From It
Published December 14, 2007
I really, really, really, really don't feel like talking about the report released by Sen. George Mitchell detailing his findings on performance enhancing substances in baseball. I really don't. Using the Austin Powers Defense, that sort of thing ain't my bag, baby.
But baseball is my bag. And as much as I'd like to deny it, Sen. Mitchell's report really did affect the game Thursday afternoon, even if it gave very little new information, such as:
• Someone shot steroids into Roger Clemens' butt
• A lot of other players — many of them substandard — doled out checks to an admitted steroid dealer
• Paul Lo Duca's cell phone was, at one time, broken
Beyond that, much of it was common knowledge or loud rumors. Indeed, some players never mentioned before in steroid rumors were suddenly thrust into the wind (David Justice? Really? How was Halle Berry not enough of a slumpbuster?), but the rest of the info was consistent with our premonitions: steroids are bad, there's a problem in the sport, it's everyone's fault, and the players are rather tight-lipped about the issue, including those who are no longer playing baseball.
Seems like kind of a waste of time and money to go through all that trouble to tell us that water is wet. But there is certainly value in the report.
The entire struggle between performance enhancing substance manufacturers/dealers/users vs. drug testing is quite reminiscent of the battle between casinos and blackjack card counters. People found ways to "beat the system" of blackjack, using algorithms, machines, and even team play, but in the end casinos were able to triumph over those looking for an unfair edge. So in this case, MLB's technology is testing any sort of bodily fluid that can uncover drug use.
And wouldn't you know, that was one of Mitchell's big-duh recommendations. So was the Good Senator just wasting his time?
Not necessarily. If he went through months and months of research and came up with bum diddly, even that speaks volumes of how the past's mistakes cannot be undone. George Mitchell could spend three more years investigating and come up with 150 more names, but that won't accomplish much except embarrass a lot of former baseball players, all the while performance enhancing substance technology becomes more and more sophisticated.
So let's focus on the future, not the past. Any forlorn baseball fan takes this maxim to heart, especially Cubs fans who cannot dwell on the previous 100 seasons of disappointment, but rather peek forward to a year in which they will one day win that elusive World Series. Likewise, MLB just has to work toward better drug testing and perhaps run stricter background checks on clubhouse trainers, or keep them on tighter leashes.
Who knows. They might have better solutions. I just write about sports on the Internet.
But once drug suspensions are reduced to aberrations and not commonalities — here's the important part — don't rest on the throne saying the problem is solved. Continually think of new ways ballplayers could cheat, and snuff them out. They may not want to impose all these new rules and try to change a deeply embedded culture within baseball, but remember, I didn't want to write this article either.
Matt Sussman is the sports editor of BC Magazine and also writes for Deadspin, SPORTSbyBROOKS, The Futon Report, and the Toledo Free Press. Catch him Mondays and Fridays at 8 p.m. ET with asst. sports editor Tuffy on Treehouse Fort, the official show of BC Sports. E-mail sports-related inquiries (or inquiry-related sports, such as full-contact Twenty Questions) to matt.sussman@blogcritics.org.
- Mitchell's Report, What We Already Knew, And What To Take From It
- Published: December 14, 2007
- Type: News
- Section: Sports
- Filed Under: Sports: Baseball, Sci/Tech: Health/Fitness
- Writer: Matthew T. Sussman
- Matthew T. Sussman's BC Writer page
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Never fear, there's always pro wrestling. That seems to be the mentality of society these days. When the crowd calls for blood we give 'em what they want...right Selig? I have no love loss for neither the owners,the players nor the fans. They have taken a game I loved and turned it into a joke. The people(BTW - there not fans,so I wont call them that)will continue to fill the ballparks because integrity has no place in their game. Shame on everyone. Baseball was the last game I could watch all the way through without wanting to gag.Stopped watching the NBA about a few years ago and the NFL SHEESH!!! If I see another guy jump up and pound his f**king chest when the scoreboard says your losing by two touchdowns, it'll be too soon! now America's game has been soiled by none other than "OURSELVES"!!! Our thirst for over the top, in your face, just win baby has killed the game I love. Thanks alot America.
What I really fear becoming a commonality instead of an aberration (due to this whole mess) is the dreaded ASTERISK in the record books. On some level, when we consider Clemens' Cy Young Awards from now on, we'll be parsing the list of his winning years to see if he really earned them, or if he juiced. And cumulative lifetime stats, like Clemens' strikeouts and Bonds's homers, are tainted even if they had their best performances in years when they didn't juice.
And will they make it into the HoF? I genuinely don't know. McGwire's having a hard time just based on his silence about steroids. And Bonds? Face it - he's not liked by the voting sportswriters (or anyone else); many of them are just looking for an excuse to keep him out.
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I disagree that there is very little NEW information that we didn't know before in the Mitchell Report. For one, the Adam Piatt revelations - as opposed to Rafael Palmeiro's unfounded accusation - about Miguel Tejada using steroids while still with Oakland was new to me, even though I predicted (like other people) that he and many others may very well be in Mitchell's report.
Names like Jack Cust, Eric Gagne and Brendan Donelly - the latter two cheated well before they joined the Red Sox as far as we know, I might add - Greg Zaun, Chuck Knoblauch, Mo Vaughn are all new to me.
Kevin Brown was predictable, but we got new damning evidence of Roger, Andy Petitte and others doing illegal drugs that we didn't know or have before. It even has copies of checks from players and their go-to guys for steroids.
Yes, the are many names and players in there that nobody gives a hoot about (Steve Woodard and Mike Lansing comes to mind) in the Report, but they are rather new names (also Larry Bigbie comes to mind).
What I find disturbing though is that the Mitchell Report had some simple allegations of cheating, like Larry Bigbie saying he heard Brian Roberts tell him that he used steroids in 2003. That's enough to be put in the biggest baseball report in ages? I don't think so. Sure, many people suspected Roberts did something, but you have to have more evidence - a check, maybe - than hearsay from another player to make accusations like this credible.
I personally am furious at the Red Sox front office now that George Mitchell - who took a lot of guts to put this out there despite his affiliation with the team - printed statements from execs saying they knew at THIS TIME LAST YEAR that Eric Gagne and Brendan Donnelly were highly suspected steroid users, or "juice" guys, as one exec put it.
There's two schools of thought regarding the Gagne trade now: Either Theo and his front office guys, knowing his (paraphrasing) "checkered medical past," didn't care that Gagne's resurgence with Texas may have been helped by steroids or they thought his comeback was clean and therefore saw no harm in giving up Kason Gabbard and Dave Murphy for him at the '07 trading deadline. Of course, in the absence of a positive drug test as the season went on, they could have told themselves he's clean now AND pitching great so let's get him while he's good. Turns out, he fell apart almost immediately joining the Sox as we all know.
I guess we'll never know what they were thinking now regarding Gagne, but if they knew more than us average Joe's about Donnelly's suspected history of cheating and still signed him, it means they didn't care and were desperate for a big league arm at the time.
So around here in Boston, Theo and his office are starting to be criticized for the Gagne and Donnelly deals.
But they aren't the only team that should not escape scrutiny. How about the Brewers giving Gagne $10 million/1 year earlier this week, and the Orioles hurrying Miguel Tejada out of Baltimore to Houston for a bunch of barely seasoned players and prospects on Wednesday?
There's lots of fools to go around now. And that includes us fans, especially those of us - myself included - who didn't believe the rumors about Clemens and steroids (until now). The likes of Clemens and Bonds will probably still get in the HofF despite all the evidence of their cheating late in their careers, but man, this stinks. What a dark day for baseball yesterday was.