Blogcritics Comments on Mitchell's Report, What We Already Knew, And What To Take From It

Comment by Michael J. West on Mitchell's Report, What We Already Knew, And What To Take From It

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:30:08 EST

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.

Comment by The Haze on Mitchell's Report, What We Already Knew, And What To Take From It

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:04:03 EST

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.

Comment by Charlie Doherty on Mitchell's Report, What We Already Knew, And What To Take From It

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:04:19 EST

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.