The Ramble Is Back: Canseco, Conte, Opening Days the Final Four and Brett Favre's Comeback
Published April 04, 2008
After a long hiatus The Ramble is back. Because of too much Rainbow Six Vegas 2, switching back and forth between all of the NCAA March Madness games and having 3 young sons run roughshod over me, my attention span is shot and I can only handle writing a few sentences per subject. So I’m giving up spouting off endlessly and at length on a variety of subjects. Lucky you – all 3 of my regular readers – will now be able to read my nonsense in smaller bite sized morsels.
Jose Canseco: There’s an old saying that even a broken clock is right twice a day. Jose had his two times a while ago, and now it’s time to take the clock off of the wall and put it in the attic. Canseco did a good thing when he decided to name names in his first book “Juiced,” and kicked off the events that ultimately became the investigation into steroid and growth hormone use. But now, as he’s flailing about trying to drag down A-Rod with his half-baked story, he’s lost what little credibility he had. Until - and unless - Jose tells us who “Max the drug dealer” is, Max might as well be his dog.
Victor Conte: The “Il Duce” of the steroids-in-sports racket has been spreading the word that he’s planning on writing a book that will name more names and give more details about his reign as the performance-enhancing drug dealer to the athletic elite. Conte, like Canseco, had relevancy pass him by years ago and nobody really much cares about what old Vic has to say unless he is ready to come clean about his involvement with Barry Bonds. We’ve heard as much as we can absorb or care about with regards to the intricacies of the BALCO scam, and Conte can’t add anything new to the mix. If Conte has anything truly interesting to say, the Feds will make sure he says it under oath in the Bonds trial.
Has Your Team Been “Giambied?” Several years ago the New York Yankees invested a ton of cabbage in the steroid-fueled Jason Giambi only to get a guy who never really produced at the level that earned him his contract. Giambi had health issues that prevented him from staying on the juice - or that the juice caused - and as a result the Yanks have paid about $80 million for about $15 million worth of production. With the crackdown on steroids and growth hormone over the past two or three seasons there are a lot of guys who have had to go off the drugs, and now these guys can’t produce at big contract levels.
Sal Marinello is a National Strength and Conditioning Association Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Certified Personal Trainer, a U.S.A. Weightlifting Certified Coach, a full-time, private Professional Strength and Conditioning Coach, an assistant football coach and a Head Strength Coach for a suburban New Jersey High School. He writes a lot and has no free time. 
- The Ramble Is Back: Canseco, Conte, Opening Days the Final Four and Brett Favre's Comeback
- Published: April 04, 2008
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Sports
- Filed Under: Sports: Baseball, Sports: Basketball, Sports: College, Sports: Football (American), Sports: Olympic
- Part of a feature: The Ramble
- Writer: Sal Marinello
- Sal Marinello's BC Writer page
- Sal Marinello's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
there are plenty of teams to pick on, the marlins are the target here because of the story that came out about their payroll.
you've just made the case for contraction. the marlins and other teams are basically glorified Triple A teams and this situation - not the steroids/hgh problem - reveals baseball's biggest problem.
dont be ridiculous. there are VERY few teams (braves, dodgers) who are run efficiently and have the depth of talent to be perpetually competitive without either a) spending shitloads of money or b) having some talent-thin transitional times. even the 200 million dollar payroll yankees had that period from 2001 until...well, now, where they didnt have the depth of homegrown talent to not spend big free agent money, and having to do so forced them to take extra risks that didnt pan out.
florida is doing the same thing that tampa and KC are doing, and that the pirates have just started doing: going through a replenishment of youth. all talent has to develop, so tampa had the last year or two, plus this year, where they had to lose a lot and have a low payroll. now that young talent is all starting to mature around the same time, and within the next few years, you'll see players like longoria, brignac, wade davis, and david price all mature, reach the bigs, and get their big contracts, to the point that the rays payroll should, all things continuing relatively constant, be topping at least 60 million by 2010.
florida wont have the same progression, because they havent drafted quite as high or chosen quite as well, but its the same situaiton. there can't be good teams without bad teams. teams like st louis, houston, san diego, philly, detroit all have large payrolls and will soon have to either dumb a crapload of money into free agency to upgrade their talent, or dump a lot of salary and start over through the draft.
it's a cycle. soon, the marlins will be what the brewers have been (improvement, but still rather "ok"), the brewers will be where the braves have been (constant feeder system of talent), and one of those teams i just mentioned (probably st louis) will be where florida is now.
there's no need for contraction. there's a need for you to choose better examples for your arguments. if a team is willing to give the best hitter in the game (A-rod) a large contract, and can afford to do so, by all means, let them. But to say that a team like florida is crap because their payroll is low is absurd. hell, the orioles have a payroll pushing 100 million, and they'll be marginally better than florida at best.
The Marlins performance as a team has just as much to do with their youth as it does with their lack of any superstars
Sal - how did you manage to wake up the lone Marlins fan in existence? You are talented.
Also, wake up and smell the coffee. It is not about HGH, steroids and cheating, it is about Jose! Can't get enough of him on the tube.
Sam was the name of the dog of David Berkowitz, perhaps there is a Son of Max story coming out of this.
Later.
"how did you manage to wake up the lone Marlins fan in existence? You are talented."
it is all on google, nips, all on google...
i'm not a marlins fan. never have never will root for them. your agrument is not wrong, just a really poor example.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/75472)
just for the record, you are WAY off about the Marlins.
"Plain and simple, if the Marlins can't field a team that needs to be paid the league average to be on the field, then there shouldn't be a baseball team in Miami."
The league average is a 75 million dollar payroll. A number of teams will be competitive that fall below that line. So, generally speaking, poor choice of words.
More specifically, this is an absurd statement. No, this team is not a Tampa team that is flush with fine young talent. However, it IS a team in transition. Therefore, you have positions with players who are at least above average (Uggla, Ramirez, Hermida, eventually Maybin) and are still young enough to have their rights controlled. Paying even an ubertalented player more than $400 K when you don't have to is just stupid general managing.
At the same time, your other positions are just full of stopgaps, and there's no reason to pay for a $5 million stopgap when you can have a $400 K stopgap.
This payroll should actually be lower, and might well be once they realize they're wasting $10 million on Mark Hendrickson and Luis Gonzalez.
Its probably like the Brewers owner said in a recent interview. The talent is there, but until that talent develops to the point that it deserves large contracts, and they feel they are only a free agent or two from contention, there is no reason to be dumping unnecessary funds into the payroll.
Find another team to pick on.