The Mitchell Report & Affect on MLB

[peterwho]

Many of the articles being published today seem to take the "it was good for baseball", "follow the money", "the player's union is too powerful" and "Selig is a pawn" approach to justify the growth (pun intended) of the problem. On one sports talk show this morning, they suggested that it is the player's health at risk and if they choose to do this, let them, it makes the game more exciting.

So my question is: Will Russell Crowe play Roger Clemens in the movie?

[Beta]

I'm just glad there are players from all 30 teams on this list. That means anyone who singles out only one player (ie Bonds) is a hypocrite.

I hope all those oh-so-original people with their * shirts and signs feel like idiots now.

Singling out a player isn't being a hypocrite. Someone that is guilty, is guilty. Whether he's the only one, or one of thirty. The responsibility isn't diffused amongst the total guilty.

The people with * shirts don't feel stupid...they feel justified since he cheated. Other people cheated too, they deserve * for it as well. If they don't have any records, then perhaps that is the reason we don't hear about people heckling them. The players with a lot of fans often have a lot of enemies.

[KnoxVegas]

So my question is: Will Russell Crowe play Roger Clemens in the movie?

It's a basbeall movie so Costner will definitely being playing that role.

[Matt_Gardiner]

On the other hand, Sutton & Perry crafted long careers relying on throwing spitters and scuffed baseballs.....which IS against baseball's rules. They make no bones about the fact that they cheated while playing baseball and, in Perry's case, seem to revel in the lore of his cheating. Where's your indignition here in the very flagrant & public flouting of the rules?

The difference is Sutton and Perry had to use some skill to cheat the way they did. They stood on a raised mound of dirt with thousands of people staring right at them while they scuffed baseballs and threw spitters. If Barry Bonds could stick a needle in his ass while standing in the outfield he would get some points for his slight of hand. I am not singling out Bonds. Clemens also loses credibility for his actions.

[LaxTV_Admin]

On the other hand, Sutton & Perry crafted long careers relying on throwing spitters and scuffed baseballs.....which IS against baseball's rules. They make no bones about the fact that they cheated while playing baseball and, in Perry's case, seem to revel in the lore of his cheating. Where's your indignition here in the very flagrant & public flouting of the rules?

The difference is Sutton and Perry had to use some skill to cheat the way they did. They stood on a raised mound of dirt with thousands of people staring right at them while they scuffed baseballs and threw spitters. If Barry Bonds could stick a needle in his ass while standing in the outfield he would get some points for his slight of hand. I am not singling out Bonds. Clemens also loses credibility for his actions.

So if I can be more deceitful than the guy next to me I am a better cheater and thus should not receive the same punishment as him?

Some could argue that Bonds with ALL the public scrutiny and feds crawling up his tukus, is a pretty darn good cheat considering to date he has NEVER failed a drug test? I don't know, that is pretty darn impressive.

Are you saying some cheaters deserve punishment while others do not?

[LaxTV_Admin]

Also Friday, Representative Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a phone interview that he will push for an even stronger testing program than the one recommended by Mr. Mitchell. Mr. Waxman also wants baseball to hold onto players’ urine or blood samples so that they can be tested for human growth hormone when tests are developed to detect the hormone.

This is why the Mitchell report is bad. You know, the guys who played in the 90's are getting this scrutiny, but what about the guys before them. Are we going to keep all the bats from the 60's when corking was pretty prevalent? Are we going to look back and see if Hank Aaron used a bunch of amphetamines to prolong his career a few extra years?

Seriously, acknowledge the problem. Do something about the problem. Please do not keep players blood/urine around so you can test it 20 years from now, just to tarnish their legacy.

Congress needs to work on things to help this country, and fixing baseball is not at the top. I can think of a lot bigger problems. What about our poor? gang violence? homeless? How about if you can solve any of those, then you can address steroids in baseball. Congress needs to get their priorities straight!

[Beta]

I don't think illegal substances should be viewed in a retroactive policy.

Because if they ever make hookers and hot dogs illegal...Babe Ruth is done for.

[Zamboni_Driver]

Congress needs to work on things to help this country, and fixing baseball is not at the top. I can think of a lot bigger problems. What about our poor? gang violence? homeless? How about if you can solve any of those, then you can address steroids in baseball. Congress needs to get their priorities straight!

What is Congress a 1 year old with an attention span of 2 minutes? Is Congress not capable of multi-tasking? Shouldn't we expect that Congress is able to juggle multiple domestic and international issues at any one time?

Congress has over 580 members (plus aides) and baseball has a monopoly exemption. I would hope a staff of this size can monitor the world, pay for our expenditures, track domestic trends, and investigate a monopoly (because baseball has an exemption from one of the best laws the US and Congress has ever passed - seriously try imaging a US without the anti-monopoly law and think steel, Bell telecomunications, and Microsoft -).

I don't care whether you think these guys mentioned in the Mitchell report should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame of not, you should be excited by the fact our Congress is so powerful they have the time and opportunity to review every negative that effects daily lifes of Americans.

[CATLAX MAN]

I don't care whether you think these guys mentioned in the Mitchell report should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame of not, you should be excited by the fact our Congress is so powerful they have the time and opportunity to review every negative that effects daily lifes of Americans.

Oh, pullleeaase!! If there wasn't a headline to grab, these guys wouldn't care a whit about this. TV time is all they're interested in and that's the only reason they care.

[JW]

I am of the opinion that the Government is not as concerned about the players health, but more concerned about the image (as government officials always are) of America's Past time. The image of the league can be alikened to that of the image of a politician who may or may not have been involved in an act of infidelity.

But moreso than the health of grown adults, who are going to do whatever they can to have a sustained career, I tend to think (as a former baseball player in high school) that the gov't is probably just as if not more concerned with the health of the High school athlete. Teenagers are taking steroids in order to get an edge. I was tempted from time to time to find use steroids for that edge, but realized that I wanted to play the game the right way, and bulking up was not part of the answer. Many kids today are dying, commiting suicide, because they can't handle the emotional and psychological effects of steroids.

[laxfan25]

Why does Baseball still continue to get an anti-trust exemption? I think it's time for that to get pulled - it was completely unjustified in the first place.

[JW]

So what does it say about Major League Baseball if they end up allowing players like Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, or Barry Bonds into the Hall of Fame, when one of the All-Time greats (Pete Rose) is still kept out.

Gambling on Baseball does mess with the fabric of the game, but couldn't one argue that these people messed with the fabric of the game moreso.

Pretty Absurd.

[StrykerFSU]

So what does it say about Major League Baseball if they end up allowing players like Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, or Barry Bonds into the Hall of Fame, when one of the All-Time greats (Pete Rose) is still kept out.

It says that the voters are frauds and should be stripped of their voting privileges. None of the four you mention should ever be admitted under any circumstances.

[CATLAX MAN]

Sorry, I cannot agree with that. First of all, even if you completely throw out all statistics from 2002 forward, both Clemens & Bonds would be and should be first ballot entries into the HOF. Look up their stats and just try to fashion an argument otherwise. Secondly, unless you want to revisit the drug use of all players in the HOF who played in the 60s through the end of the 90s that regularly used drugs dispensed in MLB clubhouses, your steroid argument bears no weight. It's selective discrimination, at best, fueled by media hysteria.

[StrykerFSU]

There is an integrity clause on HOF ballots...the cheating that Bonds, Clemens & company engaged in as described in testimony to the US Senate and in the Mitchell Report would count as a violation of that clause, at least in my eyes.

As for the HOFers of the past who may have taken drugs, there is not a whole lot that can be done about them. Mike Lupica (I think) commented on this once saying that he, as a voter, doesn't care about the "cheaters" of the past as he was not a voter when they were selected...there is nothing he can do about their inclusion. What the voters of today CAN do is make a stand against cheaters of this generation, i.e. players who used ILLEGAL performance enhancing drugs to gain an unfair advantage over their competition.

It's perfectly fine for some to apologize for Bonds, I'm just not one of them and I don't think there are enough apologists among the voters to ever see him in the Hall. He can hang out with Rose in Cooperstown if he wants but he threw away his career the first time he rubbed the Cream.

I'm shocked that people involved in athletics don't take this more seriously. Setting aside the fact that steroids were not explicitly against MLB rules (they were still illegal)...what would be the opinion of a kid getting caught using steroids in the MCLA? Should we just look the other way? But hey, let's give Bondsy a pass because the media doesn't like him.