The Mitchell Report & Affect on MLB

[Dan Wishengrad]

Well the Mitchell report is going to be released any minute, and if today's LA Times story on what it contains is true -- a much larger problem than previously acknowledged with 60-80 or more players implicated -- how will this news affect Major League Baseball? The Times story has already revealed two names -- Roger Clemens and Andy Pettite, and many more will be known in the coming days.

I think it's interesting that while McGwire, Palmeiro and especially Bonds have been vilified for months for their certain steroid use, other players who also used performance enhancing drugs like Clemens have avoided the glare of the spotlight and been all but worshipped for their performance on the field. Will this attitude change shortly? Will folks now clamor to have asterisks affixed to Clemens' Cy Young awards and lifetime pitching stats?

The Mitchell report supposedly will blast MLB executives, team management and the players union all for culpability and for contributing to and/or helping to cover-up the problem. Nobody will be spared, and the crap will definitely be hitting the fan soon...

[CATLAX MAN]

There are going to be a lot of players on this list that people will not expect. It will be interesting to see the response they receive. I've always felt that the treatment that Bonds has been getting was very unfair. He has been the whipping boy for this issue, when others have been getting a free pass. It's just ridiculous..........but given Bud Selig's involvement & attitude, kind of understandable (What? There are PEDs in all baseball clubhouses? I didn't know that).

The level of two-facedness, especially as it relates to Bonds, is incredible all throughout baseball & the media. I recently had an email exchange with the Baseball Hall of Fame regarding their accepting the defaced-Ecko #756 home run ball:

My gripe to them:

I am very perturbed that the Baseball Hall of Fame is participating in the very public "attention grabbing" situation with Mr. Ecko. As a museum, it should be about preserving pieces of baseball history as memorabilia. Participating in Mr. Ecko's scheme to deface the ball in question for the sole purpose of making grabbing headlines and making a statement about his feelings about Mr. Bonds is very distasteful on the museum's part. The right thing to do by the Hall of Fame would've been to inform Mr. Ecko that you would accept the ball as long as it was intact and not defaced. It is shameful for the museum to be involved in this publicity stunt. The Board of Directors of this museum should apologize to the public for getting involved in this.

Their response:

Thank you for your letter regarding Barry Bonds’ 756th home run baseball which is being donated to the museum. Thank you for taking the time to express your views and we apologize for the delay in returning a reply.

We understand your consternation in the Museum accepting this donation, but we strongly believe it is a relevant and important artifact that belongs in Cooperstown. As an American history museum, our core mission is to tell the story of baseball history, both in the context of how it unfolds on the field, and also as it relates to American culture.

As you know, the baseball from Bonds’ 756th home run is being donated with an asterisk affixed to it. We do not condone defacing artifacts and would have preferred the baseball be donated in its natural state. We were willing to look beyond that in this instance, because of the historical relevance connected to the baseball. We will explain why it is defaced and what led to it being donated to the Museum in that condition.

In our opinion, the baseball speaks to many significant parallels between baseball and culture in 2007, some of which include: a representation of baseball fans’ sentiments about the home record, for a one-week period in September 2007; a symbol of the adversity Barry Bonds had to endure in passing Hank Aaron to become the all-time home run champion, and; the passion baseball fans have for baseball history, as evidenced by the popularity of the online poll, in which 10 million votes were cast during a one-week period.

When this artifact is eventually donated and placed on display in the Museum, the entire story -- from when the baseball left Barry Bonds’ bat and ended up in Cooperstown -- will be presented fairly and balanced with facts and not supposition: We share baseball history through exhibits and let our visitors interpret their own feelings.

Additionally, please know we have several other artifacts graciously donated by Barry Bonds from his career, including his historic 755th and 756th home runs.

We hope this sheds some light into our thinking. Thanks again for sharing your opinion, which we value.

I wonder if they will also take the time to give a fair & balanced explanation of Ty Cobb's racism, or the HOF's refusal to let Tim Robbins speak at the honoring of the Bull Durham movie (he was banned for fear that he was going to make a political statement that they didn't agree with), or Mickey Mantle's alcoholism, or Babe Ruth's womanizing, etc., etc. etc.

[StrykerFSU]

Just because other players cheat with steroids doesn't mean that Bonds should not be exposed and ridiculed for being the cheat that he is. May he, Clemens, Rose, and all of the other cheaters be forever on the outside looking in at Cooperstown.

I flipped through the Mitchell Report but unfortunately there was no handy table listing all of the cheaters. Come on ESPN staffers...read faster and get that info up on the web for the rest of us.

[Sonny]

Bonds just broke the most cherished record in all of professional sports. I don't think the treatment he received was unfair.

If other major first ballot HOF players (like Clemens) have violated the rules, throw the book at them too.

[peterwho]

A slide show of those named in the report.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/ny-mitchellreport-photos,0,4237282.photogallery?coll=sofla_tab01_layout

[StrykerFSU]

Players named by the Mets bat boy (unofficial):

Roger Clemens, Lenny Dykstra, Mo Vaughn, Miguel Tejada, Eric Gagne, Kevin Brown, David Justice, Andy Petite, Rondell White, Paul Lo Duca, Brian Roberts, Jack Cust, Chuck Knoblach, Greg Zaun among others.

The moral of the story kids is don't pay for your drugs with a check.

[Sonny]

The moral of the story kids is don't pay for your drugs with a check.

[Dan Wishengrad]

Anybody find a link listing ALL the players named? I opened the actual report itself, but the thing is 409 pages long... sheesh!

I'm curious if Bret Boone was among those listed. If ever a player appeared to benefit from the use of PEDs it was Boonie -- who went from a weak-hitting defensive second baseman to an MVP-type offensive season the very next year after transforming his body during the winter. Maybe it was only lots of protein and dedicated weight training, but I remain a skeptic here. I watched too many Boone fly balls die short of the warning track one season, only to see the same swing send gobs of baseballs into the upper deck the next.

[LaxTV_Admin]

Here is a list from ESPN

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3153646

[Dan Wishengrad]

Here is a list from ESPN

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3153646

Thanks Pancho. Boone is not listed, so either the published names represent an imcomplete listing, or Bret simply was a late bloomer who hit puberty while already on a Major League roster. I'm betting it was the former.

PS One important thing the list demonstrates is that taking PEDs is no guarantee of improving one's performance. Some of these alleged steroid users sucked before AND after going on the juice, with no notable improvement whatsoever. Inerestingly, John Rocker IS on the list. I'm shocked!

[Matt_Gardiner]

Where's Sammy Sosa? Mo Mark Macguire either. Neither are mentioned.

[StrykerFSU]

I don't think that is supposed to represent the definitive list of who has cheated by using PEDs. These are players that were implicated as cheaters either by the BALCO investigation or from the investigation of the Mets bat boy. These guys are only the tip of the iceberg. The real question is what will be the ramifications on Selig and company. At best they are guilty of extreme incompetence for allowing a culture of cheating to exist in their sport. Bart Giamatti would be ashamed.

[horn17]

I say...

if steroids makes baseball more entertaining than so be it...let everyone take them...150mph fastballs....600 ft homeruns...now that might be something Selig could market to compete with the NFL.....

Seriously....I quit watching the sport - (with the exception of using it as a sleep aid on summer afternoons - Cubs day games are great to sleep to, the WGN announcers lull me to sleep) - after they ended the Allstar game in a TIE a couple of years ago....

Cheaters never win....unless your Clemens...then you win alot...

[Adam G]

Here is a list from ESPN

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3153646

Anyone else notice all the Yankee jerseys in this slideshow?

[CATLAX MAN]

Bonds just broke the most cherished record in all of professional sports. I don't think the treatment he received was unfair.

If other major first ballot HOF players (like Clemens) have violated the rules, throw the book at them too.

You don't seem to understand the point. I have no problem with him being called out. What is unfair is how Bonds has been singled out as the poster boy for the PED issue, while others were not taken to task similarly. I think he has a point that if he was white, the vitriol involved in his public bashing would not have nearly been the same. Look at how McGwire, Palmeiro, etc. were treated in the face of similar allegations. They didn't get raked over the coals nearly the same amount that Bonds did. I think that there is a little underlying racism in play here.