I Cheated...

...but only because playing fair didn't work.

First HGH was the new wonder-drug in the club-houses, the most popular by far. It was seen as the fountain of youth and a much better option than say, oh I don’t know, anabolic steroids. Now that players are being linked to it there’s a new addiction in the club-houses. “I uhhhh I admit that I used it but wait….I only used it once or twice and it was for medical reasons.”

Andy Petite, Paul Byrd, Fernando Vina, Brian Roberts among others are all treating us like idiots. They think that we’re buying this, “well, now that you caught me, yeah I did it, but it was only like once, I swear, and it was only because the rehab wasn’t working”. Well yeah, drugs work better than rehab, and if rehab isn’t working the drugs will, it doesn’t take an idiot to figure that out. If my swing is late, that means my bat’s too heavy, so if I drill a hole in the top and fill it with cork or Superballs, my bat will be faster and I’ll get more hits. I only corked my bat because my swing wasn’t working and I had to try something else. Welcome to the world of cheaters. This is really just insulting, you cheated, own it. So here’s a nice report by F.P. Santangelo. He actually admits to using HGH and that it was wrong, at first he explains it was for rehab but immediately says he felt the guilt and that he knew it was wrong and that he isn’t trying to cover it up. AND he tells us that it is bad, “I admitted it and I faced the music. And if by me being embarrassed helps generations to come not have to make the difficult decisions that I had to make, then it's good that this all came out. But I don't want to be Mr. Public Speaker and go talk to every high school in the world. Through my radio show, I just hope to get the word out about how bad this stuff is.”

Now I realize there is a good chance that came off as sarcasm, but I am genuinely happy that this guy isn’t trying to pull a fast one on us. It’s a sad fact though that when we think about it, the only person who has been up front and honest about this whole thing was Jose Canseco. And he had an ulterior motive, selling his book Juiced.

In case you missed the news, Roger Clemens has been removed as the Texas High School Baseball Association keynote speaker on the topic of, “My vigorous workout, how I played so long in professional baseball”. That’s a pretty short speech. “First eat a solid breakfast, because it’s the most important meal of the day. Then go get your HGH kit, make sure the needle is clean. You don’t want dirty needles. Have a teammate shoot you in the A$$ then hit the gym and mound. I hope this was informative.”

Also while looking up famous corked bat events earlier I came across this Sports Illustrated article from 1999. It is a great story about proven cheater (roids/HGH) Jason Grimsley helping out his Tribe Teammate, and fellow proven cheater (corked bats) Albert Belle. Enjoy.

More after the jump...

Runnin' with the Report

As mentioned earlier the Mitchell Report came out today, live on the radio and presumably TV as well. The list of involved parties is long, and a good majority of them come from the testimony of Kirk Radomski as part of a pleas bargain. Now this list is a lot of hearsay and the physical evidence is not amounting a lot. Many of the players were pointed out in the report due to checks (Radomski didn’t have any checks prior to 2000), packing slips, and his address book.

There is no proof of guilt but here are the players named in the Mitchell Report:

Roger Clemons, Andy Petite, Miguel Tejada, Eric Gagne, Paul Lo Duca, Marvin Benard, Barry Bonds, Bobby Estalella, Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi, Armando Rios, Benito Santiago, Gary Sheffield, Randy Velarde, Manny Alexander, Ricky Bones, Alex Cabrera, Juan Gonzalez, More than half of 2002’s Florida Marlins Major League Roster, Rafael Palmeiro, Jose Canseco, Jason Grimsley, Ken Caminiti, David Segui, Paxton Crawford, Chad Allen, Larry Bigbie, Adam Piatt, Lenny Dykstra, Brian Roberts, Jack Cust, Tim Laker, Jonias Manzanillo, Todd Hundley, Mark Carreon, Hal Morris, Matt Franco, Rondell White, Chuck Knoblauch, Gregg Zaun, David Justice, F.P. Santangelo, Glenallen Hill, Mo Vaughn, Denny Neagle, Ron villone, Ryan Franklin, Chris Donnels, Todd Williams, Phil Hiatt, Todd Pratt, Kevin Young, Mike Lansing, Cody McKay, Kent Mercker, Jason Christiansen, Mike Stanton, Stephen Randolf, Jerry Hairston Jr., Adam Riggs, Bart Miadich, Fernando Vina, Kevin Brown, Mike Bell, Matt Herges, Gary Bennett Jr., Jim Parque, Brendon Donnelly, Jeff Williams, Howie Clark, Nook Logan, Daniel Naulty, Jay Gibbons, Rick Ankiel, Paul Byrd, Troy Glaus, Jose Guillen, Gary Matthews Jr., Schot Schoeneweis, David Bell, Darren Holmes, John Rocker, Ismael Valdez, Matt Williams, Steve Woodard.

As I said earlier, these are the NAMES THAT APPEAR IN THE MITCHELL REPORT. That does not mean there is any guilt among these players unless, like David Segui, they have already officially come forward and admitted so. Also, as I said many of the players denied to be interviewed but were linked to the Steriod scandals so they are named.

As quoted in the report there was mention of “annual players-only meetings during which teammates reminded one another that any personal information they learned during the season needed to be kept in “the family.” He said that players understood that a failure to abide by this unwritten rule would sound the death knell for their careers. Through his lawyer, another former player who admitted his own use of performance enhancing substances claimed that his career as a major league coach would be harmed “perhaps fatally” if he were required to identify other players who had admitted to him that they had used steroids.”

There will undoubtedly be more that comes of this. Interesting note, Mark McGwire is mentioned in the Report but not for Steroids or HGH only the Andro which we all knew about and was not a banned substance at the time but is now. Slammin’ Sammy Sosa was also not mentioned in the report.
More after the jump...