Un-Fucking-Real...... (Split from NYC's Weaker Sisters)

[Frayed Knot]

I smell another non-apology coming.






* Hey, my posts got the "Wright" stuff

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

what an asshole.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

They're just diet pills

[Guest Edgy DC]

The disappointing part is that, although there was no definitive evidence blahblah of his drug use before the Yankees dumped all that money on his lawn asking him to go to bed with them, there was plenty of evidence that he was an asshole.



Now, I'm not saying that the Mets haven't employed their share of assholes. Probably more than their share. I'm also not sure that he wasn't a fine young man who became an asshole as he blew himself up.



What I'm kinda saying is "How can the Yankees be surprised by the mess he's dragging them through?"

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

The Yankees are more full of shit than Giambi had they not known.

OF COURSE THEY KNEW

Lengthy article below, maybe too sympathetic to Giambi, but dead-on in the Yankees CYAing:
http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_683

[soupcan]

I'm sorry, I don't mean to backtrack here but Steve Rogers says that there are rumblings and mumblings that Piazza, Ventura, Hampton, Hundley and HoJo all took steroids?

What the fuck? I've never heard that.

Am I an ignorant moron (rhetorical!) or is anybody else hearing this for the first time?

[Guest Kid Carsey]

Piazza's a good candidate, it's certainly been whispered -- even here -- that
he seemed to lose a lot of weight/muscle in the final year or so.

[Benjamin Grimm]

soupcan wrote: I'm sorry, I don't mean to backtrack here but Steve Rogers says that there are rumblings and mumblings that Piazza, Ventura, Hampton, Hundley and HoJo all took steroids? What the fuck? I've never heard that. Am I an ignorant moron (rhetorical!) or is anybody else hearing this for the first time?

Take anything from Steve with a grain of salt.

Hundley seems a pretty likely candidate, though. The others are all possibilities too, I guess, but I think Steve was reporting his own speculations.

If I were to place bets on Mets with steroids, I'd start with Dykstra and Hundley. (Actually, I'd start with Mota and Urdeneta, but I think the betting windows are closed for those two.)

[soupcan]

Well anybody is a 'possibility'.

Piazza? He was great when he was young, he got old and wore down. Where's the big head? Where are the advanced age career numbers? He lost weight? That's it? C'mon.

And why Hundley & Hampton? Because they had great years and then broke down? That's never happened to any player who never juiced?

I'll give you Dykstra but for any reason Steve has that he suspects the others I'm sure I could find players from the pre-steroid era whose career arcs are similar.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Everyone is a suspect, no sense in guessing who. Could be Joe McEwing for all we know

[MFS62]

Johnny Dickshot wrote: Everyone is a suspect, no sense in guessing who. Could be Joe McEwing for all we know

I'm going on record here to say that I don't think Bud Harrelson was ever on Steroids.

Later

[Guest silverdsl]

I agree that any player, from any team, could possibly have used performance enhancers, especially when you throw amphetamines into the mix. Greenies were so commonly used at one time that it's possible that more players used them than didn't.

As for Giambi, it's astonishing how little sense he has. He should have made sure he stayed well away from anything that could get him into trouble. That said, I have a lot of questions about the Daily News article since they include nothing more to support that Giambi tested positive beyond what "sources" told them. To be clear, I'm not doubting the truth of what they're reporting, but without the sources or their information being put into context as to where it came from, it opens the door to a lot of questions, imo. Such as, how did their "sources" get this information considering a positive test results is supposedly kept so secret that only the committee and the player involved would know about it?

I also have to wonder what the agenda was of the "source(s)." Given the timing of this article just after Giambi critcized MLB, is MLB trying to prevent Giambi and other players from speaking publically about performance enhancers? Are the Yankees trying to make Giambi look bad in an effort to void his contract as rumored, or because they too want him to shut up? As someone elsewhere suggested is this information coming from Giambi himself so he can claim that the "stuff" he referred to in his earlier comments are amphetamines, not steroids? Or is it simply someone with information that they felt needed to be known publically? Again, not that this information isn't true, simply that I also think it matters who is doing the talking. When a source is this anonymous, they can say anything because they know that it's never going to be traced back to them.

[metirish]

] Such as, how did their "sources" get this information considering a positive test results is supposedly kept so secret that only the committee and the player involved would know about it?

Well it's investigative reporting ,isn't it?,and lets not be making excuses for Giambalco,he took all sorts of shit,read the link JD provided.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Wasn't Giambi himself the source? He said that he "gets tested more than anyone" and the only reason, according to the articles, for the additional scrutiny would be a prior positive test. Positive steroid tests are made public, positive amphetimine tests are not. Yes, the Daily News was reading between the lines but, at least in the article that I read (I wish I remember which one it was) the author explained how he came to that conclusion.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

I don't see any harm in a little speculation about Piazza. His body changed
the way a number of "suspicious" players did when all this stuff started coming
out.

I'm not nearly as outraged as John Q. Public over the issue. It wasn't against
the rules and obviously it was rampant and obviously it ain't going away soon.

[soupcan]

Yeah, I'm getting less and less incensed at this issue as time goes by.

Barry Bonds use to really tighten my colon but I don't really care that much about him anymore.

I want steroids in baseball eradicated but the fact that theree were so many guys using that it, in effect leveled the playing field, sort of balances it all out.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Steve was basically trying to paint us all as hypocrites because of our lack of interest in going after Mets.

I don't think he had the goods on anybody.

[Willets Point]

My suspicions are that performance-enhancing drugs -- whether they be 'roids, HGH, or amphetamines -- were (are?) used widely throughout baseball by many players on every team. This is why the whole witch hunt to single out offenders is ridiculous and I prefer an effort to eliminate use of performance-enhancing drugs now and in the future. The would be more productive imho than finding a few scapegoats to strip of records and awards.

[Frayed Knot]

Good piece by Joe Sheehan in today's Baseball Prospectus

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Sheehan got it so right I think his pen is on steroids.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Good article from Sheehan.

The number of PED users in the past is likely far too large to be worth investigating. MLB would be far better served by concentrating their energy and resources in preventing further use going forward. I have little doubt that many of the astronomical records (HRs, RBIs, etc.) that were established during the era in question were almost certainly inflated by the rampant use of PEDs. I don't think PEDs effected the relative performance levels of players within an era when compared to one another, but it most definitely elevated the numbers of the doping era when compared to the players of other eras.

[metirish]

Yeah decent article....

] MLB has the toughest PED policy in sports, and no longer has anything to be ashamed of in how it handles the issue. Rather than spending millions of dollars dredging up its mistakes, it should focus on the future, on keeping the game clean, on setting an example for both its peers in professional sports and baseball players of all ages. That’s leadership, and it’s something I think the game is more than capable of.

I know at times I forget just how far MLB has come in a few years as regards testing,they can do more and should.

[metirish]

Giambi is now being persecuted because he gave an interview?....un-fucking-real

] Players blast Bud on edict Bombers go to bat for Giambi and 'free speech' BY MARK FEINSAND and MICHAEL O'KEEFFE DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITERS Bud Selig may or may not persuade Jason Giambi to cooperate with Sen. George Mitchell's investigation into steroid use. But Major League Baseball's commissioner did succeed in angering Giambi's teammates and rallying them around the beleaguered Yankee slugger. Joe Torre and Yankee brass didn't have much to say about Selig's edict that Giambi cooperate with Mitchell's probe, but the players were furious before last night's game against the White Sox at Chicago's Comiskey Park. "You're getting punished for doing an interview and talking," said reliever Mike Myers, a member of the Major League Baseball Players Association executive board. "If this is the precedent that's going to be set - that if you do an interview and talk out against Major League Baseball, we're going to slap you on the wrists and say 'Cooperate with Mitchell and if we don't like your answers, we're going to punish you even worse' - I think it's a joke." Selig informed Giambi yesterday that his punishment for admitting steroid use in a recent interview with USA Today will depend on how cooperative he is with Mitchell and his investigators. Selig has been considering how to proceed since Giambi met with MLB officials two weeks ago to discuss his apparent admission to the newspaper that he had used steroids. "I'm still trying to figure out what he's in trouble for," Johnny Damon said. "Freedom of speech?" Technically, it's for using performance-enhancing drugs, even though baseball did not punish players for doping at the time Giambi has admitted to using steroids. As the Daily News has reported, the Yankees have explored the possibility of voiding Giambi's contract because of the steroid admission. Yankee officials, through spokesman Howard Rubenstein, released a statement that said the team supports Selig and had no further comment. "I just think Bud Selig is trying to find out as much as he can," Joe Torre said. "As far as I'm concerned, he tries to do the right thing. Hopefully everything works out all right. That's all I can say." White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, however, praised Giambi as an honest man. "He's going to tell the truth," Guillen said. "He's going to say what's on his mind, whether it's good or bad." Myers said if Selig punishes Giambi, it would have a chilling effect on big league locker rooms. "What are you suspending him for?" said Myers. "That's the biggest question right now. What are you fining him for? Because he did an interview? Then players will stop doing interviews, and Selig doesn't want that. Baseball is at a point right now where between all the TV, the newspapers sold, all the baseball coverage out there right now, if you don't have quotes from players and stories about players, it takes away a lot of the coverage of baseball. "He could be clamming up the entire locker room through baseball right now if this is what's it's going to come down to. "Why would he cooperate?" Myers added. "There's no reason to." With Eric Barrow Related Articles

[metirish]

] No punishment for Giambi Jason Giambi will not be disciplined for his tacit admission to the use of performance-enhancing drugs in a May USA Today article, baseball commissioner Bud Selig announced Thursday. Selig ordered Giambi, a designated hitter with the Yankees, to cooperate with Senator George Mitchell's steroid investigation, in the wake of his comments. Selig said at the time that any punishment would be determined based on Giambi's level of cooperation with Mitchell. Selig said in a statement Thursday: "Jason was frank and candid with Senator Mitchell. That and his impressive charitable endeavors convinced me it was unnecessary to take further action." Giambi's comments to USA Today included the following: "I was wrong for doing that stuff. What we should have done a long time ago was stand up – players, ownership, everybody – and said: 'We made a mistake.' We should have apologized back then and made sure we had a rule in place and gone forward. … Steroids and all of that was a part of history. But it was a topic that everybody wanted to avoid. Nobody wanted to talk about it." Giambi has been on the disabled list for much of the season with a torn plantar fascia. He was activated last week, and is 5-for-14 with three RBIs since. Selig's statement Thursday included an excerpt from a letter he wrote to Giambi regarding his commitment to off-field charitable activities. The causes include the Partnership for a Drug Free America, the Harlem RBI Program and the Major League Baseball Academy in Compton, Calif. It was widely expected that Giambi would not be disciplined if he did cooperate with Mitchell.

Are Bonds charitable endeavors impressive?

[Benjamin Grimm]

He's never electrocuted anyone in his swimming pool.

That ought to count in his favor.