Report: Bonds, Pujols, Clemens, McGwire, Sosa, Pettitte, Damon, Giambi on Mitchell’s steroids list; Update: Pujols, Sosa, Damon cleared?
posted at 12:30 pm on December 13, 2007 by Allahpundit
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If Jeter or Rivera had been on the list, I’d have pronounced the Yankee dynasty of the 1990s a complete fraud and set this site off on a party jag worthy of the U.S. capturing Bin Laden. But you knew they wouldn’t be. It’s a simple question of physique. Did anyone not think Bonds, Clemens, or the dynamic duo of 1998 were suspect given the eye-popping muscle mass they acquired in their later years? Pujols fits the profile, too, although I confess I fell for the narrative that he was The Natural. We’ll see what George Mitchell has to say at 2 p.m.
So many exit questions here. Does the report really matter? Will baseball recover? Will Captain Classy, whose media halo approaches that of a secular saint, have a good explanation for why he didn’t know that so many of his players were apparently juicing? And who, ultimately, is the big winner today? It’d have to be a great player who doesn’t stand accused, whose accomplishments will take on a new luster now that his rivals’ achievements are fatally tainted by comparison.
That last one’s rhetorical, of course.
Update: The plot thickens. MLB officials are disputing the report of who’s on the list but WNBC is standing by it. One hour until we know for sure.
Update: Here’s the Mitchell report, via the Smoking Gun. I see no mentions of Pujols, Johnny Damon, or, remarkably, Sammy Sosa. The Natural is back!
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Comment pages: « 1 [2]
The report indicates that Jason Giambi started using steroids early in 2001 [while with the Athletics] and then quit using steroids immediately after the all-star break in 2003. Giambi started playing for New York in 2002.
Henry Bowman on December 13, 2007 at 4:30 PM
It matters because steroid use puts the players at an unfair advantage. It makes their accomplishments false - and under the banner of these false accomplishments, they re-negotiate multi-million dollar contracts. It doesn’t really matter if steroids are legal - they were banned in the early 90’s from baseball for a reason - and that was to ensure that the playing field remained level. And these guys ignored the ruling, used the drugs and cut corners to win World Series, get into the Hall of Fame and to further enrich themselves.
These players should be ashamed of themselves.
pullingmyhairout on December 13, 2007 at 4:37 PM
I don’t see anything about Varitek in that report, yet I saw his name (and picture) on Fox News repeatedly today, as someone included… WTF?
RightWinged on December 13, 2007 at 4:48 PM
You can tell from the non-cooperation of the Union and of its players that the 80 named were a mere (perhaps 5%) “tip of the iceberg” so don’t automatically assume that any non-named player is a “good guy”.
MaiDee on December 13, 2007 at 5:06 PM
If androgens are illegal because they enhance performance, why don’t lidocaine and intra-articular cortico-steroids fall under the same heading? Don’t drugs which allow an injured player to keep playing at his pre-injury level enhance his performance or his longivity? For that matter, if one is a purist, how about analgesic balm or Tylenol? We’re still interfering with what that player’s ability to perform naturally. If keeping the playing field level is the objective, it seems strange Bonds and others are allowed excessively protective lead elbow pads so they could dive in after outside pitches, or that the pitching mound height was decreased arbitrarily so more balls would go out. MLB has a PR problem because the steroid messiness was leaking out into the public eye and screwing up all those stats we love. So, they hired Mitchell.
a capella on December 13, 2007 at 6:22 PM
No Manny, Pedro or Ortiz? I call BS.
Iblis on December 13, 2007 at 7:43 PM
WNBC F’ed up. Somebody was emailing that list around today and sending it from multiple addresses trying to get stations to run with it. They were claiming it came from Bloomberg. WEEI in Boston had it and refused to run with it until Bloomberg would confirm. Finally WEEI got Bloomberg on the phone and they denied the report. Then, WNBC and MSNBC ran with the very same list. Sounds like they got suckered because they did not do any checking before they ran with it.
TheBigOldDog on December 13, 2007 at 9:59 PM
Remember the Cardinals’ comeback against Houston in the NLCS? Pujols coming to bat in the 9th against the Astro closer, with the bases loaded?
I actually felt sorry for the pitcher; there seemed to be no doubt of what was about to happen. First pitch fastball.
I don’t think the ball has landed yet.
Jaibones on December 14, 2007 at 9:13 AM
BASEBALL*
faraway on December 14, 2007 at 9:50 AM
Barry Bonds was the happiest man in America yesterday when the report was released.
faraway on December 14, 2007 at 9:51 AM
Who is McGwire? I know of Mark McGuire.
Vaporman87 on December 14, 2007 at 2:51 PM
Comment pages: « 1 [2]