by Ben on December 14 at 3:07PM

 

bash bros.jpgA Few Thoughts While Reading The Mitchell Report

  • On the second page there is a quote by Jack Armstrong estimating that 20-30% of players in his era were on steroids. Pretty lame Mitchell. I mean you couldn't have kicked this report off with a more emphatic quote? I'm certain Will Clark must have said something a lot more interesting than this in regards to the steroids era at some point... even if it was disguised as a threat against Raphael Palmeiro's immediate family. 
  • Really excited for all the obscure/mediocre late 80's - early 90's baseball players who are prominently featured in this report! Give me Alvaro Espinoza and some Candy Maldonado!
  • If Kirk Radomski and Brian McNamee were a WWE tag team, they would be the equivalent of Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkov during the height of the Cold War.
  • Don Fehr is a hustler and Fay Vincent is a sissy.
  • Glad to see Todd Zeile took some time off from running around with his gal pal Joe Buck to provide a quote for the report.
  • In 1980, Ferguson Jenkins got busted with marijuana, hash, and cocaine. Jenkins was suspended by the commisioner but later had his suspension rescinded after he argued that he was using the drug cocktail for a legitimate purpose: helping him forget his career with the Chicago Cubs. Alarmed by Jenkin's revelations, authorities performed a subsequent search of Ernie Banks' estate. No drugs were discovered but a noose was found in the closet and a fully loaded hand gun sat on his night stand.
  • The Players Association should be renamed "The Players Club."
  • Ken Caminiti should be the poster boy for the Sports Illustrated cover jinx.
  • Page 62 - "... comments made by Tony Larussa, then the manager of the Oakland Athletics, that he (Jose Canseco) had made "some mistakes" earlier in his career." Looks like Canseco had quite a role model and father figure in Larussa, can't believe things didn't turn out better for him...
  • Tony Gwynn makes it clear he is very much anti-steroids in this report. Furthermore, his appearances on TBS as as an announcer make it crystal clear he is pro-dessert.
  • Can't believe Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Raphael Palmeiro didn't respond to Mitchell's inquiries. I'm pretty sure Sosa would have but there is no indication in this report that a spainish translator was offered to him by the Mitchell team.
  • Wait a second, police officers thought an expensive car with two latino gentlemen in it was stolen and then proceeded to search it based on their loose suspicions... shocking.
  • Ricky Bones! 
  • Steroid use was rampant among the members of Juan Gonzalez's entourage... use of contraceptives by Juan Gone, not so rampant...
  • No one on the Orioles found it strange that Miguel Tejada willingly chose to inject a vitamin into his body 40 times during the season rather than taking a Centrum Silver once a day?
  • Man, Kirk Radomski's actions have really tained the accomplisments of the New York Mets teams from 1992 through 1996. Although I am a Met fan, I am prepared to put an asteriks next to all of those seasons including the prolific 1993 team which won 59 games.
  • The inclusion of former Red Sox pitcher Paxton Crawford should ease George Mitchell's critics who claim he is biased towards the sox on account he is on their board of directors.
  • Dusty Baker was "completely shocked" when informed that Marvin Bernard used steroids. The report doesn't state why he was so surprised, but it is fair to surmise that Bernard's consistent crappy play before, during and after using steroids may be a good reason.
  • In running away from the piss man, Benito Santiago served as a source of inspiration for the writers of the ESPN hit series Playmakers. Kudos Benito.
  • Page 137 serves as a death blow to all one of Randy Velarde's fan.
  • The list of players named by Kirk Radomski is a virtual who's who of common players in baseball card sets throughout the 1990's.
  • David Segui, Tim Laker, Mark Carreon, Rondell White, Gregg Zaun, F.P. Santangelo, Chris Donnels, Phil Hiatt, Kevin Young, Gary Bennett! That's the best you could do?? What does the Mitchell Report prove, that dugout benches were loaded with steroid abusers??
  • The Mets bench sure was! Matt Franco, couldn't even make that one up!
  • Boy, Brian McNamee got a lot of tail from Yankee pitchers back in the day....

 


From: Josh

Randy Velarde was a great man and only took the "bad stuff" in order to provide for his famly. He shouldn't be lumped in with the rest of these cheaters.

From: Roger

Velarde should be no suprise. Wasn't he mentioned multiple times in "Game of Shadows"?

Most of these names are really pathetic. John Rocker?

From: Randy Velarde

I took performance enhancing drugs to help feed my family. Making 6 figures for nearly a decade wasn't enough to get by on for years. My poor son would have to go to bed at night starving, in the cold if I didn't do something to get a "competitive edge". I would have had to call Venezuallan President Hugo Chavez for that free oil for needy people plan they have if I didn't take these wonder supplements. Further more, when you factor in that I was more or less a severly mediocre player for many years its a wonder I got by at all without the use of performance enhancing drugs.
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