The Mitchell Report

I think the Mitchell Report basically cheated Major League Baseball out of 20 Million dollars. It has got to be the most expensive version of "Juiced" to date. In essence, Senator Mitchell, a former Watergate convict, did what Jose Canseco did only with a much bigger budget. My concern was how his report focused primarily on eastcoast, NO, New York ball players. And that being said, please know that I hate the Yankees, but still feel anyone in New York that even shook hands with that towel boy Radomski risked being named in this "He said/She said" fiasco. The ex-Towel boy and ex-trainer for the Yankees along with the book Game of Shadows and the Grand jury Testimony of Giambi,Bonds,Sosa and Sheffield were the guts of this report.

Now it wasn't all hearsay. I can't believe that Paul Loduca was dumb enough to write checks to his drug dealer. It makes me feel bad for Tommy Lasorda. But if they were going to name names; how come certain obvious names were not mentioned? Like Bret Boone or Ivan Rodriguez? Even Sammy Sosa's name was left off intentionally.

It's my opinion that many of the names named are innocent. Yet many are probably more guilty than they appear. But what good is naming names when the source is a convicted felon. (Radomski) To quote Donald Fehr (another entity I can't stand) none of this will hold up in due process, yet it's already done severe damage in the court of public opinion.

Even sports writers are making fools of themselves. One writer insisted we owed Barry Bonds an apology for not villifying Roger Clemens all these years. You see? Writers are already dishing out slander. Personally I had my own opinions on Clemens and AROD. But to say that the only difference between Clemens and Bonds is the color of their skin is ludacrist. Clemens is far from being indicted. And isn't half the Jack Ass that Bonds wants people to think he is.

Some of the quotes in the report are just downright unsubstantiated. Comments like, "He told me he used steroids once or twice in 2003". Come on; if you stick yourself in the ass with a needle, you'll remember if it was once or twice. Vague comments like that just sink the validity of this report.

My .02 cents on the report - No names should have been named unless the report had sources in every organization at every level. Not just two bad guys in New York. I think it was a PR stunt to help save Bud Selig's reputation as being the father of the Steroid Era. Many say Bud Selig saved major league baseball. Just look at the profits. Yes, and look at the price of a box seat. It's no wonder Baseball has 20 million to spend on a gossip report.

If this report stimulates both the players union and the owners to WANT to come to an agreement, then it will be viewed as a turning point. But a lot of scouring has to be done to rid the game of it's cheaters.

Who's really at fault? The players that are juicing/the owners that are paying millions to the juicers/the players union for refusing to accept strictor punishment/Victor Conte and Greg Anderson/The San Francisco Giants Organization for fostering the poster child of the Steroid era/ Bud Selig for having a spine made of Jello/and finally, the fans that support or "tolerate" this practice by purchasing box seats for 130 bucks. (a game)

In the 50's and 60's the game was as close to it's zenith as it will ever get. In 1961 when Roger and Mick went after the Babe's single season homerun record, they were real homeruns. Ironically nobody made much over 30,000 a year and the price of a box seat was about 5 bucks.

Today I believe the league minimum is over 110,000 the average box seat behind home plate is about 75 bucks and the game needs to spend 20 million to try and weed out the cheaters. The real problem is, that the inmates are running the prison and we, the fans, are financing it. It's not Steinbrenner paying AROD's 30 million a year contract. It's Joe lunch bucket from Brooklyn or Queens. It's that MLB cap you wear that cost a buck and some change in Taiwan to make that you paid 28 bucks for.

I guess Professional sports saw how much money Vince McMahon was making with the WWE, and didn't think much of looking the other way.


Ace out.....