Warning!! Danger!! Annual Off-topic Baseball Thread '07!! Beware!!

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by ChuckElias

Just a question. . . Where are all the people who have been alleging that the Patriots' Superbowl wins may have been tainted? Now we know that the Yankees' last 2 World Series wins were tainted.
I haven't heard much in the national media about that. Lots about Clemens personally; but almost nothing about an asterisk for the Yankees' 1999 and 2000 wins.

Former Sox GM Dan Duquette, however, was recently seen in his custom made "I TOLD YOU SO!!" t-shirt.

Well...lessee...Clemens is this close to suing everyone over the report (and I bet you're pissed off anyways that whatever he did take didn't lead to a red sox WS win). Pettite admits he took HGH for 2 days to help with an injury but stopped the treatment (HGH was not a controlled or banned substance then btw). Who else...oh yeah, Chuck Knoblauch. His post season BA of .258 made a huge difference in the final outcomes

Anyway...why are the Pats wins tainted?

[ChuckElias]

Clemens speaks out: "I want to state clearly and without qualification: I did not take steroids, human growth hormone or any other banned substances at any time in my baseball career or, in fact, my entire life."

I wonder if he was pointing his finger at a Congressman when he issued this statement. . .

[mick]

Originally Posted by ChuckElias

Clemens speaks out: "I want to state clearly and without qualification: I did not take steroids, human growth hormone or any other banned substances at any time in my baseball career or, in fact, my entire life."

I wonder if he was pointing his finger at a Congressman when he issued this statement. . .

Help me out here. What are you/Clemens implying about whom?

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by mick

Help me out here. What are you/Clemens implying about whom?

mick - I think Chuck is referring to Rafael Palmeiro and his testimony in front of Congress. Palmeiro said essentially the same thing, while pointing to a Congressman. Not too long after that, we found out he was lying.

Is it just me, or does anyone else look at Clemens' statement with the same degree of cynicism? "I did not take... any other banned substances at any time in my baseball career." There are many substances that were not banned by baseball, but were still considered illegal to obtain without a doctor's prescription. Or, perhaps, he found a "less than honest" doctor who could prescribe the substances for something other than their original intent. This way Clemens could say he was "legally" taking these substances, because he had the prescription.

[mick]

Originally Posted by M&M Guy

mick - I think Chuck is referring to Rafael Palmeiro and his testimony in front of Congress. Palmeiro said essentially the same thing, while pointing to a Congressman. Not too long after that, we found out he was lying.

Is it just me, or does anyone else look at Clemens' statement with the same degree of cynicism? "I did not take... any other banned substances at any time in my baseball career." There are many substances that were not banned by baseball, but were still considered illegal to obtain without a doctor's prescription. Or, perhaps, he found a "less than honest" doctor who could prescribe the substances for something other than their original intent. This way Clemens could say he was "legally" taking these substances, because he had the prescription.

Oh, I understand now.
Now, what am I missing that it was wrong for a player to take prescription, non-banned drugs?
[You don't have to reply, I imagine it's way to complicated for me to grasp.]

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by mick

Now, what am I missing that it was wrong for a player to take prescription, non-banned drugs?
[You don't have to reply, I imagine it's way to complicated for me to grasp.]

That's ok, I don't fully understand it, and I even stayed at a Holiday Inn Express...

I think in some cases the issue is a player taking a known, "banned by baseball" substance. In some cases, it might be a player receiving a substance that was not banned by baseball, but would be illegal in general society to receive without a doctor's prescription. In some cases, the doctor might prescribe the substance for the player, but the substance might be labeled to treat something entirely different than what the player is using it for. In the case of Mark McGuire, he was found using something that was not only not banned by baseball, but was able to be obtained at any GNC store in any mall in the country.

Also, has anyone noticed there's a name noticably absent from the Mitchell Report? Has anyone seen Sammy Sosa's name mentioned anywhere? Afaik, he has never had a negative drug test, and has never been mentioned in any of these Balco scandals or the Mitchell Report.

Maybe, in the minds of most fans, baseball is still the "old-fashioned" game we play in the backyard, so anything outside of that Norman Rockwell picture is considered "cheating".

[tomegun]

This is what I have to say about this whole thing and I think some will roll their eyes or get defensive.
Mike Wilbon is the only person on TV that I have seen that has said the obvious. The media doesn't jump on Clemens because they like him, but they have been jumping on Bonds for years because they don't like him. There are people on the Mitchell report that are coming out and admitting to doing what the Mitchell report says, but they are wrong about Clemens. I don't think so.
I'm sure they've been testing Bonds recently, and he has bad knees, and he is other players are supposed to be the best in the game (A-Rod, Griffey at one time, Pujols or whatever the flavor of the day is), BUT they still don't pitch to Bonds. Why is that? I will tell you why, because he can flat out hit. He wasn't hitting 400ft popups like Sosa and McGwire, he hits the ball great and it goes out. Even with bad wheels, which help generate power, he is a threat. But they pitch to the suppsedly best players in the game.

Sort of like all of Tiger's competition that has come and gone: Duvall, Garcia, Leonard, Vijay, Mickelson. The main difference is Tiger has his PR in check like Jordan. Don't for one minute think Tiger or Jordan are model citizens while having Barkley as one of their best friends.

Sorry for the rant.