Results tagged ‘ Juice ’
Selig Bonds Short ?
Commissioner Alan "Bud" Selig is unsure if he will witness Barry Bonds’ 756th 
career home run in person, insisting that he will treat it "just like any other record".
"I wasn’t there when Roger Clemens won his 300th game" Selig explained.
By threatening to phone this one in, the Commissioner is effectively downgrading the all time career HR record to the status of any other record. On one level, this is reasonable, as it reflects what most of us have already done in our personal mental notebooks. Fans, by and large, dont look upon the career HR mark with the same credulity, and indeed awe, that we did a generation ago. It’s too bad, of course, but a rational, appropriate response given current circumstances.
On another level, however, Commissioner Selig’s lowering of expectations here doesnt sit particularly well. After all, it was Mr Selig’s not so subtle alteration of his own job description which further enabled a relatively contained and arguably managable PED problem to spiral out of control for more than a decade. The Commissioner’s office was established in 1920, ostensibly anyway, for one reason: to ensure the integrity of the game. Unfortunately, the single minded pursuit of ensuring baseball’s financial integrity, at least short term, has rendered the original charter, at best, secondary.
Mr Selig is not without his successes. The Wild Card he championed has earned widespread acclaim, as well as windfall profits for MLB. But Mr Selig created another, more troublesome Wild Card during his tenure – and its name is Barry Bonds. Bonds, by virtue of his singular talent, will to succeed and – how can I put this diplomatically – chutzpah, became the worst case resulting embodiment of a decade’s worth of self serving, greedy policies at the highest levels. That’s not to say Mr Selig is responsible for the personal decisions of Barry Bonds or anyone else – but as the owner’s representative, the commissioner was largely culpable for crafting the laissez faire atmosphere in which thousands of those player decisions were made. Mr Selig, along with the player’s union, fashioned a series of mutually lucrative contracts that made it exceedingly attractive for players to 
consider, and in too many cases start using, PEDs.
It seems to Diamondhacks that Mr Selig should eschew the vagueries of popular opinion and, for consistency’s sake, attend these less attractive "Wild Card" games put on by Mr Bonds. We encourage the Commissioner to put his arm around the new home run champion and once again rip us off a big toothy grin for the cameras.
Just like he did in 1998.
Hat tip: Prince of New York
No Rush
Among the most popular and troublesome arguments regarding Mark McGwire’s Hall of Fame candidacy are the positions that his alleged PED use should count for nothing ( ie add up his numbers and dont ask questions), or indeed, everything (ie summary banishment from the Hall). Both approaches oversimplify and likely distort the role of steroids in modern baseball, by asserting a) their uniform irrelevance, or b) that usage so dramatically altered the playing field as to clearly invalidate particular players’ accomplishments and specifically brand them the most disreputable cheaters since the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
Diamondhacks subscribes to neither extreme and to the extent that the still emerging truth about steroids’ impact and scope eventually crash lands somewhere in between, it seems to us that discounting Mr McGwire’s accomplishments, without moralistically repudiating them, is a prudent way to approach his HOF candidacy. To be clear, the Hall of Fame is full of alleged "cheaters", like Don Sutton and Gaylord Perry and two generations of players quietly popping unprescribed amphetamines. These scalawags are generally looked at more kindly than the Black Sox or Pete Rose, because the former cheated to enhance their play, whereas the latter’s cheating compromised team performance (potentially in Rose’s case).
With due respect to sportsmanship and personal ethics, let’s be clear about this much – the primary job of professional ballplayers is to win – it is not to protect the integrity of baseball, which, at least until recently, was the primary day to day task of umpires and the primary strategic, overarching responsibility of the commissioner. Players bending rules in order to win is neither new nor particularly alarming, yet the secrecy with which PEDs were administered reinforces the unethical nature of their use. The decision to use steroids should not be without consequence, but let our response be in line with a player’s poor personal choice instead of holy indignation over an unprecedented, cardinal stain upon Bud Selig’s pristine pastime.
For example, it might not be a bad rule of thumb to cast a pending "No" on all suspected PED users(except Bonds) as they come up for induction; not because they should be moralistically banished, or made to squirm for years as penance, but simply as a practical consideration. The Hall’s five year waiting period for induction was designed to crystalize a candidate’s case during the player’s uneventful retirement years. Embarassing post career events, however, have fundamentally clouded Mark McGwire’s legacy and complicated thoughtful voters’ task of rightly assessing his place in baseball’s pantheon.
If one agrees to discount McGwire’s production, by how much? Was he an intrinsically great hitter, aided by smaller parks and lighter bats as much as by illegal, yet effectively condoned, drugs – or was his entire career a pharmaceutical fraud, including the 49 rookie homers in 1987? Should his gross numbers be pared by 10%? 20%? Fifty per cent? In a couple years, will more evidence about McGwire, or PEDs influence on performance generally, facilitate a more informed judgement? Perhaps, and for that reason Diamondhacks encourages HOF voters (incl MLBlogs’ Mark Newman) to vote "No" on Mark McGwire for now. Big Mac may have a plaque someday – I might even support his candidacy under the right circumstances – but not now. Not amid this choking cloud of uncertainty. The finality of "Yes" vote under current conditions just feels wrong – and, frankly, there’s no rush.
The 2006 vote asks only whether Mark’s a first ballot HOFer, not whether he belongs in the Hall in an historical sense at all. My answer to the first question is: "I dont know yet." That’s tantamount to a "No". As information, scientific and otherwise, emerges on these controversial topics, perhaps we can induct McGwire someday – without the wink and a nod.
Some Reality
In keeping with his history of publicly casting stones at employees and company officials, Ken Kendrick recently imposed himself on veteran Arizona Republic reporter, Ed Montini.
Diamondhacks isn’t sure how Ken Kendrick acquired his money, but judging from 
his periodic forays into the limelight we’re inclined to believe that publicly mishandling personnel issues might be a very lucrative business. Not to be outdone by his stunningly ungracious botching of the Wally Backman escapade, Kendrick tried to educate Montini on the presence of performance enhancing drugs within his organization.
"We’ve had some suspicion in the past here with the Diamondbacks. There were some players that there was suspicion about that we very quietly moved on. We moved them out of our club because we thought there may be some reality to the suspicions that we were getting."
Some reality? Is that rudimentary code language for "evidence"?
Very quietly moved on?
Heh.
Diamondhacks compiled a sizable group of ex-Dbacks who Kendrick has casually cast "suspicion" upon with his vague accusation. In the same spirit of Ken’s "very quiet" approach(ringing up the biggest muckraker in town), we’ll list the "suspicious" players in very small font, absolving us of blame in the event anyone actually takes notice.
Shea Hillenbrand, Troy Glaus, Steve Finley, Lance Cormier, Mike Koplove, Randy Johnson, Brian Bruney, Orlando Hernandez, Elmer Dessens, Casey Fossum, Oscar Villareal, Koyie Hill, Alex Cintron, Scott Hairston, Quinton McCracken, Roberto Alomar, Mike Fetters, Shawn Estes, Brad Halsey, Javier Vasquez, Kelly Stinnett, Tim Worrell, Royce Clayton and Jose Cruz Jr.
Regarding Luis Gonzalez, Kendrick curiously continues:
In other cases, yeah, there have been some other suspicions, and we probably haven’t acted on them. I’ll be blunt with you and say there have been certainly whispers about Luis Gonzalez. Because he’s such a high-profile guy and you can make a case of his numbers five years ago versus his numbers today and therefore he must have been doing something. Well, he’s also five years older."
A day later, Kendrick "clarified" his position on Gonzo:
"I don’t have any suspicions about Luis Gonzalez," Kendrick said. "Any more than I would about any other player…I think the world of the guy. I used him as an example of how people would react. I’m not one of those people…
Kendrick says there are suspicions about Gonzalez but that he(Kendrick) doesnt personally believe any of them. Or, he doesnt believe them any more than suspicions against "other players", that presumably led to their release?
Call it suspicion, call it evidence, call it circumstantial evidence. Short of a positive drug test, there’s more "stuff’ implicating Luis Gonzalez than any other current Diamondback and Ken Kendrick knows it. Gonzalez’ startling production through the first five months of 2001 marked a more abrupt marginal increase than any of Barry Bonds’ more heralded, simultaneous acheivements, in fact, rivaling the seasonal improvement of any regular player in major league history.
Ken Kendrick is a conflicted man.
On the one hand, he eagerly asumes the public role of PED crusader, tracking down Montini to report he’s cleansed the club of some "suspicious" characters, well before some reality reared its ugly head. He’s taking the fight to Grimsley and even composing a strict player conduct code so he can look his Little Leaguer in the eye.
He even implicated Luis Gonzalez. The players are up in arms about it. Player rep Craig Counsell said the remarks were "careless". Not wrong, mind you, but careless. Gonzo wants an apology. Diamondhacks applauds Kendrick for publicly acknowledging reservations about Gonzo’s remarkable 2001 season.
But his conflict is this. As soon as the bashing starts, Kendrick backs away from his initial comments and fawns over Gonzalez like a schoolboy over Eva Longoria.
"I don’t have any suspicions about Luis Gonzalez…"
Right, Ken. He cant even bring himself to say the team "has not" acted against Gonzalez, when that appears to be the case. Instead, the Dbacks "probably haven’t" acted on the suspicions, like they have, "very quietly", with other players, none of whom, BTW, capped ordinary careers by almost breaking the NL all time seasonal Total Bases mark in 2001.
We believe Kendrick is sincerely troubled about PEDs. He’s also trying to run a profitable business.
Some reality.
H Ghrimsley
Despite Diamondhacks daily crack coverage of the Arizona ballclub, the fact that Jason H Ghrimsley was employed by the Dbacks completely escaped our rapt attention – at least until the HGH kerfuffle.
H Ghrimsley apparently injected himself into 19 games this year, while we were in the john or fixing a sandwich, because we cant really place him. Ross Grimsley, sure – you cant overlook Ross once he puts his LSD racoon spell on you with those….those…those eyes. But this Jason fellow just doesnt ring a bell. Sorry.
We’re pleased, however, that H Ghrimsley puts a different face on baseball’s drug scandal. A pleasant face. A pitcher’s face. A journeyman’s face. A white face. He is, in so many ways, the anti-Bonds, silently broadening many fans’ hghorizons.
Steve Gilbert opines that:
I think one thing that this should teach us is how little we really know about just who was taking steroids or human growth hormone. The focus has been on hitters, but look at how many pitchers have been caught. And in Grimsley we’re not talking about a guy that was a fireballer here. This is a guy in the mid-80s with a sinker.
We couldn’t agree more.
On June 8th, Mr Gilbert added:
I don’t think there will be much of a hangover from this for the D-Backs unless of course one or more of the names that were blacked out of the affidavit are D-Backs players
Diamondhacks
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