Lame Sports

Fallout from the Mitchell Report

By Victor Li

So, did the Mitchell Report live up to the hype? Aside from the dirt that came out about Clemens and a good portion of the Yankees clubhouse, the Mitchell Report was somewhat of a disappointment. I guess that’s to be expected, since Mitchell was stonewalled by the players at almost every turn. He had some stuff to go on (like the BALCO scandal and the Grimsley investigation), and some things fell into his lap as a result of ongoing federal investigations (Kirk Radomski, Brian McNamee, the Signature Pharmacy Investigation). Otherwise, he was drawing dead. Mitchell even admitted that this list hardly even constituted a drop in the bucket as far as determining how many major leaguers were on some kind of performance enhancing drug.

One of the goals of the Mitchell Report is deterrence. In that respect, the Report barely has a leg to stand on. You can make all the recommendations you want to, but unless baseball gets serious about cleaning up their sport, then what’s to stop players from continuing to take performance enhancing drugs? After all, there’s still no test for HGH. Additionally, there may very well be other undetectable steroids out there that we have never heard of. After all, if some Canadian sprinter hadn’t been caught at the border, then the next BALCO drug (called DMT) would have joined THG in our steroid vernacular. Who knows what else is out there? More rigorous testing procedures are certainly necessary, but to assume that they’ll be effective at deterrence is pure folly. After all, the drug makers are usually ahead of the curve since the testers usually don’t know what they’re looking for until a drug is already out and in circulation. I guess some players might avoid going on the juice to avoid getting dragged through the mud, but let’s face it, what’s a little negative publicitiy if you’ve made millions of dollars by roiding up and putting up great stats?

Ultimately, the best form of deterrence might be to bring the feds into this. My officemate brought up a great point about the Mitchell Report. What’s to stop a federal prosecutor from bringing charges against some of the players named in the report? They would have witnesses (who, granted, might have some credibility issues), cancelled checks, personal notes, statements, etc. Adam Piatt, for instance, admitted that he sold some steroids and HGH to Miguel Tejada. He just admitted to a felony right there. The only question is whether he confined his activities to one state or not. All it would take is one youthful and ambitious U.S. Attorney to go after these guys (it worked for Rudy Giuliani, after all), and if that didn’t put the fear of God into these ballplayers, then nothing would.

A few quick hits:

- I find it laughable that some writers are saying that they would still vote for Clemens for the Hall of Fame because they didn’t have any tangible proof (i.e. drug tests) or evidence that would convict someone beyond a reasonable doubt. When did baseball turn into the criminal justice system? What kind of proof do you need? To paraphrase Dave Chappelle, do you want to see a videotape of Roger Clemens injecting himself and Andy Petitte with each person holding up two forms of identification while Roger’s grandmother identifies him on camera (”That’s my Roger. Always taking steroids.”)? Besides, if he was on HGH, there would be no positive test. That’s the point. Besides, I find it hard to believe that someone like George Mitchell, who is one of the most respected statesment in America and the Chairman of one of the largest and richest international law firms in the world, would stake his reputation on some shoddy evidence and unreliable witnesses?

- Anyway, we’ll know what we need to about Clemens. If he (like Bonds) fails to sue Mitchell for libel, then we’ll have all the answers we need.

- Given the revelations about Clemens, I guess we can say that Greg Maddux is now, officially, the best pitcher of our generation. It’s kind of like the Michael Jackson/Prince rivalry. At first, Jacko looked like the runaway winner. He sold more records. He won more awards. He released a bunch of larger-than-life videos that doubled as world premiere events on prime time. He was larger than life. Sure, Prince did very well. He had a blockbuster movie, his albums went platinum, and he received a lot of critical acclaim. He was a superstar by any standard, however he clearly didn’t measure up to the Jackson phenomenon. To be fair, no one could. Then came the child molestation allegations, the bizarre behavior (like buying the Elephant Man’s bones, sleeping in an oxygen tank, and hanging out with Marlon Brando), the subpar singles (”Blood on the Dance Floor” anyone? How about “You Rock My World?”), and even more child molestation allegations. Meanwhile, Prince kept doing his thing by releasing good records, touring, wearing ass-less chaps, and writing songs. Now, he looks like the clear winner. Greg Maddux is the same way (except for the ass-less chaps, of course). He showed that you could be a dominant pitcher even when everyone is juiced up. And he did it the right way. Of course, if Maddux gets named in the next report, then scratch everything I said.

- Are we really surprised about Andy Petitte? He and Clemens are BFF’s. They train together in the offseason. Petitte credited Clemens and his strict “workout regimen” for making him a better pitcher. With all the rumors that dogged Clemens all those years, why are we surprised that Petitte got implicated? I would have been more surprised if Petitte had been clean. I guess if you play for the Yankees and you look like a Boy Scout, then you’ll get all kinds of slack from the media.

- Interesting timing on the Miguel Tejada trade. Still, I don’t buy that the O’s pushed it through because of what was coming. After all, they weathered the Palmeiro storm. Plus, there have been rumors about Tejada for years, so it’s not like this was some huge bombshell. Also, they’ve been trying to trade Tejada for a few seasons now. I hardly think that the O’s would deliberately undercut themselves and compromise their negotiating position for a player that a) they’ve wanted to trade a long time and b) has been dogged by steroid rumors for years, just because he was about to be exposed.

- Then again, maybe you can explain the timing on some things. On the same day that Barry Bonds was indicted, it was announced that A-Rod and the Yankees had agreed to the framework of a new deal. This wasn’t really suspicious, since A-Rod had already been talking to the Yankees at that point. The Yanks and A-Rod then happened to finalize the deal on the same day that the Mitchell Report (which named nearly 12 current or former Yankees) was released. They needed a month to finalize that deal? What were they negotiating? Parking privileges? Use of the Steinbrenner family’s private jet? No brown M&M’s in the postgame buffet? Did the Yankees know what was coming and decide to hold off on announcing A-Rod’s deal so that it could take some of the sting out of the Mitchell revelations? Makes you think, doesn’t it?

- Kevin Young was on performance enhancers? Could have fooled Pirates fans.

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