NYT: Piniella Says He Forgives McGwire

1 down...6,484 to go (flips over subbing “Kip” Fadiman’s cootie-filled score-keeping device).

Piniella said that McGwire worked very hard on honing his own batting style. That experience will help him relate to hitters.

“He worked on his swing endlessly,” Piniella said. “He swung and missed a lot early in his career. He learned how to make contact more and more. With his strength, the ball flew out of the ballpark.”

Of course, McGwire had more than his natural strength going for him. Last month, he admitted he used steroids on and off for nearly a decade, including when he broke the home run record in 1998.

Will McGwire have trouble gaining the respect of Cardinals players after acknowledging that he cheated?

“I don’t think so,” Piniella said. “I really don’t.

“He confessed. In this country, they forgive and forget. Who is out there that can’t confess to something? We in this baseball fraternity forgive him.”

Orioles minor league pitcher suspended 50 games

Orioles minor league pitcher Brian Parker has been suspended 50 games by Major League Baseball for testing positive for the second time, a violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

Major League Baseball and its teams do not announce what specific drug was found in violators’ systems.

Parker, 24, a right-handed reliever, was 4-3 with a 4.31 ERA in 35 games at Single-A Frederick last year before pitching two games (0-0, 3.60 ERA) at Double-A Bowie. He is listed on the Bowie roster, and therefore his suspension will begin April 8 and be lifted in June. He likely will go to the organization’s minor league facility in Sarasota, Fla., when the suspension ends and then will be re-evaluated by the minor league staff at that time.

Parker’s stats. As noted in the article, this is his second positive test.

ajc: O’Brien: Heyward’s growing as fast as expectations

And stuck on the bottom (thworckk!) is this roidial jazz from former Braves catcher Javy Lopez.

Lopez was then asked flatly if players were looking at steroids as an option and using them.

“Uh, yes,” he said. “In my opinion, yes…. I mean, how can I explain this? It’s like if you’re going to race cars, if you’re going to race a car and some people are using nitro in the fuel [Lopez laughed], and you see them winning all the time, and you’re using regular gas – you know what? If they’re using nitro and they’ve been winning, well, I’d be stupid enough not to use nitro, too.”

To which one of the hosts replied that he [the host] couldn’t believe everyone else didn’t think that as well.

“Exactly,” Lopez said. “But the game of baseball — just because you use steroids doesn’t mean you’re going to hit the ball hard. I know a lot of players – not a lot of players, but I know players — who use steroids and you know what? They struck out more. Couldn’t hit the ball.

“The bottom line is that in baseball, you still have to hit the ball. Steroids do not help you hit the ball or make you the ball better. You still have to have the talent. You still have to have the talent. But it does help you to hit the ball farther.”

Asked about pitchers also using steroids in that period, Lopez said, “Pitchers obviously throw a lot harder, throw a lot faster [on steroids]. You face a pitcher who’s using steroids. The pitcher’s facing a batter that uses steroids…. It’s a mess. We talk about that. But you know what? I’m glad that everything came out. Now when you see a player out there, you can’t say 100 percent, but at least you know [with some degree of certainty] they’re clean.”

CSN: Beltway Baseball: Jim Riggleman’s Week Out

Spell Kasten...the Nats way.

While this is the first NatsFest for Riggleman as a manager in Washington, he’s been down this road before. He has also coached the San Diego Padres, the Chicago Cubs, and the Seattle Mariners (as interim manager).  But even with past experience, Riggleman was asked some questions that seemed to take him by surprise.

At the Hot Stove Luncheon last Friday, Nats TV analyst Rob Dibble asked the skipper about his awareness and involvement with steroids in the late 1990s. Riggleman was manager of the Cubs during Sammy Sosa’s chase of the single season home-run record. He began his answer by responding lightheartedly with “thanks a lot.” After the crowd reacted, team president Stan Kasten remarked in jest about Dibble’s television contract security and looked displeased as Riggleman began to speak.

Riggleman explained that he had not been asked a question about that topic. While Tony La Russa has been scrutinized about Mark McGwire, no one had yet questioned Riggleman about it. He said that he had been anticipating it, but thought the topic may have passed on.

He continued to describe managing in the Steroid Era: “It’s hard to believe, but we were really naive about it.  When you’re there, you kind of just don’t even really think about it. You see the guy getting bigger and you’re thinking ‘Man, he’s working hard.’ We all missed it.”

Billboards tout the 61 in ‘61 clubbed by Roger Maris

until some punk wiseass tags “0 SB, 0 IBB in ‘61...and Bobby Richardson sucked!” over it.

A North Dakota billboard company has erected a pair of signs in Fargo honoring local hero Roger Maris, whose record 61 home runs in 1961 have long been clouded with an asterisk.

Because he clubbed the homers in more games than Babe Ruth’s record 60, the baseball Hall of Fame has never recognized his feat, much less admitted him to Cooperstown.

And the “61 in ‘61” (his epitaph in a Fargo cemetery) accomplishment was eclipsed in 1998 when McGwire hit 70 dingers.

Owners of Newman Outdoor Advertising decided to rectify what they see as a historical disservice to Maris, a Hibbing native who died in 1985.

“He’s our boy—Fargo’s golden boy,” said company executive Russ Newman, who got to know Maris in the early 1980s “and became really enamored of him. He was such a gentleman.”

The billboards feature a picture of Maris during his days as a New York Yankee and the slogan, “Fargo’s Maris ‘Legitimate’ Home Run King.”

Newman said he decided to erect the billboards in the wake of McGwire’s recent admission that he used steroids during his home run binge. “With all these players coming out of the closet about steroids, when McGwire admitted it, it really pushed me over the edge to do this,” he said.

Dilbeck: Can Manny Ramirez still be Manny Ramirez?

Speaking of “an impossible act to follow”...Steve Dilbeck is the new L.A. Times Dodgers blogger.

Torre blamed Manny’s great drop-off last season on the 50-game suspension he served for violating baseball’s drug policy. Prior to the suspension, Manny was batting .348 with six home runs and 20 RBI in 92 at-bats. After the suspension, he hit .270 with 13 homers and 43 RBI in 260 at-bats.

So his average was up pre-suspension, but the power was never really there. Not Manny power.

When Manny showed up in L.A. in the middle of 2008, he became the single most electrifying position player in L.A. Dodgers history. Every at-bat was an event. The stadium rippled with anticipation. And it seemed more often than not that he delivered.

Those were some crazy dramatics, and perhaps an impossible act to follow. Still, it was hard to imagine he’d go from a once-in-a-lifetime player to just another good one in the span of a few months.

Manny will turn 38 in May. Does he have another monster year left? It’s a contract season for him, so he has all the financial motivation. After last year, he has all the psychological motivation.

In a National League overcome by parity, one dynamic player can elevate a good team. And for the Dodgers, that’s Manny.

Roger Clemens appealing dismissal of Brian McNamee defamation suit

Seeking to revive the lawsuit against his former trainer Brian McNamee - a suit that is now on life support - Clemens has appealed a federal judge’s 2009 ruling that gutted the defamation case Clemens filed against McNamee three weeks after the Mitchell Report was published.

Lawyers for Clemens… told the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that it was unclear that McNamee was assisting any federal investigation when he spoke to former Senator George Mitchell at the behest of prosecutors.

“What legitimate investigative goal did the government hope to accomplish by having McNamee speak to the Mitchell Commission?” the brief asks. “No one has answered these questions.”

Hummell: Criticism of McGwire irks Cardinals Hall of Famer Bob Gibson

He is aware of the criticism of McGwire claiming that he took steroids only to improve his health. ("They got injured because they were taking steroids,” argued Herzog.) But Gibson said, “I suspect that most of those really good ballplayers that admitted doing them, probably didn’t need them anyway.”

This is not to say that Gibson never would have considering using them.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I’m just happy they weren’t available (when he played), because if I knew somebody else was doing it and appeared to be getting an edge, I think I have would have been tempted.”

PB Post: Forgive McGwire? Some old-timers won’t — but others admit steroids might have tempted them

An Eyeball-Poppin’ Load of Excitement and Action! This Stuff’ll Kill Ya...or Maybe it Won’t!

Rico Carty played with Hank Aaron for eight seasons in Milwaukee and Atlanta.

“Hank Aaron will always be the home run king,” Carty said. “Nobody can take that away from him. I don’t think (players who used steroids) should be in the Hall of Fame. We deserve to be in the Hall of Fame because we were clean.”

...Former Yankees Mickey Rivers and Jay Johnstone also won’t condemn players from that era.

“It don’t bother me,” Rivers said. “When I was playing, if some guy said, ‘Any advantage I can get,’ I’d use. I’d use anything that would help me.”

Johnstone called Mc-Gwire a “legitimate” home-run hitter, citing the 49 homers he hit as a rookie.

“I don’t condone it but I can’t hold it against them,” he said. “Had it been available when I played, would I have been attempted to do that when (other guys) were doing it and putting up numbers that I’m not? I don’t know.”

Bill Buckner: Steroids: I would have been tempted

“The most important noise has come from the players themselves.”

Buckner, one of the best left-handed contact hitters of his era and a doubles machine, played in the bigs from 1970-1990. So when he was on the way out, the steroid era was just getting a head of steam.

“I was a little bit aware of the extraordinary physical gains some guys were making,” Buckner said. “But I don’t really look at it like some former players do, that it’s cheating.

“It’s a very tempting thing to do whatever you can to get healthy because the game puts such demands on you physically. I didn’t have the opportunity to use those things, and I’m glad I didn’t because I definitely would have been tempted.

“The direction is always better and stronger, better and faster, better and better. Anybody would have been tempted.”

No, no...that just can’t be! (entire run of Baseball Digest dissolves)

Peppy and Passionate at 90: A Conversation with Baseball Living Legend Bullet Bob Feller

“Peppy and passionate” Isn’t that the line Pepitone used to seduce Diana Sandre?

Blunt, resolute, and feisty, with large glasses, a slight paunch, and receding white hair, Feller is a man with secure opinions. Fresh from his most recent Cooperstown visit, he says that Pete Rose is a “liar” and “problem” who irreparably disgraced baseball by betting on it and that Rose should remain barred from the Cooperstown shrine (there is talk of a possible reconciliation).

“Pete Rose is not in and he shouldn’t be. Betting on baseball is worse than anything else that I can think of, much worse than taking performance-enhancing drugs. He is a liar and a troublemaker for the game. The commissioner should let him fall by the wayside and just go away.”

He has been vociferous in his condemnation of steroid users in baseball. On the same day as our interview, Manny Ramirez was outed as the latest representative of the 500-homers club to allegedly test positive for performance-enhancing drugs, joining Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa. Ramirez also breached baseball’s drug policy this year, serving a 50-game suspension. Rafael Palmeiro failed a 2005 test. Barry Bonds’ urine sample was seized in a 2004 raid and shown to be positive.

“Barry Bonds should also be banned for life,” says Feller. “I´m not surprised by Ramirez´s flunking of the test, none of the news surprises me. They have been lying about it for years and years. This generation wants instant gratifications. Before their sixty they will all be dead, after years of pumping themselves full of things that are eating up their organs. It is all part of our society´s demand and need for conspicuous consumption. It´s a mess.”

Murray Chass on Baseball: ALCOHOL OKAY; STEROIDS BAD

Chass...a regular O.P.S. Heggie.

In this warped society of ours, steroids are illegal and bad while alcohol is legal and ok or even good, in the view of those who consume it.Miguel Cabrera 225

But I am confused over recent events. Let me see if I have this right. Mark McGwire admitted to using steroids during his career and apologized for his wrongdoing. He has been vilified for his admission, though Cardinals’ fans cheered him lustily.

Miguel Cabrera admitted to being an alcoholic and apologized for his all-night binge on the final weekend of last season, but he is forgiven and eagerly welcomed back to his team, the Tigers.

Cabrera’s abuse of a legal substance – his blood alcohol level was triple Michigan’s legal limit – very likely cost the Tigers the American League Central championship. The Tigers had a one-game lead over the Twins with two games left when Cabrera went out drinking and wound up in a fight with his wife and in police custody. At the end of that weekend the Tigers were tied with the Twins and two days later lost a playoff for first.

...So even with Sam McDowell the alcoholic counselor, the difference is that alcohol is legal and steroids illegal.

“I see the downside of steroids,” he said, “how it destroys their brain, how they have heart attacks when they’re 45 and 50 years old. It’s a horrendous drug.”

Kenny Lofton: “I was not a cheater”

Slapnicka hitter rules!

An argument could be made he belongs in baseball’s hallowed Hall.

Now more than ever.

In light of Mark McGwire’s admission to using steroids and human-growth hormone while setting home run records, and with other high-profile players being suspended for banned substances, Lofton’s statistics may be viewed differently by Hall of Fame voters once he becomes eligible for induction.

Lofton hopes so.

“I was a guy who never did it (steroids), never tried to do it, never wanted to do it but I played against guys who obviously were doing it,” he said. “My competition level had to be at a certain level to be able to compete with those guys who were cheating.

“I was not a cheater, so hopefully they’ll take a look at that and see what I did under that period and hopefully they take that into account.”

ESPN: Bryant: McGwire: Too toxic to return

Toxic! Shock! Records!

There are the three Hall of Famers—Carlton Fisk, Ferguson Jenkins and the affable Ernie Banks—who have criticized McGwire and his 1998 aide-de-camp, Sammy Sosa, urging him to “come clean.”

There is a fourth Hall of Fame player, one who shall remain nameless because we spoke in confidence, who told me last week that he planned on contacting Selig to tell the commissioner he had made a terrible mistake with his enthusiastic endorsement of McGwire’s return to the game as the Cardinals hitting coach.

And with only the workingman’s credentials, former players Jack Clark and Steve Trachsel joined the chorus, too.

This is not, in the popular phrase of players seeking the enemy, a “media creation.” The most important noise has come from the players themselves.

Perhaps one day over the coming months, McGwire will turn some kind of redemptive corner. After all, it’s early. Spring camps haven’t even opened yet. McGwire has done exactly one public appearance, one as carefully scripted as his Ari Fleischer-sculpted confessional. He’ll have other chances.

But as of today, the McGwire backlash underscores just how much La Russa and Selig seem to have misread the tea leaves—La Russa because his pit-bull loyalty to McGwire might be creating an impossible working environment for the Cardinals, and Selig because he made it clear that McGwire’s re-entry into the game had been blessed at the highest level of the sport.

Dear Tommy John Letters: Interpreting Gear: A Guide to Baseball Fashion - Phiten Necklaces

I’ve been reading about Phiten Technology on Phiten’s official website, and I can’t help but wonder if these necklaces should be banned as performance enhancing substances.

Phiten products work with your body’s energy system, helping to regulate and balance the flow of energy throughout your body. Proper energy balance helps to alleviate discomfort, speed recovery, and counteract fatigue.

When I played in the Arizona Fall League, a Phiten representative came around passing out fistfuls of these necklaces. The guy gave a very uninspired speech about the scientific capabilities of the products and then went on his way. My teammate (Anthony Raglani) and I spent our remaining weeks in AZ coming up with the amazing feats that can be accomplished with phiten necklaces (think Chuck Norris truths). Among my favorites:

Phiten necklaces whiten teeth.
A chain of Phiten necklaces can tow up to 31 tons.
When wearing a Phiten necklace, you can draw smooth curves on an Etch-a-Sketch.

Feel free to add your own Phiten truth. We are always in search of amazing testimonials.

IATMS: Rosenberg: They said it: Steroids in baseball

Take a stab!

Was having a baseball discussion last night and we were talking about some of the dumber, embarassing, silly comments made during a player’s admission to PED use.  My buddy gave me a few and I’ve added to that list below, expanding the list to include other people in the game of baseball, not just offending players.  See if you can match the comment with the offending party:

1. “If I took steroids, I could dunk. Never mind baseball, I could play in the NBA.”
2. “I don’t know if steroids are going to help you in baseball. I just don’t believe it. I don’t believe steroids can help eye-hand coordination [and] technically hit a baseball.”
3. “There is no evidence andro does anything bad or good.”
4. “If you want privacy go play semi-pro ball. drug use hurts baseball. Why should we pay millions of dollars to these guys and have them go on the disabled list?”
5. “Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy.”
6. “I have never intentionally used steroids. Never. Ever. Period.”
7. “Who would do the testing? Will results be kept private? Or will they be leaked to the media? What about false positives? You think it’s going to be confidential? I laugh at that.”
8. “Steroids don’t help you hit a baseball.”

And more…

ESPN: Why is it the best of times for Mark McGwire but the worst of times for Pete Rose?

Dunno, but certainly worst of times for the editor...as Wojciechowski didn’t fit so good.

Rose has apologized for his mistakes for six years.

McGwire has apologized for his for two weeks.

Rose has groveled, begged and pleaded for forgiveness. He even sells T-shirts on his Web site that read, “I’m sorry I bet on baseball.”

McGwire issued a statement to The Associated Press and agreed to a handful of sit-down interviews, but has yet to do a full news conference (the recent six-minute fiasco in St. Louis doesn’t count). Put it this way: McGwire hasn’t gone through the full truth car wash.

Yes, Rose betrayed the game by gambling on baseball. There’s no way around that elephant in the middle of the dugout. But McGwire, Alex Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte—admitted PED users—betrayed a similar trust.

Selig is a compassionate guy. It is his strength and his weakness. He adored Giamatti, so perhaps he worries about compromising his friend’s legacy by reversing the Rose ban.

But who knows if Giamatti wouldn’t have softened his own stance over 20-plus years? Anyway, Giamatti made a decision on his own. Selig is secure enough to do the same when it comes to Rose.

Rose made his major league debut in 1963, the same year McGwire was born. McGwire made his major league debut in 1986, the same year Rose played his final game. So they are linked by years, by scandals and by confessions.

If Selig does the right thing, Rose and McGwire will be linked by 2010, too: the season they both returned from exile.

Thanks to Tyler Hissey.

A Tale of Two Cheaters

An emboldened Gene Wojciechowsk compares a post waterloo Big Mac with Charlie Hustle

What Rose should have done is this: Take illegal steroids and performance enhancers, deceive baseball fans, make millions of tainted dollars, cheat the record book and the Roger Maris family, press the truth mute button, go into hiding and then reappear five years later with tears in his eyes and a confession with more holes than a catcher’s mask.

Calcaterra: The dump-McGwire campaign intensifies

This might be the most disturbing thing I’ve followed...since I once stared at the moving fleshclump on Eric Dolphy’s forehead!

Yesterday Ken Rosenthal gave Mark McGwire an ultimatum: repent or resign.  I had missed the fact that, earlier in the day, Peter Gammons had thrown a log on that same fire, calling McGwire a “distraction,” questioning whether his presence on the Cardinals is sustainable and, as a grand finale, saying “McGwire, La Russa, Mozeliak, DeWitt and Selig had better sit down and think it through, because less than two weeks into the return of Big Mac, this has all the feel of Tom Eagleton.”

For you kids who don’t remember the 1972 Presidential campaign, Tom Eagleton was a U.S. Senator from Missouri who was picked to be Democratic nominee George McGovern’s running mate.  He was forced off the ticket, however, when it was revealed that he had been hospitalized for serious mental health difficulties, had suffered from manic depression and suicidal tendencies and had been prescribed anti-psychotic drugs.

McGwire = Eagleton?  Really Peter?  A hitting coach who took some PEDs a few years ago inspires a comparison to a man with potentially debilitating mental health problems being a heartbeat away from the presidency?  Sure, why not.  But unlike Rosenthal, I’m willing to give Gammons a greater benefit of the doubt on this sort of thing because his commentary tends not to skew hysterical. To that end I’m assuming that Gammons is referring to the media circus that is developing around McGwire and isn’t making some sort of moral or psychological equivalence.

Bangor Daily News: Red Sox announcers share insights

I’d rather be rackstrapped in on a Sunday morning and be force fed an Ellwood “Bud” Kieser marathon.

The duo covered a lot in 90 minutes, including:

• The departure of Jason Bay — “Agents are the little devil on your shoulder whispering in your ear,” said O’Brien. “The Mets offered a little more money and he took it, but I don’t think Jason Bay will be nearly as productive in that cavernous ballpark. I think he made the wrong move.”

• Steroids — “I think we all were stupid during the whole steroid era for not thinking something was wrong with all the home runs and not questioning it,” said Castiglione.

O’Brien, who also calls Major League Baseball, NBA and college basketball games for ESPN, told of being one of 15 ESPN broadcasters to meet with a doctor who was an expert on performance-enhancing drugs and being told that, without question, human growth hormones improved your vision from 20-20 to 20-10.

“We almost all fell out of our chairs,” he said. “That was so stunning to me and it changed my perception of how it affects athletic ability. If you’re seeing the ball like that, it’s superhuman and unnatural. No wonder they were hitting 70 home runs in a season.”

• Jason Varitek — O’Brien says he will be the next player to have his number retired at Fenway Park and may eventually become a Red Sox manager. Castiglione says Pedro Martinez should have his number retired at Fenway.

Mitchell: Ernie Banks calls on Sammy Sosa to come clean

The Impotence of Being, Ernest.

In light of Mark McGwire’s recent admission that he took steroids during his record-breaking home run season of 1998, Banks says he would like to assist Sammy Sosa in coming forward to address allegations that he used steroids.

“I would say just what Mark McGwire did,” Banks said. “Come clean with it. Explain it to them. ... Just say: ‘This is what happened.’ It is hard to do, to admit this. Just admit it and live with it and understand it. I am sure a lot of people will forgive him.”

...Banks traveled to the Dominican Republic last year on behalf of the Cubs and tried to contact Sosa, but the former slugger was in Brazil working as a representative for his country. Now Banks wants to meet with Sosa to have a heart-to-heart talk.

“I will just explain it to him and how the people are,” Banks said. “I don’t think he really understood that. People are for you; they want to see you do well. They are forgiving people. We haven’t won in over 100 years, so this audience here is pretty special.”

WNST: Snider: Orioles Bring Back Tejada, Which Means Andy MacPhail Finally Deviates From “The Plan”

I guess it’s just coincidental that Tejada was beginning to regress from a power perspective. His 18 homers, in 2007, was the lowest mark of his career, since his first full Major League season - more than a decade ago.

Ahh, but don’t despair …..

Miguel Tejada’s power suffered further outage, at Minute Maid Park, in Houston. That’s right, he hit 13 and 14 homeruns, successively, in his two seasons playing for the Astros - in one of baseball’s featured HOMERUN DERBY HAVENS.

...The Baltimore Orioles have enough attachment to the recent history of Major League Baseball’s drug problems. Some would say the Orioles are prominently represented among the seedier franchises.

What’s the penalty for betraying a town and its fans’ beloved colors of orange and black ??? Miguel Tejada did things the wrong way when he was here. And, evidence exists to suggest he influenced other teammates.

That’s fantastic to hear, huh? On top of the eroding skills at the plate and the substantially diminished fielding range - which I haven’t even addressed - indeed, the potential for a far more substantial risk of bringing Miguel Tejada back to Baltimore is staring squarely at every Orioles loyalist.

He’s gonna be in the same clubhouse with this guy …..

Delightful pictures of Matt Wieters and Adam Jones sticking flowers in syringes follow…

Poststar: Tommy John talks baseball with area fans

John said he expects most of the steroid-era superstars, like McGwire, will eventually get into the Hall of Fame, but it will take some time.

Much of the controversy about steroids has centered on power hitters, like McGwire, A-Rod and Jason Giambi. But John thinks steroids may actually help pitchers more than hitters. If it were possible, he said he’d like to test a pitcher every time he starts.

“When I heard about it, my inclination was, I bet there’ll be more pitchers on it than hitters,’’ he said. “You still have to put the bat on the ball. You can give performance-enhancing drugs to a .200 hitter and he’s still going to be a .200 hitter. Mark (McGwire) hit 49 home runs as a skinny rookie. It’s not like he couldn’t hit home runs.

“I’ve seen some pitchers that I question. One year they’re throwing marginally, and all of a sudden they’re throwing in the mid- to upper-90s.’’

John said he didn’t know of anyone taking steroids while he was playing - amphetamines were the rage back then - but he doesn’t think any steroid-taking batters would have cut into his lifetime total of 288 wins.

“If I sink the ball like I can, they’re just going to hit the ball to the third baseman, shortstop and second baseman a little harder,’’ he said. “If I make my pitches and my stuff’s working, I don’t care what they’re taking.’’

Everybody down to the Hinge Joint for a few pops!

Jeff Pearlman Blog: Bryant Gumbel gets busy

Give ‘Em Enough Dope…

Gumbel has already caught much heat for the words, and I … well, I applaud him. The three men he cited are very obvious cases of performance enhancers in action, and I’d willingly bet my entire collection of Dave Fleming rookie cards that the trio didn’t make it on talent alone. I also think Gumbel’s message, while somewhat messy, is important: The best thing these guys can do is come clean, admit what they did and try to move on with life and their careers. Because, while Gumbel was the first to have the guts to say something, I assure you most knowledgeable Hall voters are well aware that something was bubbly in the ol’ tap water.

Hell, I saw Nomar and Bagwell at their beefed-up peaks. I read the article—as ludicrous as any I’ve ever seen—when Pudge reported to camp one year twenty-five pounds lighter, and chalked it up to a need for greater mobility. Is it wrong to make stabs without proof? Yes. But when we take into account the era, and the accomplishments, and the sudden slides, and the complete lack of courage and accountability, well, it’s understandable.

ESPN: Quinn: Dealer: McGwire wanted to be ‘bigger’

A convicted drug dealer who says he used to supply steroids to former baseball slugger Mark McGwire told ESPN on Thursday that McGwire’s goal was to get “bigger, faster, stronger” to improve his performance on the field, contradicting recent statements by McGwire, who said he used the drugs to maintain his health.

Curtis Wenzlaff, speaking to ESPN’s Outside the Lines, said he feels there is no doubt that the array of drugs he provided McGwire helped him become a more-accomplished home-run hitter.

“Will it help you hit a baseball?” Wenzlaff said. “Let me put it to you this way. If Paris Hilton was to take that array, she could run over Dick Butkus.”

...He also said that he thinks the combination of drugs he provided for McGwire would help McGwire’s hand-eye coordination.

“When you implement into what you are doing—for instance hitting—an individualized, specialized program with muscle growth and explosiveness ... while you’re on your drugs, it will improve your hand-eye coordination.”

Thanks to Barnald the Needler.

The Telegraph: BUSCH IV, RIPS INTO McGWIRE

But being InBev with the enemy is ok…

If Mark McGwire thought last week’s admission of steroid use would get him off the hook, he was only partially correct. While many St. Louis fans seem to have forgiven the former slugger, former players, managers and baseball executive have leveled blasts at McGwire. Thursday, August Busch IV, the great-great grandson of Anheuser-Busch founder Adolphus Busch came out swinging against McGwire in a statement. The Busch family owned the Cardinals from 1953-1996. McGwire joined the Cardinals in 1997.

..."McGwire is not apologizing for his deceit, only for the embarrassment that came from his admission of having previously lied,’’ Busch IV said. “The timing of his announcement at the start of a new baseball season has allowed him to hide behind the frenzy of a new Cardinal season and the blinding faith of Cardinal loyalists.”

Busch also took issue with Cardinal manager Tony La Russa’s defense of McGwire, the former single-season home run king. La Russa has said he did not know McGwire used steroids when he managed him in Oakland and St. Louis.

“McGwire has chosen to come out of the closet at the perfect time - alongside a manager who also refuses to be honest, to the fans or to the game itself,” Busch IV said. “After all, why would Tony La Russa hire a hitting coach whose lifetime batting average was only .263?

“He was paid millions while perpetrating a fraud.”

S.I.: Wagner: Mark Grace emerged from Steroid Era with more than his integrity

Yes...he came away with some of the greatest hitting statyrisis of the 90’s!

In a radio interview last week with Sports Illustrated’s Dan Patrick, the former Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman said, “I am a single guy now and I was a single guy then [in the 1990s], and I like my sex life. I want to be able to perform. It’s kinda funny, but it’s not. That stuff [steroids] will tear you up as far as your manhood’s concerned.”

To be clear, Grace, who has been married twice, was never exactly a poster boy for clean living. He was the Pied Piper of Wrigleyville during his tenure with the Cubs from 1988 to 2000, fueled by booze, nicotine, his libido and his gregarious nature. But after years of half-truths and outright lies from multitudes of steroids-using players, his remarks to Patrick seem strangely refreshing. No, we’re not talking about St. Augustine of Hippo here, but we can at least applaud Grace’s strong sense of self. Finally, a man with his priorities in order.

...But this story has a happy ending. After that final stressful season in Chicago, Grace signed as a free agent with Arizona and bid adieu to his Wrigleyville stomping grounds. And finally, he became a winner. Grace was part of the Diamondbacks team that defeated the New York Yankees in the 2001 World Series. He even had a leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 to spark Arizona’s winning rally.

His conscience clear, he retired a couple years later to a life of more fun and games as an announcer for the Diamondbacks. Unlike so many of his peers, Grace came through the Steroid Era with his manhood intact.

Griffin: McGwire not a true cheat: Lee

Screw Costas. Bill Lee for commissioner for life!

“Wasn’t there an asterisk for 154 games vs. 162?” Lee asked rhetorically, regarding Roger Maris’ breaking of Babe Ruth’s home run mark in ‘61. “There’s a whole lot of factors. The balls were taken out of Haiti and boom they’re wound tighter. The pitching. The designated hitter. There’s so many changes in the game of baseball that influence the outcome. You just can’t take one over the other.

“Just like McGwire said: Steroids didn’t give him the hand-eye (coordination), the quickness, nothing like that. It may have given him a little more strength. As a pitcher, I don’t care what a guy takes. He can be lit like a Christmas tree, I’m going to find a way to get him out. It didn’t bother me when I pitched. I just hated facing guys like Richie Allen when he was hung over.”

..."Everybody juiced in some way,” Lee said. “You had a rough night so you take a few greenies. That was tough playing in those days. These (players have access to) designer drugs like the East Germans were using a long time before.

“The object of life is to try and live longer, be healthier. Ponce de Leon was looking for the Fountain of Youth. If you told me there was a magic bullet, I’d be knocking over old folks homes so I can pitch for one more year. Every kid’s a little bit bigger. It is out there in our society.

“To single out ballplayers and BALCO for putting a little Clear on the back of your tongue to make you heal faster from injuries ... hell, how many times did I get injected? At the end of the ‘74 season I couldn’t get out of bed because my kidneys shut down. That’s what the team put me on.”

AP Interview: Fergie Jenkins wants more McGwire apologies

Hey Pos...sharpen your Bic.

Ferguson Jenkins says Mark McGwire owes an apology to all those pitchers who gave up his home runs.

The Hall of Fame ace sent an open letter to The Associated Press this week, telling the former home-run king: “You have not even begun to apologize to those you have harmed.”

“How many pitchers do you think he ended their careers by hitting numbers of home runs off them?” Jenkins said during a telephone interview Wednesday.

Jenkins also maintained he would have known how to handle the bulked-up McGwire, who hit a then-record 70 homers in 1998 and followed with 65 the following year.

“It’s tough to hit a home run off your back,” Jenkins said. “In my era, Seaver, Gibson, Drysdale, Carlton, there were so many guys that would have probably knocked him on his butt. He wouldn’t have hit home runs the way he did in that era.”

Decker: The Steroid Era: New Standards for HOF voting

For those who missed the first tearing down of Shea…

As a result, some voters have grown lazy in their reasoning for admittance or exclusion. One such example is San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea, a voting member of the Baseball Writers Association of America. In 2007, the year Mark McGwire was first listed on the ballot, Shea took the moral road to explain his opposition:

“It’s not as much about his numbers as his unwillingness to explain himself after his appearance before Congress.  It’s tough to vote for McGwire when asked to consider the integrity and character of a guy who won’t refute that he broke the law to cheat the game.”

In the aftermath of McGwire’s public admission of using steroids this week, Shea was still adamantly opposed, but this time it was “about his numbers,” a reason that seems contradictory to his previous statements:

“If the fifth ballot were today, I probably wouldn’t vote for him again. It’s commendable he came out and came clean, but that’s an awful lot of his career that he was juiced. His numbers obviously reflected his drug use.”

Whether personal bias plays a role in Shea’s opposition to McGwire is unclear and not really important. Shea is entitled to change his opinion and he is merely taking advantage of an individualistic voting system. If the Baseball HOF had an official position for how to deal with Steroid Era players, however, personal opinions like these could only carry so much weight.

Then again, from a perspective of relevance, the Hall must be thrilled about the attention these inequities are getting. If it were a fair system, I wouldn’t have just spent all morning doing research for this post. Neither would the hundreds of other writers/bloggers/reporters who will inevitably write hundreds of thousands more wordson the subject.