Schilling already knows what the theme of the 2013 ballot, results of which will be announced in January, will be.
“The guys who cheated and the guys who didn’t,” Schilling said.
...Though he vows to have never taken any type of PED, Schilling doesn’t absolve himself from blame for what happened during his years as a player.
“A lot of that is on us,” Schilling said. “It’s on us as players. It absolutely falls on guys like myself and other guys who didn’t cheat to not doing anything about it. We’re a players’ union. We could have done something about it. We chose not to. That falls squarely on us.”
...While anyone would be thrilled to receive the Hall of Fame honor, Schilling says he accomplished everything he wanted to in baseball.
“I’m proud to have done what I did,” Schilling said. “In ‘92, my wife and I were talking about what I want, and for some reason we had a conversation then about aspirations in baseball. I said, ‘When I retire, I want the 24 guys who suited up with me to say, “Life or death game, who do you want to have the ball?”’ I wanted that to be me.
BASE (Be a Superior Example) (Bonds and Steroids Election).
This summer, the Hall of Fame will ask kids to pledge to stay away from steroids.
Next winter, the Hall of Fame will send out a ballot that includes Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro.
A contradiction? A message to voters?
Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson insists that it’s neither one. Idelson said Wednesday that the Hall has always been an education center, in addition to being a baseball museum and a Hall of Fame, and that the new BASE (Be a Superior Example) program fits in with that.
He also said that the Hall isn’t—and won’t—tell anyone how to vote, and that the new education program should not be read as a directive to eliminate steroid users.
“We believe in allowing voters to use their own value judgment,” he said. “We’re very comfortable with the rules for election as they stand.”
In other words, it’s my problem. Mine, and the other 500-some Hall of Fame voters.
Barry Bonds has federal approval to pickup a “dangerous weapon”—namely, a baseball bat—thanks to a new court order.
Bonds is appealing his sentence for felony obstruction of justice—but for now he’s free on a few conditions ... one of which is he cannot possess any “firearm, ammunition, destructive device, or other dangerous weapon.”
Barry must want to take some batting practice—because according to docs filed yesterday ... a federal judge has approved his request to make an exception for baseball bats.
Any Chicago Primates interested in cobbling together a softball team for one of the city summer leagues? My preference is 16” rec, but I would of course submit to the will of the people. Discuss!
The book ‘Scars and Strikes’ is Rocker’s attempt to set the record straight a dozen years later. He says he wrote 98 percent of the self published book himself and in it he puts forth his views on many things, including Sports Illustrated reporter Jeff Pearlman, who Rocker says has a history of ‘vilifying every subject he encounters.’
Jaye Watson asked, “Do you blame him completely for the article for you looking like a racist and a homophobe?”
“Absolutely,” said Rocker.
Watson replied, “So none of it was your fault? Nothing that you said?”
Rocker answered, “If the article was 20 pages long and my long winded commentary had been included in its entirety, the opinion of me today would be drastically different.”
...Rocker says steroids helped him recover more quickly between games and that he wasn’t the only Brave using them.
“Probably just off the top of my head, probably eight to ten guys in that Braves house I know factually and one or two more that I’m not sure of. It’s the kind of thing if you weren’t doing it, it’s like bringing a knife to a gun fight. I’m not going to climb on top of the mound, look 60 feet away at Mark Maguire knowing good and well what he’s doing. I’m not going to climb up there short handed. I’m going to have all six bullets in my gun because I know he does. When the game is over and the three run homer is in the seats you can’t make excuses.”
I knew Steve Sisco’s only career HR smelled fishy.
I always figured my dancing with Madonna was the low point of her career, but after this Sunday…that might change.
Predicting 60 percent of games correctly is astoundingly high – gamblers need to win less than 53% of their games to make a profit. That is why analytics are so popular among bettors, said Elihu Feustel, professional gambler, one-time casino consultant and co-author of “Managing Risk: Attacking Vegas and Wall Street.”
Feustel, of South Bend, Ind., devotes multiple chapters of his book to betting on football. He does not, however, like football.
“I think it’s boring,” he said. He is still willing to make money off of it.
...Baseball may be better known than football for the use of analytics. The Oscar-nominated movie based on a best-selling book, “Moneyball,” traced the Oakland A’s road to success using advanced statistics , but no plans have been made for “Football Outsiders: The Movie.” But football analytics have their own vibrant research community in universities across the country.
Vince Gerrano, executive director of the Sports Analytics institute at Manhattanville University in New York, said football analytics time has come.
“Baseball came first because it’s so much more difficult to analyze individual contribution from a player in football,” he said. “In football, there is so much interdependency.
Evidence that Popeye’s spinach-abuse was rampant and gave him an unfair advantage:
• The drug is on an open shelf in his locker for all to see.
• Popeye brings the substance onto the playing field without reservations.
• Upon seeing it fall to the ground, Bluto immediately realizes his good fortune and takes a hit of it.
• Bluto’s performance while on the green stuff is remarkable, throwing lightning pitches and burning holes in bats, not to mention launching grand slams.
• Popeye is terrible on the mound without his dose and immediately tries to remedy that by shooting up. The placebo spinach does not work.
• When Popeye finally manages to grow another batch (showing remarkable skill at cultivating the herb, I might add), his performance becomes ungodly, racing between the mound and the plate, pushing the grandstands back, hitting 21 home runs with 21 swings… He also lashes out at Bluto, assaulting him and knocking him out of the stadium.
Sooo looking forward to his “Pantsload: Call of Doodie!” roll-plying action game!
Whether Roger Clemens, an early mentor to him, should be in the Hall of Fame: “No, he shouldn’t. I don’t believe any of those who cheated should get votes. You never know when they did and when they didn’t. I don’t know how much was real. That’s just me. I don’t think anybody who did it should get in.
“Wait, you said [for years] that you never did it? Now [you say] you did? It’s the Pete Rose defense. And you got caught the first time you did it? And how about when you [actually] started? That’s a whole other conversation. It’s just very black and white: They got caught doing it, they’re out. Unfortunately, some of my friends and teammates are on that list and it makes me disappointed they made that decision. It doesn’t make me like them less. Now, Barry Bonds? How can you even remotely consider that guy a nice guy?”
Giving steroid users a pass because not all users have been identified: “No. You can’t unlearn what you’ve learned.”
The advantages of steroids: “My biggest problem, and I’m so sick of hearing it from hitters or anybody else, is that steroids didn’t help you hit. That’s the most bald-faced lie ever. When I’m facing Barry Bonds Sept. 1 and Barry Bonds feels super fresh and I’m dragging ass, don’t tell me that. It was as much about being fresh and keeping your body fresh.
“Talk to [former NFL and MLB players] Deion Sanders and Brian Jordan. They’ll tell you the grind of a baseball is way harder [than football] because of the grind of the season. So yes, [a steroid regimen] did help you produce.”
The 2011 Red Sox: “It was clearly a group of kids that took a swift kick in the ass. What they did last year was embarrassing and shameful. I’m shocked that a good kid like Jon Lester got caught up in that. [Former manager] Terry [Francona] got fired for being the same guy he was years before that. I ran off at the mouth, but Terry will always tell you that I was as coachable as anybody. It was shocking that some people in this clubhouse allowed those stories to come out, but it was embarrassing, as if that wasn’t enough, that nobody had enough guts to stand up and say, ‘Enough!’”
But the most interesting thing about it is that he seems to blame the contract for Ryan Braun’s positive drug test in October. And, unlike the folks who have reported on the test, does not believe that it was inadvertent or the result of a tainted supplement or something. No, Rogers believes that it was Braun “amping up” his game in order to justify what, in the grand scheme of things, pretty reasonable contract:
Braun would have been a fool to say no to the deal, but it puts the onus on him to perform. So the guy who led the National League in slugging as a rookie amped up his game to again lead the NL in slugging and to compile a .994 OPS last season, earning an MVP award — and then he tested positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance.
So great it is that Rogers can see past everything else being reported about Braun’s test, capture his true motivation — a desperate desire to justify his insane contract — and determine his specific transgression, which was to “amp up his game” and perform.
Thank you, Detective Rogers. Your services here are invaluable.
Looks like Costas “has his faintly disapproving schoolmarm face on” (syte Lipsite)...again.
“No one has ever won an appeal,” Costas said. “The thing is set up and it’s made clear that even if you by your own testimony unknowingly ingest something that trips the test, you are responsible for ingesting it. So I don’t see what his successful defense will be. So he sits out 50 games and it costs him more than $3 million.
“I also do not understand the baseball writers’ position,” Costas said. “I understand the position that you will not be able to go back and yank guys out of the Hall of Fame if it’s subsequently discovered that they used steroids. Or even that you can’t take away A-Rod’s MVP from years ago during a period of time that he has now acknowledged that he was among those who tested positive.
“But baseball ought to have a rule in place like the one football put in a few years ago,” Costas said. “You may remember (Chargers’ linebacker) Shawne Merriman (in 2006) was suspended for using performance enhancing drugs during the year, but he still made the Pro Bowl. Then they put in a rule that said, ‘Look, you can’t make the Pro Bowl or receive an honor in the year you have been sanctioned. Not suspected. Not Jose Canseco wrote a book. Not something that came up in the Mitchell Report. But under our official procedures you tested positive.’ Well, (Braun) tested positive in October of the year he won the MVP. So I think - and I’m not taking a shot at Ryan Braun here, terrific player, seems like a good guy too - but I think you submit it to a re-vote. In which case Matt Kemp would easily win. In fact, if the Dodgers had been contenders, Kemp would have won anyway because he actually had a better year than Braun.”
Hell, I was once a sponsor for a tab-popping, nonpareil arm dotted friend of mine…and I was tired of the constant testing.
Bautista addressed his claim that he’s been tested by the league an above-average amount of times the past couple of years before talking about his team’s chances this upcoming season.
Bautista, who will be featured on the cover of the upcoming MLB 12 The Show, commented at a banquet in the Dominican Republic recently that he had been tested 16 times for performance enhancers over the past two years.
“(16) is an approximate number, and it’s hard to keep tabs,” Bautista said on TSN 1050. “It has increased in the last two years compared to before but I’m not complaining whatsoever. It’s a question that I was asked so I gave an honest answer. It’s not in my interest to make it seem like I’m getting picked on.”
The increase in drug tests is something that Bautista, who has led the league in home runs the past two years, said hasn’t and won’t change the way he goes about preparing and playing the game.
“I don’t mind it; it’s something that is not going to affect my focus and I’m not going to allow it to affect how I play my game,” Bautista said. “They are entitled to do whatever they want and test you as many times as they want. If I get picked to be tested a million times, that’s fine with me.”
Even when there was a large crowd at Wrigley, Jenkins could hear the bullpen phone ring when he was pitching.
“From the mound to the bullpen along the left-field wall, with 35,000 people screaming, I could actually hear that phone ring,” said Jenkins, who had a 284-226 career record.
For Jenkins, that distinct sound meant it was time to bear down.
“When it rings, ‘The bullpen is not coming into my game,’ ” Jenkins said. “You step it up a notch.”
...On whether Fargo’s Roger Maris should be in the Hall of Fame: “I think before long, Roger will get that opportunity. It’s probably too long, too late, because he did what he did lots of years ago,” Jenkins said. “He should have been put in the Hall of Fame a long time ago. It’s too bad.”
On whether players who have been linked to performance-enhancing drugs should get into the Hall of Fame: “Personally, I would put none of them in,” Jenkins said. “You have to play honest. It should be an equal plane for everybody.”
The player, Dustin Richardson, is a 26-year-old left-handed relief pitcher who played for the Boston Red Sox in 2009 and 2010 before spending all of 2011 in Class AAA with farm teams of the Florida Marlins and Atlanta Braves.
Richardson received a 50-game suspension this week after testing positive. Generally, players who test positive are linked to one banned substance. Richardson tested positive for five.
“I’ve never seen a case like this, and we’re talking about 30 years I’ve been doing this kind of work,” said Don Catlin, an antidoping expert and former director of the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory.
“I’ve had doublets and triplets, but to have five, and have it cover three different subclasses of drugs, is unique, as far as I can tell.”
To start, Richardson tested positive for three anabolic steroids — Methandienone, Methenelone and Trenbolone — that are fairly common on their own, according to doping experts, but unusual in tandem.
Someone should tell Murray about discountmags.com!
Even worse, there was this recent ludicrous suggestion by an ESPN writer. Buster Olney noted that [positive PED test suspension appellant Ryan] Braun would be appearing at the annual dinner of the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers Association last Saturday night to accept his M.V.P. award.
“The best chance for Braun to extricate something good from his situation would be to stand up on the dais Saturday, hold the NL MVP trophy in his hands – and offer to give it back to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America at its annual New York dinner, even while maintaining his innocence. This gesture would elevate Braun and separate him from the legions of athletes who have issued denials in the face of accusations of performance-enhancing drug use.”
Olney even offered a statement that Braun could make. “Braun could say something along these lines when he speaks Saturday night :”
That’s all I was able to read. Only paying subscribers could go further, and I’ll be darned if I’m going to pay to read such nonsense, that even an innocent person who deserved the award should say, in effect, I’m innocent and the arbitrator will tell you that I am, but just in case you still think I’m guilty, I’ll give up the award to satisfy you and all of the others who think I’m guilty.
I have one question for my former colleague: If Braun were guilty but still returned the award to fool people into thinking he wasn’t guilty, would that be an acceptable approach?
The Oakland Athletics are “very interested” in making Manny Ramirez their designated hitter next season, a source told ESPNDeportesLosAngeles.com.
Ramirez, 39, has been working out in Miami since December and has plans to have open workout sessions for clubs interested in his services at the end of January.
Last week, ESPNDeportesLosAngeles.com reported that the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays had a look at Ramirez batting in an indoor cage.
“The Orioles and Blue Jays saw Manny work and Baltimore liked what it saw, but Oakland has been the team that has expressed the most interest, even before having him work out,” the source said.
Ramirez, a .312 lifetime hitter with 555 home runs and 1,831 career RBIs over 19 seasons, was reinstated by Major League Baseball from the “voluntarily retired” list after the Dominican player opted to leave the game instead of serving a second suspension for violating the league’s banned substances policy in 2011 while playing for the Tampa Bay Rays.
I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to play this game, and I am appalled that you would begin a three-member panel inquiry with a topic like that!
Ryan Braun, the National League’s Most Valuable Player, pleaded his case Thursday before a three-member panel that will decide whether he faces a 50-game suspension for testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone.
The appeal came just two days before Braun will accept his MVP award at the New York Chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s dinner Saturday night at the New York Hilton, sources familiar with Braun told the Daily News.
A decision by the panel, which includes MLB Players Association executive director Michael Weiner, MLB executive vice president for labor relations Rob Manfred and independent arbitrator Shyam Das, is not expected to come before Braun accepts his award. It was unclear if the hearing would continue into Friday.
...The Milwaukee outfielder, however, is playing a game that no major leaguer has won; despite conflicting reports, no player has ever seen a suspension overturned by the arbitration panel, according to people familiar with the process.
It is possible for a player to test positive for a banned substance and see his case dismissed in advance of arbitration because of chain of custody or other issues, without the public ever learning of his positive test. But Braun is past that point, and is looking to the arbitration panel as his final chance to avoid suspension.
Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun, who faces a 50-game suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug, is expected to speak at a banquet where he will accept his award for being voted National League MVP.
Braun will appear at the annual awards dinner of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Saturday in New York, a spokesman for the player told The New York Times.
“He will be there and he will accept his award,” Matthew Hiltzik told The Times.
...He has not made a public appearance since news of the positive test broke on Dec. 10. Hiltzik told The Times that Braun does not intend to do interviews Saturday. Braun was named MVP on Nov. 22.
Creamer: His Life and Times. Terrific interview with Womack. (answers shortened here to save site/brain from exploding)
Who’s the greatest baseball player you covered?
Willie Mays. Period.
I seem to remember that Bill James, using his fabulous, desiccated statistics, demonstrated that Mickey Mantle, who was Willie’s almost exact contemporary, was actually the better player, and I’m not equipped to argue with Bill, although I’ll try. And there are DiMaggio, Williams, Musial, Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez – no, wait. I didn’t cover DiMaggio, who retired after the 1951 season — I didn’t start with Sports Illustrated until 1954. But that’s still a pretty impressive collection of players to put Willie on top of.
You’ve written biographies on Casey Stengel and Babe Ruth. If steroids had been a part of the game when Stengel and Ruth were players, do you think they would have used?
Sure. Yes. Absolutely. Hell, for decades before the big scandal about steroids in baseball, clubhouses used to have plates or dishes filled with little candy-like pills players gulped or chewed on routinely. My mind is gone – I forget what they were called.. Uppers? Bennies? I can’t recall. But that was standard. Athletes are always looking for an edge and that was a way to get them fired up. I have never been as upset by steroid use as the moralistic holier-than-thou baseball writers who vote on the Hall of Fame. What a bunch of self-important phonies!
I mean, you’d think all an ordinary player would have to do is take steroids to hit 70 home runs or bat .350. But I think McGwire was telling the truth — he took steroids to hold back distress, to make him physically able to play the game. Steroids don’t make a player good. Think of the hundreds, even thousands of players who have been in and out of the major leagues and who may have dabbled in steroids and think how few have hit 50, let alone 60 or 70 homers.
Yikes! Greg Luzinski must have been on turanabull from a very young age!
Since Barfield is so familiar with strong arms he thinks it’s a giveaway to which players are on performance enhancing drugs. The giveaway is not when an outfielder suddenly develops a rocket arm. It’s when someone with a rocket arm suddenly can’t throw.
“When you look at guys, you have a pretty good idea of whether they are on something or not. It’s not natural to have muscles growing out of your neck like this,” Barfield said, holding his hands on his neck in a big circle.
Barfield said outfielders using PED’s build up their muscles so much around their shoulders, they can’t throw.
“They can’t get the arm up over the top because of how the muscles are built up,” he said. “It’s not natural. Guys who could throw, suddenly can’t throw.”
Barfield said it was never an issue with the Blue Jays of his era. With Lloyd Moseby and George Bell as his outfield mates, Toronto had one of the finest young outfields in the business.
“As close as we were as a team we would know if anyone was doing anything like that and if they were, we would have . . . stopped it right away.”
Former Tigers pitcher Jack Morris was named on the second-most ballots - nearly 67 percent.
In the aftermath, Peter Gammons, one of the preeminent baseball writers of all time, talked on MLB Network about how he put Morris on the ballot the first three years he was eligible, but stopped because another baseball writer had displayed extensive statistical proof to him that Morris’ 3.90 ERA was “not because he pitched to the score” but rather because he lost a lot of leads.
Right then I decided this coming year, the first time they are eligible for election to the Hall of Fame, I am not voting for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens or Sammy Sosa.
...Gammons said Bagwell is like a hockey player (whatever that means) and was one of those 10-to-12 hour per day in the weight room guys, who lost weight later in his career (ala Pudge Rodriguez) because he had a shoulder injury that prevented him from lifting. It’s the type of thinking that was prevalent from many baseball writers during the steroids era. Always buying the story. Unfortunately, I was one of them. I’d like to think I’ve learned my lesson.
...But if Hall voters are going to be so picky about the career ERA of Jack Morris, why not about possible PED use?
I strongly feel this: If Morris gets in, it will still be the Hall of Fame.
If Bonds, Clemens and Sosa are inducted, it would become
(Yanks out Rogers’ Dictionary of Cliches ~ Looks for entry form)
The widespread use of PEDs in baseball is nearly as old as the game itself. In 1889, pitcher Pud Galvin of the Pittsburgh Burghers began endorsing a testosterone supplement made from dog testicles. He won 23 games that season. Anecdotal evidence indicates that baseball legends Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Babe Ruth experimented with testosterone, amphetamines, and sheep testicle extract, respectively. By the 1970s, amphetamine use was rampant, and an increasing number of ballplayers soon began experimenting with anabolic steroids and human growth hormone. Cocaine reached epidemic levels in the 1980s.
Jewish sources confirm this human desire for self-improvement, but also discuss the potential moral and medical drawbacks. The most comprehensive study of medicine in the Bible and Talmud remains Biblisch-Talmudische Medizin (Biblical and Talmudic Medicine), published by Julius Preuss in 1911. Preuss, who was a doctor and Hebraic scholar, utilized a rigorous, analytical approach in studying the ancient texts, and this extensive volume reflects a lifetime of serious medical and Judaic scholarship.
Over 18 chapters, Preuss covers anatomy, neurology, psychology, obstetrics, sexual health, Jewish medical rituals, dermatology, and a range of obscure and familiar maladies as discussed in talmudic and biblical writings. He also chronicles ancient remedies, some fantastical, others familiar. For an earache: pour lukewarm kidney fluids in the ear (though melted chicken fat works in a pinch). A fever calls for radishes; a cold for beets; and cabbage works across the board. Wine, small fish, and leeks were known to aid digestion. Fred Rosner, who translated Preuss’s tome in 1978, summed up the general health and nutrition advice of the Talmud: “Eat moderately, eat simply, eat slowly, and eat regularly.”
However, the advice is not merely gastronomical. Rabbis throughout Jewish history also experimented with a range of concoctions meant to increase strength and stamina—kosher PEDs.
In tractate Gittin, the sage Abaye recommends a mixture of ground safflower boiled with wine to promote vascular and sexual health. Rabbi Yohanon appears to have been a fan of the formula and offers an emphatic endorsement: “This restored me to my youthful vigor!” Maimonides, in his treatise “The Regimen of Health,” mentions oxymel, refined syrup of roses, and infusion of tamarind as effective means to increase strength and ward off disease.
Of course, Braun was not busted for high levels of tamarind in his system. Regardless of talmudic inspiration, cheating is certainly frowned upon in Jewish law. At the least, steroid use represents a violation of gneivat da’at, deceit; at most, it is downright theft. If steroids influenced Braun’s on-field performance (which, I understand, is kind of the point), then he effectively robbed another worthy ballplayer of the MVP trophy, a spot on the All-Star team, and perhaps a lucrative spot on the Brewers’ roster.
PEDs also violate the biblical prohibition of self-endangerment. Based on the verse “you shall guard yourself rigorously,” rabbis derived a series of laws prohibiting physical or spiritual self-harm. Steroids may qualify as both: Physical consequences of steroid abuse include liver tumors and cancer, jaundice, high blood pressure and increased cholesterol, kidney tumors, fluid retention, and severe acne; men may experience shrinking of the testicles, reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, breast development, and increased risk of prostate cancer. Psychologically, steroid abuse can lead to increased aggression, anxiety, and depression.
NEXT YEAR’S ASSHATINESS…TODAY!! (and I didn’t even get a chance to close my scurverzoid HOF notebook up!)
Hal Bodley
I will not vote for anyone linked to steroids. Never! That means Bonds, Clemens, Sosa fall into that category and will not get my vote. I do not feel Piazza, Schilling and Biggio are legitimate first-ballot candidates. So the only candidate at this point I’m certain I’ll vote for will be Morris—in his 14th try. Between now and then I might change my mind and go for Bagwell.
Ken Gurnick
I’m not voting for anybody from the steroid era.
Richard Justice
Voting for: Biggio, Bagwell, Raines, Morris, Fred McGriff, Piazza, Schilling.
Steroids will dominate the conversation because Bonds, Clemens and Sosa will be on the ballot for the first time. Piazza, like Bagwell, has been connected to steroids by nothing more than rumors, and that’s not good enough for me. Schilling is a lot like Morris in that he was at his best when the games meant the most.
Terrence Moore
Beginning in 2013, I’ll consider something even more so than I have before, and they are two words on my Hall of Fame list of rules: “integrity” and “character.” It says voters must take those words into account when selecting Cooperstown, folks. So no Bonds, Clemens or Sosa for me.
Throwing that bogus 4.2% bump in HOF voting weight around already, eh Donnie.
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he hopes that Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun is successful in appealing his positive test for a banned substance, but that it would “make sense” to revote on the MVP award, or strip Braun of the award if it is found that he indeed used a banned substance.
“In the end, I hope the appeal it’s something that was a mistake. I don’t want to see anything bad come out of it for him,” Mattingly said.
When asked if a player who tested positive for a banned substance should be stripped of the MVP award, Mattingly answered, “I don’t know. It makes sense though, a little bit. It’s not 10 years later, it’s a month later.”
...Mattingly said he thinks Kemp should’ve won the award in the first place.
“To me Matt was the best player in the game last year,” Mattingly said. “Ryan had a great year too.
“But you guys (the media) always ask me about unwritten rules, about catchers and stuff like that. Then we have the unwritten rules about voting, because he wasn’t on a winning team. You guys gotta get your unwritten rules together.”
The widespread use of PEDs in baseball is nearly as old as the game itself. In 1889, pitcher Pud Galvin of the Pittsburgh Burghers began endorsing a testosterone supplement made from dog testicles. He won 23 games that season. Anecdotal evidence indicates that baseball legends Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Babe Ruth experimented with testosterone, amphetamines, and sheep testicle extract, respectively. By the 1970s, amphetamine use was rampant, and an increasing number of ballplayers soon began experimenting with anabolic steroids and human growth hormone. Cocaine reached epidemic levels in the 1980s.
Jewish sources confirm this human desire for self-improvement, but also discuss the potential moral and medical drawbacks. The most comprehensive study of medicine in the Bible and Talmud remains Biblisch-Talmudische Medizin (Biblical and Talmudic Medicine), published by Julius Preuss in 1911. Preuss, who was a doctor and Hebraic scholar, utilized a rigorous, analytical approach in studying the ancient texts, and this extensive volume reflects a lifetime of serious medical and Judaic scholarship.
Over 18 chapters, Preuss covers anatomy, neurology, psychology, obstetrics, sexual health, Jewish medical rituals, dermatology, and a range of obscure and familiar maladies as discussed in talmudic and biblical writings. He also chronicles ancient remedies, some fantastical, others familiar. For an earache: pour lukewarm kidney fluids in the ear (though melted chicken fat works in a pinch). A fever calls for radishes; a cold for beets; and cabbage works across the board. Wine, small fish, and leeks were known to aid digestion. Fred Rosner, who translated Preuss’s tome in 1978, summed up the general health and nutrition advice of the Talmud: “Eat moderately, eat simply, eat slowly, and eat regularly.”
However, the advice is not merely gastronomical. Rabbis throughout Jewish history also experimented with a range of concoctions meant to increase strength and stamina—kosher PEDs.
In tractate Gittin, the sage Abaye recommends a mixture of ground safflower boiled with wine to promote vascular and sexual health. Rabbi Yohanon appears to have been a fan of the formula and offers an emphatic endorsement: “This restored me to my youthful vigor!” Maimonides, in his treatise “The Regimen of Health,” mentions oxymel, refined syrup of roses, and infusion of tamarind as effective means to increase strength and ward off disease.
Of course, Braun was not busted for high levels of tamarind in his system. Regardless of talmudic inspiration, cheating is certainly frowned upon in Jewish law. At the least, steroid use represents a violation of gneivat da’at, deceit; at most, it is downright theft. If steroids influenced Braun’s on-field performance (which, I understand, is kind of the point), then he effectively robbed another worthy ballplayer of the MVP trophy, a spot on the All-Star team, and perhaps a lucrative spot on the Brewers’ roster.
PEDs also violate the biblical prohibition of self-endangerment. Based on the verse “you shall guard yourself rigorously,” rabbis derived a series of laws prohibiting physical or spiritual self-harm. Steroids may qualify as both: Physical consequences of steroid abuse include liver tumors and cancer, jaundice, high blood pressure and increased cholesterol, kidney tumors, fluid retention, and severe acne; men may experience shrinking of the testicles, reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, breast development, and increased risk of prostate cancer. Psychologically, steroid abuse can lead to increased aggression, anxiety, and depression.
Rob Neyer wrote an article about keeping an open mind during Hall of Fame voting season... Neyer writes in the comments, in response to a reader saying there’s no more evidence Jeff Bagwell used PEDs than Barry Larkin:
Really? None at all?
Let me suggest a thought experiment, AstroB.
I would like you to assign numbers to two players, representing the likelihood that they used steroids at some point in their careers.
The players are Derek Jeter and Edgar Martinez. Go....
if we look at players who have actually been identified as taking steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs—either through the Mitchell report or suspension by MLB—they aren’t any bigger than the average player. The average PED user was 73 inches tall and 193 pounds. The average MLB player over the same time span was 74 inches, 195 pounds…
What if Neyer wasn’t referring to body type, but position? Designated hitter has different offensive requirements than shortstop and no counterweighting defensive responsibilities. But let’s look at changes in home runs per plate appearance between the two positions in the pre- and post-“steroids” era:
What we have are perceptions. It is fundamentally unfair to suspect all muscular players of using steroids. But players could have pushed for testing in the 1990s; management could have aggressively confronted the issue; reporters could have raised more suspicions. We all failed, and now we must decide what the mutated records really mean.
By my count, 33 players over the next five ballots (including the one to be unveiled Monday) could make a realistic case for the Hall of Fame. They may not have a winning argument, but they belong in the conversation. These 33 fall into four categories.
¶ Virtual locks, barring evidence of steroid use: Barry Larkin (2012); Craig Biggio (2013); Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and Frank Thomas (2014); Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz (2015); Ken Griffey Jr. and Trevor Hoffman (2016).
¶ Possible, barring evidence of steroid use: Curt Schilling (2013); Jeff Kent and Mike Mussina (2014).
¶ Doubtful, based on playing career, voting track record or both: Edgar Martinez, Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Tim Raines, Lee Smith, Alan Trammell, Billy Wagner, Larry Walker and Bernie Williams.
¶ Left out because of performance-enhancing drugs: Based on suspicion, Jeff Bagwell and Mike Piazza; based on admission, Mark McGwire; based on evidence, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa; based on admission/evidence/playing career, Juan Gonzalez and Andy Pettitte.
That leaves us, in 2016, with 10 new Hall of Famers elected by the writers. Seven reached a significant round number: 300 victories for Glavine, Johnson and Maddux; 3,000 hits for Biggio; 500 home runs for Thomas; 600 home runs for Griffey; 600 saves for Hoffman. Larkin was a most valuable player; Smoltz won a Cy Young Award, and Pedro Martinez won three.
The group is impressive, to be sure, but it only partly covers the era it represents. The Hall of Fame is the cradle of baseball history. However they did it, Bonds, Clemens and the rest made a significant impact. Together - with Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson - they will form the phantom limb of Cooperstown.
It turns out that Fenway dirt isn’t dirt at all. In the infield, it’s a substance called “Turface,” a brick-red clay material that Henry had ordered to match the color of the crushed brick that makes up the warning track in the outfield. I brought this up at a meeting, and we landed on the idea of giving away little plastic bags of the stuff, labeling it authentic Fenway Park infield dirt. “Dirt,” Lucchino said, twisting up his face. “We’re going to give our fans bags of dirt?” His reaction seemed to sink the notion right there. But on the next trip, to New Hampshire, we brought along about 100 little bags of the dirt — which of course had never been closer to the Fenway infield than the dugout. But that didn’t matter. The bags disappeared the instant they were shown off to the admiring crowd.
Players get played!
I said something about how if he [Henry] was socializing with Playboy Playmates, keeping him out of the press was going to be problematic. He simply scoffed and insisted he’d never dated a Playmate.
Nomah’s a space cadet!
I’ll never forget the time, at some point after the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, that NASA arranged for two female astronauts to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Sox home game and deliver a brief tribute to their fallen colleagues… I didn’t normally mingle with the players, so it was a bit of a thrill to be sitting wedged among Nomar Garciaparra, Tim Wakefield, and other stars. Nomar curiously watched my interaction with the two women, who were dressed in their bright-blue flight suits, and finally nudged me and asked who they were. I explained that they were astronauts. “Hey,” Nomar replied, “I saw this show on Fox that said we never really went to the moon. The whole thing was faked. Can I talk to her about that?”
“Sure,” I said, eager to witness this conversation.
Coleman diplomatically handled the inquiry from Nomar. “I’ve heard about that,” she said, “but it would have to be an enormous conspiracy.”
“Did you see the show?” he quickly rejoined. “It was really convincing…. I don’t know.”
She hadn’t seen the show and looked plaintively at me as other players began to join the conversation. “Hey,” I said, trying to change the subject. “Cady is going to spend six months on the International Space Station. Talk about training for the big show.”
Intrigued, Nomar asked about the size of the space station. “It’s really big,” Coleman said.
“Is it as big as Fenway Park?” Nomar asked.
“No, not that big,” Coleman replied. Then she started looking around for ways to illustrate the dimensions of the orbiting vehicle.“How far is it from home plate to first base?” she finally asked. About six players yelled in unison: “Ninety feet.”
It’s all well and good to say that the next three baseball Hall of Fame ballots will be “unprecedented.” I’ve written that a few times, and it sounds good.
Next year’s ballot will include: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, Craig Biggio, Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza and Kenny Lofton.
The 2014 ballot will include: Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Frank Thomas, Mike Mussina and Jeff Kent.
The 2015 ballot will include: Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Gary Sheffield.
Yes, that flood of talent and controversy FEELS unprecedented—and in some ways that’s true. It certainly is a deep run of great players, and a few of them—especially Bonds and Clemens—are connected to PEDs in a way that unquestionably will affect the way the voters judge their careers. I have written before that in many ways the voters—and I am one of them—will be trying to determine the soul of the Hall of Fame.
But, I realize now I fell victim to one of the classic blunders. I overlooked history.
