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Friday, December 14, 2007

ESPN’s Steve Phillips on WXYT: Thoughts on the Mitchell Report

Outside of listening to The Cotton Jones Basket Ride…is there anything better than diggin’ some Steve Phillips?

I’ll put myself in there, as well, quite honestly I was in the clubhouse, I got criticized for being there too much. I’m surprised by how pervasive this problem is. I really, truly thought maybe a handful of guys during my six years as general manager. I could always kind of identify the guys from the other team I thought were doing it but because there wasn’t a system in place, because there wasn’t a process or testing in place there was nowhere really to go with it and the reality is this is and this is the honest truth that every general manager wanted a level playing field where nobody took steroids, but because we couldn’t have it, we wanted a level playing field. I wasn’t going to go in and clean out my clubhouse and look in every shoebox and see who had syringes, who was doing this and who was doing that because in the end I could do that, and clean it all up and then lose a lot of games and then go to my owner and say, but at least are guys are clean, they’re skinny, they’re good guys they don’t have any roid rage, but were not winning any games. So that’s the reality and that’s the truth of it, that everybody wanted it clean, but until there was a system in place, they could do it and I don’t think it’s Bud Selig’s fault, exclusively, I don’t think it’s the union’s fault, I think everybody deserves the blame for it and now the responsibility is on everybody to clean it up.

Repoz Posted: December 14, 2007 at 01:26 AM | 13 comment(s) | Login to Bookmark
  Related News: GeneralHistorySpecial TopicsSteroids

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   1. BeanoCook Posted: December 14, 2007 at 02:04 AM (#2645138)
I've watched, or had on in the background, about 4 hours of this ESPN coverage today. I still have never seen anyone turn to Steve Phillips and simply ask him. How did Radomski turn into such a monster right under your nose?

There is no way you didn't know Mr Phillips, what was going through your mind?

Has anyone seen this asked? It is uncomfortable watching this coverage when ESPN is ignoring the elephant in the room.
   2. McCoy Posted: December 14, 2007 at 02:09 AM (#2645146)
It is uncomfortable watching this coverage when ESPN is ignoring the elephant in the room.

How come they won't talk to Kruk?
   3. Nasty Nate Posted: December 14, 2007 at 02:11 AM (#2645148)
i was thinking the same thing Beano
   4. Zeba Zeba Eata Posted: December 14, 2007 at 02:21 AM (#2645158)
Well, Radomski wasn't working for the Mets when Phillips was the GM.

Phillips was pretty much a disaster as a GM, but I applaud him for the quoted statement. At least he is honest about the fact that he turned the other cheek due to self-interest.
   5. David Nieporent (now, with children) Posted: December 14, 2007 at 02:43 AM (#2645171)
Phillips was pretty much a disaster as a GM, but I applaud him for the quoted statement. At least he is honest about the fact that he turned the other cheek due to self-interest.
First, "turned the other cheek" is the wrong idiom; you mean "turned a blind eye."

Second, that's not quite what he said. Yes, he acknowledged that dumping players based on suspicion would not be in his team's interest, but what he actually said -- I'm not RTFA, but I saw it live on ESPN -- was that there wasn't anything he could do about it anyway, so he really had no alternative.
   6. Zeba Zeba Eata Posted: December 14, 2007 at 02:55 AM (#2645185)
Well, this doesn't say it in so many words:

I wasn’t going to go in and clean out my clubhouse and look in every shoebox and see who had syringes, who was doing this and who was doing that because in the end I could do that, and clean it all up and then lose a lot of games and then go to my owner and say, but at least are guys are clean, they’re skinny, they’re good guys they don’t have any roid rage, but were not winning any games

...but I would describe it as much closer to "this would not have been in my own self-interest" than "there's nothing I could have done about it anyway".
   7. AuntBea Posted: December 14, 2007 at 03:12 AM (#2645199)
It is uncomfortable watching this coverage when ESPN is ignoring the elephant in the room.

How come they won't talk to Kruk?


Primey.
   8. BeanoCook Posted: December 14, 2007 at 03:18 AM (#2645208)
Well, Radomski wasn't working for the Mets when Phillips was the GM.


What were the dates of each tenure?
   9. BeanoCook Posted: December 14, 2007 at 03:22 AM (#2645212)
It is uncomfortable watching this coverage when ESPN is ignoring the elephant in the room.

How come they won't talk to Kruk?



Only about 1 or 2 years ago, 60 minutes did a story on a Carolina Dr that sold NFL Panthers roids. Then Romanowski got sued for punching out a teammate and was accused of roid rage. Later Romanowski was busted for roids useage. In addition to this, the entire Broncos team was found to be using EAS PEDs.

Yet, I was watching ESPN report on this, sitting to the left of the host Mark Schlareth the NFL analyst for ESPN was never asked about this, despite being all shriveled up and down to just 250. I was like, what the hell?
   10. Zeba Zeba Eata Posted: December 14, 2007 at 03:26 AM (#2645217)
What were the dates of each tenure?

Radomski: early 1980s - 1994 (per Mitchell report)

Phillips: 1997 - 2003
   11. Darren Posted: December 14, 2007 at 03:35 AM (#2645227)
These two don't add up:


I wasn’t going to go in and clean out my clubhouse and look in every shoebox and see who had syringes, who was doing this and who was doing that because in the end I could do that, and clean it all up and then lose a lot of games and then go to my owner and say, but at least are guys are clean, they’re skinny, they’re good guys they don’t have any roid rage, but were not winning any games


I’ll put myself in there, as well, quite honestly I was in the clubhouse, I got criticized for being there too much. I’m surprised by how pervasive this problem is. I really, truly thought maybe a handful of guys during my six years as general manager.


He says the reason he didn't clean up his clubhouse was because it would have ruined his team. In other words, you could not field a competitive team with out a bunch of juicers. That, to me, says that he thinks that steroid is pretty rampant. But in the other quote, he claims that he thought there wasn't much of a problem at all.
   12. BeanoCook Posted: December 14, 2007 at 03:47 AM (#2645241)
What were the dates of each tenure?

Radomski: early 1980s - 1994 (per Mitchell report)

Phillips: 1997 - 2003


Thanks. Wasn't Phillips in the Mets org before 1997? Also, it sure seemed that Radomski was still heavily attached to the NY franchises, Mets and Yankees in some type of role as a trainer. Perhaps this was only as a private employee of a player. I am certain he was in those clubhouses post 1994.

Remember the rule added that banned personal trainers? They could have just said, personal drug dealers.
   13. Zeba Zeba Eata Posted: December 14, 2007 at 03:56 AM (#2645254)
Radomski was in NY, so clearly had easier access to Mets & Yankees. From my recollection of reading the report, there is one (but only one) indication of him being in the Mets clubhouse in the Mike Stanton section. All told, there aren't a ton (relatively speaking) of Phillips-era Mets in the report (I believe it's just Matt Franco, Pratt, Hundley, Vaughn, and Stanton, many of whom weren't around a lot during the Phillips era).
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