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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Mitchell Report: D-Day is December 13th, H-Hour is 2:00 PM

George Mitchell called a news conference for Thursday to announce the results of his 20-month investigation into drug use in baseball.

Bud Selig does not plan to attend the 2 p.m. ET news conference at a Manhattan hotel a few blocks from the commissioner’s office.

Mitchell said Wednesday he will release his report then, and it will be posted online at MLB.com shortly after that. Selig will hold his own news conference 2½ hours after the one by Mitchell.

Baseball reviewed a draft Tuesday at the Manhattan office of DLA Piper, the law firm that Mitchell chairs, a baseball official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because Mitchell hasn’t authorized any statements.

Baseball officials have said for several weeks that management would be able to examine the report on performance-enhancing drugs a few days before it is made public to make sure it does not contain confidential information that if released would violate the collective bargaining agreement between players and owners.

(NOTE: ALL USEFUL AND SERIOUS INFORMATION ENDS AFTER THIS POINT!)

Other activities planned tomorrow: ESPN begins it’s coverage at 1:00 (perhaps, you could say, with it’s “Pre-Report Show"). At 2:01 a vast amount of posts on BBTF will be complaining about how the report is late. Also, throughout the press conference and subsequent close-reading of the report, there will be a large influx of such postings as “Miguel Tejada, I SO CALLED IT!” and perhaps also posts of “There are no Red Sox, big surprise there”. Sometime between the end of the Mitchell Report conference and the start of the Selig conference, feel free to spend your time watching the talking heads, reading the many lines that will no doubt be filling up the official discussion that will no doubt exist, and, for the cynics (and MST3K fans) out there, build homemade replicas of Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, in order for you to better heckle Selig as he tries to spin the report, for better or worse.

It’s gonna be a interesting day. Why, maybe someone can sell shirts that say “I SURVIVED MITCHELL REPORT DAY!”

Gamingboy Posted: December 12, 2007 at 05:10 PM | 57 comment(s)
Related News: General, Steroids

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1. AndrewJ Posted: December 12, 2007 at 05:23 PM (#2642907)

Pass.

2. Cowboy Popup Posted: December 12, 2007 at 05:26 PM (#2642911)

Jesus, talk about Melodrama. D-Day, H-Hour, I'm almost glad I'll be at work. If this wasn't the part of December when they don't play College Football, I wouldn't even have clicked the link to see the blurb.

3. Oriole Tragic is totally awesome in the postseason Posted: December 12, 2007 at 05:33 PM (#2642924)

I was hoping for pre-release leakage of Big Namez.

4. Urban Faber Posted: December 12, 2007 at 05:41 PM (#2642941)

After this, then what? Around-the-clock Around The Horn?

5. STEROIDS!!!!! Posted: December 12, 2007 at 05:46 PM (#2642949)

Let's see...

I have an exam at 12PM ET. It will probably take me 2 hours, but maybe more. I will probably get home at around 3, and will check BBTF probably at 3:30 or so. By then the primer thread on the Mitchell Report will have existed for around 2 hours, maybe a little more...I'm going to guess we will be at 755 posts by then. Seems fitting.

Anyone else want to make guesses?

6. Repoz

Posted: December 12, 2007 at 05:46 PM (#2642950)

I was hoping for pre-release leakage of Big Namez.

WFAN's Mike Francesspool is sitting (ouch) on a leaked name or two.

7. Crispix Attacks is in the best shape of his life. Posted: December 12, 2007 at 05:46 PM (#2642951)

How will this affect his Hall of Fame chances?

8. Boots Day Posted: December 12, 2007 at 05:50 PM (#2642962)

Francesa's? It probably won't have much effect.

9. Urban Faber Posted: December 12, 2007 at 05:50 PM (#2642964)

I don't think Francesa's getting in.

10. Loren F.'s well-anchored glenoid Posted: December 12, 2007 at 05:52 PM (#2642965)

Wow! I [always knew/never suspected] that [player's name here] was [on/not on] the juice!

11. Crispix Attacks is in the best shape of his life. Posted: December 12, 2007 at 05:52 PM (#2642969)

No, EVERYBODY'S Hall of Fame chances! MASS PANIC! TIME TO TAKE THE SUICIDE PILLS!

NO FRICK AWARD FOR CHRIS RUSSO!
KEVIN MCREYNOLDS GETS THE GAS FACE!

WHEN THE SMOKE CLEARS ALL THAT IS LEFT IS THE HALL OF MERIT!

12. Superunknown Gary Geiger Counter Posted: December 12, 2007 at 05:53 PM (#2642973)

I doubt that I'll be making any comments on any Mitchell threads except for perhaps a couple of jokes. What the hell am I going to add?

13. Lassus Posted: December 12, 2007 at 06:05 PM (#2642991)

I'm not sure if anything can really top Kevin McReynolds getting the gasface, actually.

Good show, Crispix.

14. David Nieporent (now, with child) Posted: December 12, 2007 at 06:06 PM (#2642995)

Wow! I [always knew/never suspected] that [player's name here] was [on/not on] the juice!

You forgot [Told you so.]

(No matter what the report says, that will be appropriate.)

15. Gonfalon Bubble Posted: December 12, 2007 at 06:09 PM (#2643001)

Tomorrow's Mitchell Whitewash... A-Rod gets his money... Tim Raines' disappointing HoF ballot total... it's official: executives still don't like Marvin Miller... the Yankees cutting Torre loose... the Marlins' player dump...

How about a hot stove story that ISN'T completely preordained?

16. Gonfalon Bubble Posted: December 12, 2007 at 06:12 PM (#2643007)

Tomorrow, MLB and the media will be in bunkum mode.

17. David Nieporent (now, with child) Posted: December 12, 2007 at 06:24 PM (#2643019)

Kevin, you're making even less sense than usual, which starts to put us into the realm of imaginary numbers to describe the sense you aren't making.

18. Golfing Great Mitch Cumstein Posted: December 12, 2007 at 07:58 PM (#2643120)

David Nieporent,

Do you have an intellectual talking head relative? I briefly saw the last name on some news show today and it was the second time I had ever come across it.

19. David Nieporent (now, with child) Posted: December 12, 2007 at 08:23 PM (#2643134)

Do you have an intellectual talking head relative? I briefly saw the last name on some news show today and it was the second time I had ever come across it.

Not exactly; the only famous Nieporent (other than me, of course) is my cousin Drew the restaurateur. He's on television from time to time, but not usually on news shows.

20. robinred

Posted: December 12, 2007 at 08:24 PM (#2643135)

Has ARod signed yet?

21. Gamingboy Posted: December 12, 2007 at 08:29 PM (#2643140)

BTW, is there any way I could have made my post up there more over the top?

22. villageidiom Posted: December 12, 2007 at 08:52 PM (#2643161)

I'm just getting this out there beforehand.

Let's say there are 80 players on the list, and they're all active (and not on the DL). All other things being equal, here's the expected distribution of "listed" players per team:

0: 2 teams
1: 5 teams
2: 8 teams
3: 7 teams
4: 5 teams
5: 2 teams
6: 1 team

If there are fewer players on the list, or if some portion are not active, the number of players per team would decrease. If some teams are more prone to being named (e.g. Mets, since their clubhouse guy was key), it'll likely skew the distribution.

I'm sure tomorrow we're going to get all kinds of theories about teams that didn't have any players named, but even under fairly strict assumptions it's likely there are some teams that had nobody named.

23. robinred

Posted: December 12, 2007 at 09:00 PM (#2643168)

I'm sure tomorrow we're going to get all kinds of theories about teams that didn't have any players named, but even under fairly strict assumptions it's likely there are some teams that had nobody named.

Yeah, but that will not--and should not--take any of the heat off Selig for appointing Mitchell. It is quite possible of course that some Red Sox will be in it, perhaps in part because Mitchell is obviously aware of how it will look if there are no Red Sox players mentioned.

24. Bob Dernier Cri

Posted: December 12, 2007 at 09:16 PM (#2643176)

I have to wonder what effect naming active players will have on any of them. A lot of current players have been named by steroid various accusers, and they have typically gone about playing baseball without losing an inning or a paycheck to the accusations. Some have been suspended and then returned to play normally after serving their time. One has been indicted and is still rumored to be signing with Oakland. About the only way to get ridden out of town on a rail is to test positive and then blame your shortstop for slipping you some bad B-12, and even at that, if you weren't 41 years old and could hit higher than .266, all might have been forgiven. I think there will be a lot of ink and bytes spilt, particularly over some names no-one has heard before, but at the end of the day no player or GM is really going to care much about that player getting named retrospectively at this point.

25. ellsbury my heart at wounded knee Posted: December 12, 2007 at 09:28 PM (#2643186)

Hasn't Paxton Crawford basically already admitted to steroid use? I gotta think he'd be on the list for the Red Sox at minimum, along with someone like Gar Finnvold or something.

26. APNY Posted: December 12, 2007 at 09:37 PM (#2643190)

According to Mike Francessa's leak, there will be "slim pickings" from one of the NY teams.

Considering the role of a Mets employee in this, that seems like good news for the Yankees, but who knows?

27. Sparkles Peterson Posted: December 12, 2007 at 09:50 PM (#2643200)

I'm going to go ahead and speculate that Adam Everett is named. Less because he was non-tendered rather inexplicably the day before, but more because as a professional athlete, those numbers he puts up have to hurt.

28. Sparkles Peterson Posted: December 12, 2007 at 09:54 PM (#2643202)

Considering the role of a Mets employee in this, that seems like good news for the Yankees, but who knows?

Or it could mean that only the fringe players bothered to get their PEDs from a mulleted clubhouse attendant and former batboy.

29. Pat Rapper's Delight Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:22 PM (#2643247)

According to Mike Francessa's leak, there will be "slim pickings" from one of the NY teams.

I'd be happy with just one name from both the NY teams as long as it's a certain infallible Teflon shortstop who plays his home games in The Bronx.

30. Darren

Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:28 PM (#2643261)

I really hate this whole thing, but I hope that for the names that they have, they will provide real, actual evidence of use.

31. APNY Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:29 PM (#2643263)

a certain infallible Teflon shortstop who plays his home games in The Bronx.

FWIW, Francessa guaranteed no Jeter or Rivera, but he did seem genuinely upset about the one "big name" he was given.

32. Darren

Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:33 PM (#2643269)

AP,

When was this? I was listening at about 4 PM and Francessa didn't seem to know much. At that time, he was saying that the names that would really hurt Yankees fans were the current players who were there for the WS runs: Jeter, Rivera, Posada, and Pettitte. So would you infer from that that it's Pettitte or Posada?

33. tfbg9 Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:39 PM (#2643279)

Tino?

34. Maury Brown Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:41 PM (#2643281)

FWIW, Francessa guaranteed no Jeter or Rivera, but he did seem genuinely upset about the one "big name" he was given.

I say it's Clemens.

35. Crispix Attacks is in the best shape of his life. Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:41 PM (#2643282)

Francessa guaranteed no Jeter or Rivera, but he did seem genuinely upset about the one "big name" he was given.

Not Phil Rizzuto!

36. APNY Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:43 PM (#2643288)

It was towards the end of the show I think.

I actually think it's either Piazza or Posada based on everything that was said.

To summarize, Francessa claimed his leak gave him "broad overviews" of the implications for each local team and one "big name".

Later when Russo was going on about how he could use the report against Yankee/Mets fans who had been ragging on Bonds, Francessa said "you'll have slim pickings on one side, there's a hint."

37. Monty Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:46 PM (#2643291)

All other things being equal, here's the expected distribution of "listed" players per team:

0: 2 teams
1: 5 teams
2: 8 teams
3: 7 teams
4: 5 teams
5: 2 teams
6: 1 team

I vaguely expect the distribution to be centered around the Mets, because Radomski is the only source I've heard of. So I guess that means National League teams ought to be more represented than American League, and East Coast teams (from both leagues) more than West Coast. I mean, how much opportunity would a Mets clubhouse guy have to give steroids to a Seattle Mariner?

38. APNY Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:47 PM (#2643292)

I say it's Clemens.

Francessa hates Clemens, plus I think any Clemens implication would also include Pettitte.

Francessa was really upset/flustered by the name and kept saying tomorrow would be a bad day.

39. Darren

Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:47 PM (#2643295)

Francessa wouldn't be upset about Clemens. He said that Yankees fans (himself included, I presume) weren't all that attached to Clemens.

40. Best Regards, Larry Mahnken Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:49 PM (#2643298)

Piazza?

Posada?

41. Crispix Attacks is in the best shape of his life. Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:53 PM (#2643304)

Francessa was really upset/flustered by the name and kept saying tomorrow would be a bad day.

Oh man, it's gotta be Rizzuto.

42. Darren

Posted: December 12, 2007 at 10:57 PM (#2643311)

Kevin Maas or Sean Spangler.

43. Best Regards, Larry Mahnken Posted: December 12, 2007 at 11:02 PM (#2643317)

Joe McEwing!

44. IronChef Chris Wok Posted: December 12, 2007 at 11:05 PM (#2643324)

Not exactly; the only famous Nieporent (other than me, of course) is my cousin Drew the restaurateur. He's on television from time to time, but not usually on news shows.

Drew Nieporent sounds like an extremely cool name. I wonder how taht guy argues about food online.

45. IronChef Chris Wok Posted: December 12, 2007 at 11:07 PM (#2643325)

Btw, I hope this list has an Asian guy on it.

46. The Yankee Clapper Posted: December 12, 2007 at 11:08 PM (#2643326)

By then the primer thread on the Mitchell Report will have existed for around 2 hours, maybe a little more...I'm going to guess we will be at 755 posts by then.

Comment before reading the report? Shocking! RTFR!

47. villageidiom Posted: December 12, 2007 at 11:12 PM (#2643331)

Yeah, but that will not--and should not--take any of the heat off Selig for appointing Mitchell. It is quite possible of course that some Red Sox will be in it, perhaps in part because Mitchell is obviously aware of how it will look if there are no Red Sox players mentioned.

I'm a Red Sox fan, not an apologist. But I would only believe that Red Sox players' involvement in PEDs could be expunged or otherwise redacted from the evidentiary record by Mitchell if he were the only person working on this, or if he managed to staff his investigative team with nothing but Red Sox defenders. And I suspect neither is true.

Regardless, the mere fact that Boston players might appear on the list probably won't be enough for some people. I have a feeling that folks who aren't fans of Boston already have specific players they want to see on the list, and, should they not appear, will accept no other explanation than that Mitchell hid the result - Occam's Razor be damned. There will be similarly biased people on the other side of the ledger who will refuse to believe any allegations about Boston players. And all this will detract from whatever reasoned discussion could have taken place. Oh well.

48. IronChef Chris Wok Posted: December 12, 2007 at 11:22 PM (#2643339)

Whatever, they can't take our WS titles away from us anyway, we beat the Angels (Glaus), the Yankees (Sheff/Giambi), and the Cardinals (drunk drivers), so we're still good.

Edit; WRT to Sox Roiders, I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY hope it's Gagne. Because then his failure as a Red Sox player would be complete: the cheater that sucked

49. Crispix Attacks is in the best shape of his life. Posted: December 12, 2007 at 11:31 PM (#2643344)

Because then his failure as a Red Sox player would be complete: the cheater that sucked

I believe Manny Alexander already holds that title.

50. IronChef Chris Wok Posted: December 12, 2007 at 11:41 PM (#2643354)

yeh, but Gagne is a frenchy, that would make it even sweeter.

51. Gambling Rent Czar Posted: December 13, 2007 at 06:08 AM (#2643489)

Before the list comes out, i would just like to point out that Marcus Giles is not on the Padres roster. Is not. not ..

52. Lassus Posted: December 13, 2007 at 07:56 AM (#2643512)

I know we're all supposed to be aloof, to cool, and above this, but I'm really starting this day pretty sad about this whole affair.

53. The Polish Sausage Racer Posted: December 13, 2007 at 03:17 PM (#2644517)

Lots of bogus lists out there, with Pujols being frequently cited though he's mentioned nowhere in the actual report. I do like this bit:

During the 1998 season (around the time of the injections), Clemens showed
McNamee a white bottle of Anadrol-50. Clemens told McNamee he was not using it but
wanted to know more about it. McNamee told Clemens not to use it. McNamee said he took the bottle and gave it to Canseco

.

Give it to Canseco, he'll try anything!

54. Superunknown Gary Geiger Counter Posted: December 13, 2007 at 03:45 PM (#2644580)

I doubt that I'll be making any comments on any Mitchell threads except for perhaps a couple of jokes. What the hell am I going to add?

Famous last words.

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Mitchell Report: D-Day is December 13th, H-Hour is 2:00 PM

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