I am always confused by these things ...

Manny hit 278/374/557 in July. Does that mean that he was still on steroids then? Does it mean it took him 80 days (the suspension plus July roughly) to lose the benefits of steroids? Does it mean it took a month for the debilitating psychological effects of not having the steroids crutch to kick in?

Dodger fans don't deserve good players.

Expect to see a lot more of this, since Juan Pierre has apparently gotten ahold of some more SSS magic pixie dust. His August numbers in 37 PA entering play today:

.355 /.417/.452/.868

How ironic is it that now that Manny has been caught and is presumably off fertility drugs, he hits like a girl ?

Manny had a slow May in '08 (228/328/386). If he was "juiced" then, there was definitely something "off" in the formula...

I think virtually all of the guys who "write" in to the Times are shills for Plaschke and Simers. Imagine what the Dodgers would look like had they listened to the advice of those two clowns and sent Kemp packing.

Then again, the illustrated American Heritage Dictionary would not be the same if these two were drop-kicked off the Times "spurts" pages, since they'd probably remove the two-shot of 'em that goes with the definition of "pork chop"...

And in the town of broken dreams
The streets are filled with regret
Maybe down in Loney Town
We can learn to forget

There is no place for cheaters and people like Ramirez in the great Dodgers tradition.

From Preacher Roe's NY Times obituary

It was in the summer of 1955, a year after he retired, that Roe admitted to throwing spitters, describing his technique in an article in Sports Illustrated, “The Outlawed Spitball Was My Money Pitch.” Roe told of wiping his left hand across his brow and spitting on his thumb with juice from his bubble gum, using the base of his hand as a shield. While ostensibly hitching his belt, he then transferred moisture to his index and middle fingers, gripped the baseball on a smooth spot and threw with a fastball motion, getting a sharp downward break.

“It never bothered me none throwing a spitter,” he said. “If no one is going to help the pitcher in this game, he’s got to help himself.”

DB

Letters to the editor are about as worthless as comment sections on blogs....oh...wait.....

throwing spitters isn't cheating. it's just kind of cute, old timey, you know

and throwing an illegal pitch guys can't hit can't affect ballgames like taking female hormones, you know. and yall keep talking bout how grrrrrrls caint play no baseball...

I'm sure I could find four people who think the earth is flat.

From Preacher Roe's NY Times obituary

It was in the summer of 1955, a year after he retired, that Roe admitted to throwing spitters, describing his technique in an article in Sports Illustrated, “The Outlawed Spitball Was My Money Pitch.” Roe told of wiping his left hand across his brow and spitting on his thumb with juice from his bubble gum, using the base of his hand as a shield. While ostensibly hitching his belt, he then transferred moisture to his index and middle fingers, gripped the baseball on a smooth spot and threw with a fastball motion, getting a sharp downward break.

It wasn't bubble gum, it was Beech-Nut chewing gum. That SI interview with Roe (by Dick Young) is one of the greatest stories it ever ran, and to this day remains the best description of the art of the spitball. And I don't know how the Times obituary writer missed this:

GUMWRAPPER CURVE

Roe lit another cigar.

"The guys on my team used to call it 'your Beech-Nut curve,' " he continued. "That's because of the gum. On the bench, between innings, I'd dig into my pocket for a stick of it, and say: 'I'm gonna get me a new batch of curve balls.'

"I don't know why Beech-Nut was better. There seemed to be something in it that would make the ball slicker than any other gum. If this is a testimonial, then they can have it for free. I'm just telling the truth. I tried every kind of gum, and tried that slippery elm, too, but nothing worked for me like plain old Beech-Nut.

I ought to know. I was just turning eleven when that article appeared, and I went out and bought six pack of Beech-Nut peppermint gum and stuffed all 30 pieces into my mouth at once. Unfortunately the only person who benefited from all that chewing was my dentist.

Letters to the editor are about as worthless as comment sections on blogs....oh...wait.....

(Hangs head, stares at shoes.)

I'm 55% certain that Bill Plaschke wrote all of those letters.

Two of the letters had more than one sentence per paragraph, so maybe Plaschke wrote 50% of the letters.

We beg you, do not ruin the great Dodgers tradition built by unselfish honest players.

I only came to this thread to read the Steve Garvey comments. Let's get to it already, fellas!

The fact that three of the first names have only three-letters indicates that they might be made up, too, since Plaschke has no imagination. Fake letters should be signed by people like Immanuel Geistschlager and Gabriel Jockitch.