Merry Christmas!

Hope you got all you wanted this year.  If not, hope you got gift cards.

Another Reason Why Well-Done A Capella Rules

Just in time for Christmas, it’s the best version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” you’ll hear all year that doesn’t involve a McKenzie brother.  Please enjoy!

By Special Request: The Mitchell Report

At long last, The Mitchell Report came out this past Thursday and confirmed that there was a lot of steroid use going on.  A few thoughts about that long overdue report:

*I hereby take back all those superlatives I have thrown at Roger Clemens over the years.  Not only do I feel the need to revoke my opinion of him being the best pitcher of the modern, live ball era (the mantle of which goes to either Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Greg Maddux, Warren Spahn, or Bob Feller — I haven’t made up my mind), but he’s a flat out coward for immediately hiding behind his agent as he lobs denials regarding the report.  As a fan, I feel more cheated about his steroid use than I do about Bonds, because Bonds was so blatantly obvious.  I was duped, just because he was a pitcher, not a hitter, and I didn’t associate the steroids with pitching, although I should have put two and two together after the first pitcher was accused.

*On the bright side of all this, we can pretty much figure the reason Clemens inexplicably chucked the broken bat back at Mike Piazza during the 2000 World Series was he was suffering from ‘roid rage.

*The smartest thing that Barry Bonds can do in the wake of the report is to just shut up this winter.  Everything he says about the report will fall on deaf ears anyway and make him look like a bigger jerk than what he already is.

*Was this the worst thing to happen to baseball over the last twenty-five years?  Nope.  That title still belongs to the death of former commissioner Bart Giamatti back in 1988.  If Giamatti, a man who unequivocally loved the game and respected its role in American society, had not suddenly passed away, none of this garbage that has plagued the game since his death — the season-ending strike, the Bud Selig era, steroids — would have happened.

*Speaking of Selig, the most amazing thing about the report was him coming out and saying that he hadn’t read the entire report.  Unbelievable.  It’s his job as commissioner to safeguard the integrity of the game.  Not only did he blow that by turning a blind eye to an obvious problem, he didn’t even bother to go through the report that documented the problem in its entirety.  It’s a wonder that baseball hasn’t been utterly destroyed under this guy’s reign.  Oh wait.  It almost was between ‘94 and ‘98, before McGwire’s and Sosa’s chase for Maris’s home run record.  Which saved baseball from the dumps.  Which, of course, was fueled by steroids.  Man, I miss Giamatti.

*If baseball is smart, they will do whatever they possibly can to promote the guys who were not on that list.  There are a lot of them out there — A-Rod, Manny Ramirez, Vlad Guererro, Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Matt Holliday, and Ichiro Suzuki, to name a few — and baseball needs to push them immensely as legit players that can be trusted, especially by the next generation of fans.

*So the best hitter and pitcher of the past 50 years got cheated to get to that level, the all-time hits leader was a convicted felon who bet on his own team, and the elite players in the game will routinely be bid upon by the same five or six teams when they apply for free agency when in their prime because they have the ability to far and away outbid the other 24-25 franchises.  This is a messed up league.

*Really, the only league that seems to have their act together is the NFL, and a lot of that has to do with them seeing what the other leagues do wrong and do everything they can to not follow in their footsteps.  I only hope that one day, the other leagues actually use the NFL as a model on how to run theirs.