Steroids in Baseball pt.3 (Bonds, Giambi, Sheffield, Palmeiro, BALCO, etc.)

>What of the off-years of Jim Thome, Ivan Rodriguez (hardly "Pudge"-y), Bret Boone, Mike Lowell, and Steve Finley?<

I believe except for Lowell "they're fucking ancient" is one explanation. (Pudge at 35 is an old catcher)

Those guys I named put up career/fantastic years last year.

I don't know how to judge pitching injuries, particularly those to young pitchers, wrt to the steroid issue. Kerry Wood's arm was abused in his early 20's, ergo, he's had a menu of arm problems since. I have no idea how to separate that from the possible benefits/drawbacks of using steroids to rehab his arm.

The question is not whether they were hurt or not but that they:

A) were injured for a lengthier period this year
B) declined in perfomance

based on not being able to reap the benefits of accelerated healing that certain chemicals provide.

-- he's not juicing

OR

-- he's another year older and his arm is that much more fucked due to all the injuries, which would have been the case with or without steroids

(Alex, y'know my list was a jokey joke, right?)

Also, G: Takatsu's suckage this year = THE LEAGUE FIGURING HIM OUT!(see also: any other one-hit wonders; fly-by-night reliever successes)

Todd Jones, tho - he's a total freak. And he's probably on the juice, too.

"OMG our first baseman only hit .201 for the year WTF LEARN TO HIT YOU HAYSEED HICK"

isn't this just getting old? I mean, it wasn't so long ago that it was pretty rare for players to play well in the latter half of their 30s.

.276 / .364 / .414

Get a sample, Bud!

In other news, does anyone dispute that Jeff Francoeur is an enormous roid-head?

Um, WTF?

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Barry Bonds used to commit any spare time before games to lifting weights, working meticulously to build up his leg strength for long nights of standing in left field and on the basepaths following his many walks.

His bum right knee no longer allows it. He is carrying a few extra pounds around his middle and vows to spend the offseason bringing his playing weight down from more than 228 pounds to about 200.

``I'm going to be skinny,'' said Bonds, who weighed 185 pounds as a rookie in 1986 but has not been near 200 for many years.

Such a drop is hard to imagine for the imposing Bonds, who steps into the batter's box with his body armor and proceeds to crowd the plate. But doctors have told the San Francisco slugger he must lose weight to protect his fragile knee, which required three surgeries since Jan. 31 and sidelined him for most of eight months.

Considering the way Bonds has been aching after his first four starts, he is likely to listen.

``I want to get my legs strong again,'' Bonds said in an interview Friday night with The Associated Press and MLB.com. ``Hopefully I'll train hard all winter. I can hit it, but I don't feel like I feel when I'm strong. I can tell out there. I'm older now. It's harder.''

This has been a trying year for the 41-year-old Bonds, who hit career home run No. 704 in the Giants' 5-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night. He didn't start Saturday -- his customary practice for day games after night games -- though he was available to pinch hit.

Bonds still defends his powerful swing against anybody else's in the game, though he acknowledges he no longer might be able to hit homers at the same rate he has in recent years.

``I may hit the ball 410 feet and the next one isn't going to go 410 feet,'' Bonds said. ``Maybe I'll grab my ribcage. That's life. I'm OK with it.''

His knee probably will never be the same, either.

Many think it's remarkable it only took Bonds 11 at-bats to hit his first home run in 355 days, since connecting for a solo shot against the Dodgers' Jeff Weaver on Sept. 26, 2004. But this is Bonds we're talking about.

He is third on the career home run list, 10 shy of tying Babe Ruth (714). After that will come the pursuit of his hero, home run king Hank Aaron (755).

``To see Barry here, knowing he's going to go back to the same guy ... you never knew if he was going to ever play again,'' manager Felipe Alou said. ``It's a good feeling for the guys.''

There have been plenty of times this year Bonds thought he might be done, frustrated with his painful knee and how it immobilized him. He just doesn't bounce back the way he did in his 20s or even his 30s.

Had he never been able to return and resume his chase of Aaron's record, Bonds wouldn't have known what to do. He wants to walk away on his own terms, not with an injury dictating his path.

``For me right now, it would be devastating,'' he said. ``I know I can still do something and my leg is preventing me. That hurts. ... So be it. I can't hang on forever, man.''

Just how strong his knee is he won't know until the offseason, when he really tests it and tries to regain strength in his legs.

Shortstop Omar Vizquel is eager to see how fans react to his teammate on the road, where Bonds can expect plenty of chatter about steroids.

Though Bonds never has tested positive for performance-enhancing substances and repeatedly has denied using steroids, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Bonds testified to a federal grand jury in December 2003 that he used substances prosecutors claim were performance-enhancing drugs.

``People want to see everything,'' Vizquel said. ``They want to see him. They want to boo him. They want to watch him hit a home run. He's kind of like a Tyson fight. They don't care about the guy much, but they always want to see him fight. But it's not that people don't care about Bonds.''

Bonds looks at recently retired Jerry Rice -- the NFL's career touchdowns leader -- as the example of longevity in professional sports.

``He could still score touchdowns. And I bet Joe Montana can still throw touchdowns,'' Bonds said. ``As an athlete, your time's going to come and your time's going to go. I can outrun you once, I just can't do it three, four or five times.''

When his day does come to call it quits, Bonds insists he will walk away and not turn back.

``The same thing when I went to high school, I graduated and said bye,'' he said. ``I left college and said bye. That's the same thing I'll do now, say bye and do something else.''

Bonds is on record as saying he needs to get down to the 200-pound mark, something people are already mocking as covering for the loss of muscle many expect to see. This is normal advice for any person, athlete or not, with knee problems. Yes, Bonds admitted past steroid use during his BALCO testimony, something we may yet hear in open court. He's tested negative in 2004 and 2005, so wouldn't that muscle loss have already come? Let's all quit speculating and focus on what Bonds does or doesn't do on the field.

It's weird to think that he's gonna lose 25 pounds though. We're the same height and he only weighs 6 pounds more than me (He's 228#). And I'm in the best shape of my last 10 years, I just ran a 5k in 19 minutes (on the track) this past weekend (caveat: results of the urinalysis yet to be determined).

I could go yard twice in 6 games. If I didn't suck.

wow what a dumbass

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton ran through a laundry list of all the unseemly stuff McNamee had allegedly done to Clemens -- lies about Ph.D's, claiming the Rocket's workout program was McNamee's workout program, using Clemens' photo in an ad without permission, etc. -- and wondered, "Why did you continue to employ him?"

This seemed like a set-up question -- a chance for Clemens to talk about what a great guy he is. Instead, the Rocket rambled all over the District of Columbia. After about four attempts to get Clemens to sing his own praises, Clemens finally caught on.

"Why did you keep this man? It's very simple," Norton said. "He did some pretty horrendous things."

"I'm a forgiving person," Clemens said, finally.

Oh. That explains it.

That satisfied Rep. Norton, anyhow.

"Mr. Clemens," she concluded. "All I can say is, I'm sure you're going to heaven."

oh my

thank god he's getting roasted

they have to investigate him after this right? he's probably committed perjury about 65 times today

Alan Dershowitz sez he should've taken the 5th, guilty or innocent.

Screw Stark, Alan Schwarz is blogging at the NYTimes:

In the first questioning period after the break, the ranking minority member, Tom Davis of Virginia, aggressively questioned Mr. McNamee’s representation of his medical credentials.

During his time in baseball the former police officer apparently advertised himself as a doctor. He is not a medical doctor, but earned a Ph.D. in behavioral sciences from Columbus University in Metarie, La. — the established name in distance education,” according to the school’s Web site, which carries the “.com” domain suffix and not the “.edu” more common for an educational institution.

Mr. Davis asked Mr. McNamee to describe the curriculum, which Mr. McNamee said included 11 courses and a written dissertation, all completed electronically, because Columbus University has no brick-and-mortar campus.

Was Columbus University a “diploma mill?” Mr. Davis asked.
“As I found out later on,” Mr. McNamee said, “it appears it is.”

This shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Strong hints that Clemens leaned on their nanny a bit this past Sunday night before making her name known to the committee and before she made a statement to them.

Wow, during Waxman's closing statement, he made it pretty clear that he believes McNamee over Clemens, Clemens started arguing with him, and Waxman told him to shaddap.

Schwarz:

Elijiah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat, began questioning Roger Clemens in the second session much as he had in the first — by asking Mr. Clemens about Andy Pettitte. Mr. Cummings repeatedly asked the witness why Mr. Pettitte, generally considered an honest person, would be so repeatedly off-base in his testimony under oath that backed up many of Brian McNamee’s assertions.

Mr. Clemens, as he had before, again provided a bit of a non sequitur in emphasizing his relationship with Mr. Pettitte, and that if Mr. Pettitte were using H.G.H. he would have told Mr. Clemens.

Mr. Cummings all but sighed and said, “It’s hard to believe you. It’s hard to believe you, sir. You’re one of my heroes, but it’s hard to believe you.”

The Rocket would make a great politician.

well, he'd fit right in - that's for sure.

I pretty much hate Waxman and Clemens equally.

Schwarz:

“This is what I’ve learned,” Waxman said. “Chuck Knoblauch and Andy Pettitte confirmed what Brian McNamee told Senator Mitchell. We learned of conversations that Andy Pettitte believed he had with Roger Clemens about H.G.H.­ even though Clemens says his relationship with Mr. Pettitte was so close that they would know and share information with each other. Evidently Mr. Pettitte didn’t believe what Mr. Clemens said in that 2005 conversation” –­ before Clemens spoke loudly into his microphone.

“It doesn’t mean he was not mistaken,­ sir,” Clemens said, violating House rules by speaking after witness questioning had completed.
“Doesn’t mean that,” Waxman said. Clemens replied: “That does not mean that he was not mistaken,­ sir.”

Waxman pounded his gavel and said: “Excuse me, but this is not your time to argue with me.”

actively looking for a fourth to round out the world's worst barbershop quartet:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/alternatethumbnails/storylink/2008-02/35586349-13101430.jpg

"I told the investigators I injected three people -- two of whom I know confirmed my account," McNamee said. "The third is sitting at this table."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=bryant_howard&id=3244584

This pretty much sums up how I felt reading, watching this. McNamee comes off as pretty pathetic and despicable. Clemens OTOH was just sociopathic.

AP NewsBreak: McNamee's lawyer predicts presidential pardon for Clemens

By RONALD BLUM, AP Baseball Writer
February 14, 2008
One of Brian McNamee's lawyers predicted that Roger Clemens will be pardoned by President Bush, saying some Republicans treated his client harshly because of the pitcher's friendship with the Bush family.

Lawyer Richard Emery made the claims Thursday, a day after a congressional hearing broke down along party lines. Many Democrats were skeptical of Clemens' denials that he used performance-enhancing drugs and Republicans questioned the character of McNamee, the personal trainer who made the accusations against the seven-time Cy Young Award winner.

"It would be the easiest thing in the world for George W. Bush given the corrupt proclivities of his administration to say Roger Clemens is an American hero, Roger Clemens helped children," Emery said in a telephone interview. "It's my belief they have some reason to believe they can get a pardon."

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During Wednesday's session before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Clemens repeated his denials under oath, which could lead to criminal charges if federal prosecutors conclude he made false statements or obstructed Congress.

"I'm not aware of Mr. Clemens having been charged with anything," White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said after being told of Emery's remarks.

Emery cited Bush's decision last year to commute the 2 1/2 -year prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, his vice president's former top aide. Libby was convicted in the case of the leaked identity of a CIA operative.

During the hearing, Clemens cited his friendship with Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, a baseball fan who regularly attends Houston Astros' games. Clemens said he was on a recent hunting trip when the elder Bush called with words of support.

"They have some belief that even if he's prosecuted, he will never have to serve jail time or face a trail," Emery said. "This is a charade we're going through."

IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky attended the hearing and watched from the second row. Novitzky has been a part of the BALCO prosecution team that secured an indictment against Barry Bonds on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Bonds testified before a grand jury in 2003 and denied that he knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.

Emery praised Clemens' lawyers, Rusty Hardin and Lanny Breuer, as knowledgeable and said the prospect of a pardon was the only explanation thaat allowed the pitcher to repeat his denials under oath.

"It's the only reason lawyers worth their salt would allow their client to run into the buzzsaw of Jeff Novitzky and the potential prosecution, tampering and lying to a federal official," Emery said.

Joe Householder, Clemens' spokesman, said he would attempt to reach Hardin or Breuer for comment. Republicans on the committee did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.

AP White House Correspondent Terence Hunt contributed to this report.

It's a disgrace to Abner Doubleday. I hope they throw the book at him.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/tracerhand/AFewGoodBallplayers.jpg

Roger Clemens: Hey, I was watching a TV show the other day.
Andy Pettitte: You bought a TV?
RC: No, Andy, I was watching TV, and there was this show about three old guys.
AP: How much did you pay?
RC: Pay for what?
AP: The TV? How much did you pay for the TV?
RC: Andy, I said I was watching TV. Come on, man. There was this show about three old guys.
AP: Three old guys on TV. Like Grumpy Old Men.
RC: There were only two of them.
AP: I thought three.
RC: Right. Anyway they were like, pretty sick, you know? Sickly and stuff.
AP: Maybe you should have given them food.
RC: What? Give who food?
AP: The old guys you were watching TV with. You could have given them soup. Chicken soup is good for you. Clears out your pores and stuff.
RC: I wasn’t watching TV WITH them, Andy, I don’t even know them. They were on TV. They were on a show.
AP: Oh. Gotcha.
RC: Anyway, one of them took this thing I’ve never heard of … human growth hormone. You heard of that?
AP: Heard of what?
RC: Human growth hormone?
AP: Yeah, I heard of it. HGH. Everybody’s heard of that. I think my Dad said something. You never heard of it?
RC: No, I’m just a big idiot when it comes to stuff like that. B12 vitamins is all you need.
AP: Cool.
RC: So, anyway, this guy takes the Human growth hormone — is that how you pronounce it? HOR-mone? Or is it hor-MONE — and man, he starts feeling a lot better.
AP: Amazing.
RC: I know. He started, like, playing golf and stuff. It was amazing.
AP: So where did this happen?
RC: Where did what happen?
AP: Where did you see the old guy who sold you the television doing HGH?
RC: Andy, man, you feeling OK? I didn’t buy any television from an old guy.
AP: So there was no old guy?
RC: The old guy was on television doing HGH. And it helped him, you know?
AP: Interesting.
RC: Yeah, I thought so.
AP: One question.
RC: What’s that?
AP: What’s it like doing HGH?
RC: How the hell should I know?
AP: Weren’t you doing HGH with some old guy in front of your television?
RC: You’re just crazy, Andy.
AP: It helped your golf game?
RC: Man, you know what? Just never mind, all right.
AP: I can’t wait to tell my wife about this.

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/02/14/clemens-pettitte-the-misremembered-conversation/

Yankees's paternity claim to Pedro Martinez put in doubt, DNA testing demanded.

Clemens really has been baseball's prom king - good-looking, successful, charming and yet full of himself - for some time now.

He wants to take you out behind the middle school and get you pregnant.

Report: Photo exists of Clemens at Canseco party

i don't think i ever in my life considered Roger Clemens "charming".

Probably the most exciting B&N (?) in-store event in awhile:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3326985

Diagram of human networks from Mitchell Report data

Travis Hafner SLUGGING
2002 TEX .387
2003 CLE .485
2004 CLE .583
2005 CLE .595
2006 CLE .659
2007 CLE .451
2008 CLE .394

http://www.familycourtchronicles.com/opinion/witchhunt/witchhunt-thumb.jpg

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/04/27/2008-04-27_sources_roger_clemens_had_10year_fling_w.html?print=1&page=all

Roger Clemens carried on a decade-long affair with country star Mindy McCready, a romance that began when McCready was a 15-year-old aspiring singer performing in a karaoke bar and Clemens was a 28-year-old Red Sox ace and married father of two, several sources have told the Daily News.

[...]

Sources say that when McCready, now 32, and Clemens were together, there was barely any friction between them. The two were known to take lavish trips to Las Vegas and New York. One time, McCready attended a Yankees game at the Stadium and jokingly donned a catcher's mask near the home dugout. During another Big Apple excursion, the two holed up in the trendy SoHo Grand and later partied with Monica Lewinsky and Michael Jordan. McCready, according to a source, even bummed a cigar off His Airness to give to Clemens. There were personal love missives to Clemens hidden in McCready's album liner notes.

I'm kinda dying to know more about this party with Monica Lewinsky and Michael Jordan. That sounds like a bad mid-90's SNL sketch or something.

McCready did not learn that Clemens was married to Debbie Clemens until McCready attended a baseball game with her two younger brothers and read Clemens' bio in the program.

I'm kinda dying to know more about this party with Monica Lewinsky and Michael Jordan. That sounds like a bad mid-90's SNL sketch or something.

Colin Quinn (who could screw up the timing on a knock-knock joke) as Clemens, obv.

http://www.rumorintown.com/

Zach (Brooklyn): Keith, I appreciate your raising the question of race, and i think the different ways black and white athletes get represented has a lot to do with the massive disparity in the ways Bonds and Clemens were viewed until a few months ago, or Bonds and Pettite now, or Bonds and Giambi, etc. But with Hamilton there's also the claim that as messed up as he was, he never "cheated," that what he's doing is despite the drugs rather than because of them, that he isn't a lie. Of course, if Hamilton looked more like Doc Gooden than like Steve Howe, the conversation might be completely different, but there is still the difference between PEDs and narcotics to consider when comparing him with the mitchell report rogues gallery.

Keith Law: (1:36 PM ET ) Before 2004 or so, narcotics and steroids were viewed by baseball in the same way - if anything, the punishment for narcotics abuse was more severe. So if one is "cheating," so is the other.

Tony, Chicago: Keith, what definition of cheating are you working from? Cheating requires, at a minimum, the effort to gain an unfair advantage. How does heroin improve one's baseball skills?

Keith Law: (1:41 PM ET ) About as much as HGH does.

Keith Law's smart about some things, but very dumb about others.

Just like me! :D

Andrew (Ohio): True, PEDS will not help you hit a baseball but it will help you hit further or harder. That is an unfair advantage.

Keith Law: (1:48 PM ET ) Steroids might, but HGH won't.

Whether it's an actually unfair advantage or not is sort of beside the point. The INTENT is to gain an unfair advantage which is why people are generally more forgiving of dopefiends, alcoholics and crackheads than they are of people who use PEDs (lately.)

That said I have no doubt that Hamilton's getting more of a pass than let's say Raines because he's white (also because it's a slightly more feel good story too, but being white doesn't hurt.)

Dykstra files for Chapter 11

NEW YORK -- Lenny Dykstra, the former star center fielder for the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, court records show.

Dykstra, 46, has no more than $50,000 in assets and between $10 million and $50 million in liabilities, according to a petition filed Tuesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Central District of California.

Jonathan Hayes, one of Dykstra's lawyers, had no immediate comment.

Dykstra's filing comes in the wake of some 20 lawsuits he faces tied to his activities as a financial entrepreneur, including The Players Club, a glossy magazine he had helped launch, according to published reports.

The bankruptcy petition shows several banks among Dykstra's largest unsecured creditors, including units of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp.

Known as "Nails" and "The Dude," Dykstra played for 12 years with the Mets and the Phillies before retiring in 1996 with a lifetime .285 batting average and 81 home runs.

He won a World Series with the Mets in 1986, and with the Phillies was runner-up in the National League MVP voting in 1993. The Phillies lost the World Series that year.

Hate that fuckin' asshole. Hope his balls have shriveled off and he winds up in a trailer park and discovers meth.

that GQ article by the guy who worked for The Players Club was pretty LOL/WTF

because i know morbs gets perturbed discussing him on the mets thread rather than the phillies thread:

http://savelenny.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/cropped-Save-Lenny-Banner_A11.jpg

Saving Lenny is NOT a non-profit organization.

Therefore, any help provided is NOT tax-deductible.

However, like a non-profit, all net proceeds will be advanced to help Lenny’s defense and secure his release by paying his bail premium.

http://savelenny.com

it shd be on the bozo thread

Charlie Sheen did steroids to get in shape for "Major League":

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/extramustard/06/29/charlie-sheen-interview-major-league-anniversary/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

The interview is pretty good, btw.

And by "good", of course I mean that Sheen is totally hilarious and delusional, you know, like always except this time he's talking about baseball.

I saw that spot where Ortiz walks around New York trying to get a hug for the first time today--great. Ten or fifteen years from now, somebody should undertake a study of all the factors that contributed to some players getting a pass over steroids while others were crucified.

biggest factor: sucking the media's collective dick

(hence Bonds as Voldemort)

Minor leaguer Jacobs suspended for HGH

http://danny-knobler.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/8590096/31396037

Absolute jewel of a tweet from Bob Nightengale today:

RIP Victor Conte, the founder of BALCO, who dies at the age of 75 from pancreatic cancer. Respect him or not, love him or hate him, the charismatic man was a scientific genius.

Famed bassist of Tower of Power!

Wow, I never knew that. "You're Still a Young Man"...it all fits together now.