Terrell Owens Wants To Get BALCO'd Up With Rodney Harrison's Help

And you thought Milton Bradley was a distraction.  Not too long after not catching a damn ball, and catching flak because of it, Terrell Owens went to the Twittersphere and launched an onslaught against analyst Rodney Harrison.

The most humorous, in my humble opinion, is the one above.  If anything, though, the next two carry the most punch.

 

 

In baseball, it seems as if there is no worse crime than getting supplemental help from steroids.  In football, it's clearly a joke.  If a baseball player were to do this, there would be an full-blown investigation on everything and anything that goes through and into said player's system.

And another thing -- baseball people consider steroid usage as cheating the game.  A lot of football folks feel that T.O. cheats teh game with the way he has treated his teammates (see: Quarterbacks) in his time in the NFL.

So, which is more punishable in the fan's court?

Into The Mailbag: Debunking The List

The other day, I received an e-mail that's worth addressing. The e-mail contested the validity of The List. By now, all of you who haven't been hiding in the MLBPA's shadow know what The List is.

For those of you who don't, The List is currently under court supervision and it has each and every player that tested positive for PEDs under what was supposed to be anonymous testing in 2003. However, in recent months, names such as Manny Ramriez, David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa have leaked to the mainstream media.

In late June, Rotoinfo.com posted a rumored list, which has since been removed and basically labeled a fake. The e-mail, which was originally sent from someone who claims they have a friend who [sic] "A FRIEND OF MINE WHO IS A JOURNALIST AND PERIODICALLY WRITES FOR THE BASEBALL DIGEST."

I'm not here to banter about anonymous sources, or leaks or any of that. I just want to debunk this list, and I'll do so in the exact verbatim I gave in the e-mail.

"The list is indeed false. This list has been floating around since June or July and was a big deal on blogs because the person who first posted "The List" online had come up short on previous reports based on sources he couldn't name. The big thing with these lists -- and this is how you can tell they're fake -- is the absence of Jason Grimsley. Grimsley was the pitcher for the Orioles (among other teams), named in the Mitchell Report, that is known for testing positive."

This is where the witch hunt begins. The MLBPA needs to play hush-hush about The List because it is the governement's hands, hence it can neither confirm nor deny such a List exists. Then there are those of use, myself and Hank Aaron alike, who want the list released. Finally, there are those who don't want it released because it's 2009, not 2003.

And while I agree that the past is the past, wrong has been done in baseball and it would even be more wrong to ignore it like it never happened. I hear a lot of baseball fans say that they don't care about The List. They don't care about the past. I'm not hearing any of that noise.

But what I will eventually hear is anyone and everyone gossiping about The List, and until it comes out, that's all it will be.

Gossip.

Now, on with the show.

A Plea To Albert Pujols

If Albert Pujols is on The List, it might kill baseball.

Major League Baseball needs a savior. Whether it is a feel good story about a young, up-and-coming team rising from the ashes of failure to contend with with big money spending traditional powers or a shining star that happens to be detached from any links to performance enhancing drugs.

Right now, all six of the division leaders are in the Top 10 of spending as teams have still been able to make it rain on free agents despite an economy that limits me to a passing shower here and there. And with no upstarts off in the distance, baseball is hitching its wagons to Albert Pujols.

This is my opportunity to tell the head honchos at the MLB to be wary of where you hitch your wagons. Big Papi's big bust yesterday proved that even one of baseball's most popular players, who offered up a year-long banishment from baseball as punishment for steroid use could be a suspect. Between Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, Boston fans should feel duped. And somewhere, Cardinals and Rockies fans should feel as if former dopers had stolen a World Series title from them. Of course, that means those teams' fans are assuming everyone on that team was clean.

If losing Papi's veil of perceived cleanliness was a punch to the gut of baseball, then losing Pujols would be like being on the receiving end of a blow from Mike Tyson in his prime.

The only reason Pujols is in this category is because of his link to Dominican trainer Angel Presinal, who (as pointed out via The Big Lead) has worked with many Latino baseball stars. Names that litter the list include Ortiz, Miguel Tejada and Alex Rodriguez -- all of which have been linked at one point or another. Pujols leads the parade of players that have not (yet) been linked to the PED movement which includes Vladimir Guerrero, Pedro Martinez and Robinson Cano.

So here's my plea to Phat Albert. Please do not find yourself on that list, may The Baseball Gods so help your soul. If not for the sake of the game, for the sake of St. Louis Cardinals fans who would look like total hypocrites for giving Manny Ramirez a resounding chorus of boos for the last four days, but gave a thunerous standing ovation to Rick Ankiel.

Oh wait, that already happened.

More on that later.

QOTD: Who's The Hall Of Famer That Was On Roids

Jose Canseco has been (arguably) the most reliable source in the Steroid Era. He's the bad guy you kind of root for but wouldn't mind if he got knocked off because he's like the neighborhood snitch.

Except, when it comes to the Hall Of Famer the he alleges was roided up, via ESPN:

"When you tell me something I didn't already know, I'll be surprised. And I'll tell you this, Major League Baseball is going to have a big, big problem on their hands when they find out they have a Hall of Famer who's used."

So, who was it? It's not like Canseco has taken us down the wrong path before. Could it have been former teammates like Rickey Henderson (who played 'til he was beyond ancient) Dennis Eckersley (a pitcher who racked up a ton of innings when he was with Oakland), Wade Boggs (who was Canseco's teammate in his twilight years with Tampa Bay) or someone else.

How demoralizing would it be if Cal Ripken Jr.'s Iron Man streak was tainted? Or if Tony Gwynn's 3,141 hits and .338 career batting average didn't come naturally. What if it was one of the Midwest's most beloved baseball icons such as Ozzie Smith or Ryne Sandberg?

All of the above should be considered pure speculation. But in a crazy world like this, anyone who is suspect should be considered a suspect.

Report: Big Papi Was On The Big PED List

Here's a thought: The NYT should sell the 2003 PED list to the highest bidder to save the newspaper industry.

Move over Detox. Move over Blueprint 3. This year's biggest release might not come from either of you -- or anyone in the music industry, for that matter. I think it's time for the New York Times to release the entire 106-player positive test list.

Yes, I'm writing this partially because David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez each had their name dropped on this list by a report in New York Times. But also, because it's getting annoying to have this list leak one-by-one. Every time another name gets leaked, it just proves to be even more evidence that someone is just screwing with us.

Heck, if I'm the NYT and I want to save journalism, I'd sell that list to the highest bidder. Is it ethical? Hell no. As a journalist, I know better. But I also know that the world of journalism needs a savior like the Washington Nationals need -- well -- an entirely new team.

I'm also bothered by the notion that a good chunk of PED users have been Latino baseball players. This 2005 San Francisco Chronicle article details part of the matter, but it makes me wonder what some of these agents are telling these young ball players.

How easy could it be for a slimey agent to sell a lavish lifestyle as a Major Leaguer at the expense of the sanctity of the game? How easy would it be for said agent to suggest that steroids could rescue a youngster and his family from a life of poverty in developing country?

I won't justify cheating -- even though it was technicaglly legal at the time. But I will express my disappointment.

Once Upon A Time, Even Wrestling Laughed At Mark McGwires (Alleged) Steroid Use

The funniest video you'll see all day. (Via The Big Lead)

Unless, of course, you live in, are from or are a friend, fan or associate of St. Louis or the Cardinals baseball organization.

Flaming Cards hat ... Pretty much sums up St. Louis, doesn't it?

Jim Parque Comes Clean; He Was Dirty

When people think of the Steroid Era in baseball, they will likely think of bulky power hitters launching mammoth home run bombs even NASA struggled to track down. They will look at guys like Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and other (allegedly) juiced-up and souped-up sluggers and consider them to be the Mount Rushmore of PED pushers.

But other than Roger Clemens' (alleged) use of performance enhancing substances, pitchers are commonly overlooked when it comes to this era of infidelity. That is, until former White Sox pitcher Jim Parque confessed to his use of performance enhancing drugs in an exclusive first-person story in the Chicago Sun-Times.

In the piece, Parque said he first admitted to substance abuse in 2006 while talking to approximately 100 youngsters about its perils and the pressure that comes with it. I don't want to take awaay from the read, but I will leave you with this excerpt:

"HGH was not banned by Major League Baseball when I ordered it. It was controversial and unethical, but it was not banned."

There, my friends, fans, and fellow readers, is the big asterik when it comes to this era. HGH was frowned upon, but not punishable. Kind of like having several girlfriends, except Joey Greco isn't stalking you in an unmarked white van with black-clad, video-camera wielding nerds searching for answers.

Parque proves that it wasn't just the Incredible Hulk-like hitters beneffiting from this. When mediocre pitchers like Parque confess their wrong doing, one of those "what came first, chicken or the egg" scenarios pops into my head.

Was it pitchers juicing in an attempt to catch up to big, beefy batters or was it the hitters trying to get an edge over hopped-up hurlers? And while the world will never know, the only thing for certain is that the black cloud that looms over Bud Selig and the rest of baseball's collective heads is not going away any time soon.

If ever.

Ex-Sox Pitcher Jim Parque Confesses: Why I Juiced [Chicago Sun-Times]

I Guess Those Weren't Flintstones Vitamins After All: Report Pegs Sosa With Positive Test In 2003

If this report is true, you can add another layer of tarnish to what was a magical 2003 season for the Chicago Cubs.

"Sammy Sosa, who joined with Mark McGwire in 1998 in a celebrated pursuit of baseball’s single-season home run record, is among the players who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the drug-testing results from that year.

The disclosure that Sosa tested positive makes him the latest baseball star of the last two decades to be linked to performance-enhancers. ..."

I guess Samuel Peralta Sosa picked a good time to retire, huh?

One of the best summers of my life has basically been broken down into one big fraud. I shoulda seen it coming. Flintstones Vitamins only tasted good, but I never really felt better afterward. And the fact that I am writing about baseball instead of playing it should tell you that they did not help my Little League Baseball career whatsoever.

Anyone wonder what Dusty The Enabler has to say about this? Maybe it's just me.

If this proves anything, it is that the remaining players on that list need to be outed. I said that after the A-Rod revelation and I'll say it again. Out one, out 'em all.

Sosa Said To Test Positive In 2003 [New York Times]

You know what I'm sick of? Steroids

It's time to dig a little deeper.

It is almost as if every time I'm online, there's a steroids story. Baseball. Football. Wrestling. C'mon give me something new. I understand there are major headlines to be written and countless hits to be had online, but I feel a little bit more empty each time I read one.

Like when I read this about Dwayne Johnson, formerly known as "The Rock" via Steroid Nation:

"I tried it," Johnson admitted. "Me and my buddies tried it back in the day when I was 18 or 19. Didn't know what we were doing."

He must have been hanging with Yuri Sucart. Maybe Sucart could smellllllllllllllllll what The Rock was injecting.

All classic wrestling references aside, I want something new on the steroids front. If anything, I want to hear straight from Madonna, A-Rod's ex or that one stripper and see if "boli" is a real performance enhancer.

I want to know if The Rock would have gotten prime acting roles such as ... well ... um ... update me when The Rock does a decent job in a good movie.

Then find me if there's a new storyline out there.

No one believes A-Fraud

Nobody in their right mind believes admitted PEDphile Alex Rodriguez.

He's lied. He's cheated. No one believes him.

Not even in Chicago, where Cubs fans believed the likes of Andy MacPhail, Ed Lynch and Dusty Baker would deliver championships. Bulls fans trusted Jerry Krause and John Paxson to rebuild disaster basketball squads. And don't even get me started on the Bears or Blackhawks' previous short-comings on their respective promises of championships.

So here we have a city that embraced former rivals and evil-doers. Dennis Rodman, Jim Edmonds and Bob Probert were once revered by Bulls, Cubs and Blackhawks fans, respectively. Rodman and Edmonds eventually became beloved figures during championship runs.

I'm still waiting for Probert to get out of rehab.

And that brings us to A-Roid and the Chicago columnists that aren't cutting him any slack.

Rick Telander [Chicago Sun-Times]: "Would you let a half-witted ''cousin'' clandestinely shoot you up with unnamed drugs in an unsanitary fashion dozens of times over a three-year period when you're getting paid $25 million a year to do what you already have done and this seeming moron might be killing you?"

So how long until someone finds A-Rod's cousin? Weeks? Months? Days? My money's on either the New York Times and its staff of brilliant investigative journalists or ESPN who has the pure man-power and seemingly endless funds to find this character.

Maybe the better question is how long until the New York Post or Daily News finds out that A-Rod's cousin doesn't exist?

Rick Morrisey [Chicago Tribune]: "Unfortunately, being young and stupid (more about the validity of that characterization later) doesn't absolve one of bad behavior. It's why, no matter how sincere he was in apologizing for his past mistakes, Rodriguez shouldn't get to sit in the big-boy wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame."

I'm a 22-year-old college kid, and I know young and stupid.

So maybe there is a reason I realized when A-Rod said he was young and stupid, he was in his eighth, ninth and tenth(!) seasons in Major League Baseball. He was a major league veteran. MLB vets don't make "young and stupid" mistakes.

You know who makes "young and stupid" mistakes 18-to-24-year-olds who have finally broken away from mommy and daddy's loving grasp while on their first (and sometimes only) semester at college.

And while this might be Rodriguez's truth presented by a highly-paid group of Ivy League-educated attorneys, I'm going to ask of him to really come clean.

Just say that you took the steroids because everyone else who was doing it benefited mightily and you didn't want to be left in the dust.

Bud Selig can only hear your compliments

Bud Selig is a very well paid individual. He is so well off, the criticism of his caviar and cognac lifestyle by Scott Van Pelt landed him on the ESPN suspended list.

And while he helped bring baseball into a modern era with the Wild Card, parity, home runs and television revenue up the wazoo, he wants absolutely no part of that whole steroids black cloud.

Via ESPN.com:

"I don't want to hear the commissioner turned a blind eye to this or he didn't care about it," Selig told Newsday in a Monday phone interview. "That annoys the you-know-what out of me. You bet I'm sensitive to the criticism.

"The reason I'm so frustrated is, if you look at our whole body of work, I think we've come farther than anyone ever dreamed possible," he said, adding, "I honestly don't know how anyone could have done more than we've already done."

Fine and dandy. You've done so much for baseball. And by so much I mean taking advantage of players ruining their bodies for the benefit of your own pocketbooks is very Vince McMahon-like.

McMahon and wrestling took a bad rap forever as the sports-entertainment industry racked up ratings, advertising and commercialization dollars as its athletes/entertainers got juiced to make a few bucks.

And Vinny Mac had a nice lil' federal investigation to show for it. He was the selfish, canniving son-of-a-gun who capitalized as these wrestlers faded at the end of their respective careers thanks to rampant steroid use.

Now that Selig has the steroid spotlight to himself, he could help clear his name if he helped take responsibility for what happened.

It's very easy to take the glory. Now it's time for Bud to take the guff.

A-Fraud comes clean

Seriously, Alex Rodriguez has pinker lips than any girl I've ever kissed.

I'm not saying that I would kiss A-Roid, but for $275 million ... at least I'd give it a thought. I've got bills to pay.

Anyway, it's good that he came clean. Except I want more.

I want the other 103 names to be released. What's the point of teasing one name when the equivalent of four fully-loaded baseball teams were implemented in 2003.

It is a fact that A-R*D wasn't alone.

So who's next?

I'd hate to indict anyone else because I don't want a lawsuit on my ass. But let's be honest, the indictment of the Yankee third sacker means that all bets are off on who could be next.

So heed my warning sports fans. While the Big Bad Bronx Boys on BALCO might have just seen their star fall, don't celebrate too loudly. For tomorrow, your favorite player might be ESPN's next breaking news story.

A-Rod admits. [Deadspin]

If it is true that A-Rod is a PEDophile...

... then allow me to be the first (but probably not the last) person to say that if Alex Rodriguez did indeed use steroids and that helped bump his stats, then his legacy is tarnished forever.

Allow me to channel that little kid from my favorite movie, The Sandlot.

Forever. For-e-ver. FOR ... E ... VER.

Seriously.

Mark McGwire has been blackballed basically for his involvement with perfomance enhancing drugs and will likely never be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame. And when Barry Bonds becomes eligible, do not be surprised if the Hall locks its doors and gives baseball's home run king the cold shoulder.

And you know whwat, if it is a proven fact that A-Rod got himself BALCO'd up, then consider him the next ballplayer to be etched on the pay no mind list.

I can only imagine a "banned player" list somewhere in Bud Selig's office and it looks something out of a 1960s convenience store. It's a cork board with polaroid mug shots that are held by push pins. Bonds and Big Mac are already up there.

If SI is on the money, there might be room for one more.

Um, I hope this isn't true.

A-Rod. Steroids. Bad news for the Yankees, their star third baseman and baseball as a whole. That's if it's true of course.

More on this after the SIU/Missouri State game which is on ESPN2 ... but you should follow the twitter.

Brenneman vs. Cubs II

While the Cubs were swinging and missing during most of the series against the Cincinnati Reds, announcer Thom Brenneman landed a cheap shot.

I have it on good authority that one of those Brenneman folk (and his sidekick Chris Welch) followed in his daddy's footsteps and basically implied (without any substance, mind you) that Cubs catcher Geovany Soto has used performance enhancing drugs.

Courtesy of Hire Jim Essian!

"THOM: You look at his career numbers, I’m talking about his minor league numbers, he just came to the majors for the first time this season. And you wonder, you know, where did all of this offense all of a sudden come from Geovany Soto?…You look at his minor league numbers, .260 one year, .269, .242, .271, .253…he had never hit more than nine home runs in a minor league season..NINE, until last year when he hit TWENTY-SIX in Triple-A Iowa and hit .353. Now all of a sudden, in his first full-year in the major leagues, granted it’s only a month and a week, but he’s hitting almost .340 and leads the Cubs in runs batted in with 24.

CHRIS: I don’t mean this in a bad way, but before steroid testing, you see a blip in the radar like that you say, well..

THOM: Right…

CHRIS: …one of the possibilities might be he’s juicing, but obviously that’s not the case anymore, everyone’s tested. And you know that doesn’t happen very much with baseball players because usually, whether it’s at the minor league level or the major league level, by the time you’re 28 or so…I’m not sure how old Soto is…he’s only 25, you reach a certain plateau of productivity. You pretty much stay within range. Maybe now that he’s getting closer to the prime of his career…around…he’s 25, so it’ll be a couple years until he’s in that…but maybe he’s reaching a new plateau.

THOM: Well another guy that was similar to that was Sammy Sosa…now people can accuse Sosa of “did he do this or did he do that”. To my knowledge he’s never been tested in a positive way for any kind of steroids, whether people believe or not he did is an entirely different question.

But the point being, that Sosa was one of those guys coming up through the White Sox organization who never hit many home runs, then all of a sudden got to the big leagues and started knocking the cover off the ball."

Oh no he didn't!

The first thing that came to my mind (and it's not because I'm a jealous Cubs fan) was Albert Pujols coming from nowhere to destroy the league, and the only comments we can get about him are from jealous Cubs fans who take shots at what Pujols' real age is and take notice that he's under the guidance of a manager whose players have been known to be (at least allegedly) BALCO'd Up!

But this isn't about Albert.

If this was Red Sox/Yankees and a broadcaster threw something like that out, it would have been the top story on ESPN. Heck, they made a big deal out of Gary Thorne's allegation that Curt Schilling's bloody sock was just a scam.

Instead, the World Wide Leader sweeps it under the rug. And to be honest, it's not that big of a deal.

Unless Brenneman takes a glance at Brandon Phillips.

The slugging second baseman only posted six home runs in 462 at bats during his time as a Cleveland Indian.

Two years later, as a Red, he's parlayed that into a 30-30 campaign in 2007 and is currently raking on my fantasy team as I attempt to capture the crown.

I'd say those numbers came out of nowhere, wouldn't you?

Let this be a lesson to Thom, who I consider to be one of the best play-by-play announcers in sports.

Don't think you can throw outrageous claims to the public without someone noticing and picking you apart.

Have a wonderful day!

-LMed