Ortiz, ManRam tested positive in 2003?

Ah, the "mistakes we're made, let's keep making them" argument

 

Side note: I don't care how good a TV reporter she is or how good her connections are ... in terms of ethical considerations, there is no way Wendi Nix should be covering a Red Sox story.

 

I don't think Palmeiro would be such a mistake. You don't just compile a combination of 3,000 hits and 500 homers. How many players have those numbers? It takes a certain amount of greatness to get there.

 

Solid point.

 

I think Ortiz was so outspoken because he specifically spoke about what should happen if someone breaks the rules now; Ortiz didn't break any rules of baseball - and if someone says he broke a law, GFY; Ruth and Cobb broke plenty in their days - when he tested. He was smart speaking out the way he did because he can always say that.

 

Oh, I like that one.

 

Split hairs if you feel the need, but speaking out against steroid use if he used them himself is hypocritical.

 

At what point does this stop becoming news?

We get it.

Some people, a lot of them apparently, juiced and hit baseballs a mile or threw fastballs 100 MPH.

They are evil and mean and should be punished.

Can we move on yet? :

 

It becomes news when people stop giving a damn (we passed that point for me a while ago, but not for everybody).

 

I think what bothers me the most is this -- the same people (be it the commissioner, the baseball writers, the old timers) who had no problem jumping for joy when Sammy and Marky were "saving baseball" by hitting homers had no problem sitting back and enjoying the fruits of that for their game --- yet none, or very, very few of these people asked questions like "why do these two guys who look like the hulk (well not as good as me, but you get the picture....) and Bonds, who put on like 50 pounds of muscle and looks like he could now chew a rail road track seem to be using something unnatural?" back then?

Why was the "outrage" now, long after it was clear homers were way up and players looked more and more like Mr. USA contestants when people knew, or at least suspected, back then that something wasn't right.

 

OK, this is just flat-out wrong.

Performance-enhancing drugs WERE banned by MLB, and it was made clear they were banned by MLB all the way back in 1991.

So that is not a valid loophole for the players. Never was.

What IS a valid loophole is that even though these drugs were banned by MLB, and some were illegal to possess under federal law, MLB never had any testing in place, nor a valid system of punishment to enforce said "bans".

And that, of course, is because MLB was complicit in turning a blind eye, as long as fans were coming to the park in record-breaking numbers. If the players are going to get blasted for this -- and they will -- I sure hope a bright light is cast upon MLB's institutional cover-up that was going on at the same time. Which is far more damning to the integrity of the game than a hundred players sticking needles in their asses and hitting a lot more home runs.

But it won't. Same shit, different century. It'll all get blamed on the players, and Organized Baseball will escape again. They always do.

 

BuckW, I somewhat disagree. I think it's pretty commonly accepted that MLB was an implicit co-conspirator in all this. The record of willful ignorance is pretty clear, including giving away drug testing in more than one Basic Agreement negotiation, because their policy was just ass-covering.
It won't happen, because the union has no wish to blow up some of its members, but a breach of contract lawsuit against MLB about these leaks could be illuminating.