The Smoking Gun (er..Needle)

So Brian MacNemee has bloody gauze, needles, syringes and vials that he claimed he used to shoot up Roger Clemens with HGH back in 2000-01. WOW! What a revelation!It is amazing that after all this time he has come forward with this evidence after he has been sued by the Clemens camp. Coincidence or a desperate act from a cowardly failed blackmailer?

Why didn't he come forward to Clemens with this stuff before all the shouting, claims, counter-claims etc. started? Why wasn't any of this offered to the Mitchell group as proof of his statements? Why didn't he say something before Congress got involved? These are good questions that he needs to answer, but I think the number one question he needs to answer is:

Why did you keep all of this stuff back before steroids/HGH was in the public eye and was basically a non-issue? Let's face it unless he was clairvoyant or psychic he couldn't possibly see that he would need it for a court case. There was no one hounding anyone about steroids back then. There was no Mitchell investigation, no testing, no one paying much attention. So why keep a bunch of stuff like this unless maybe the issue was possible blackmail? That is the only reason.

Brian says he kept it because he was worried that Clemens would deny use in the future, but why would he need to worry about that back then? Also did he keep the same material from the other players he injected?

This case gets fishier and fishier all the time. I mean it is as if there is a bunch of stuff coming up to prove that baseball wasn't only after Barry Bonds. It gives the racists something to crow about, and of course all the people who claimed racism when Bonds was being disposed, are now rushing to the same judgment as those who convicted Bonds. The exception is that Bonds is tied to a steroid lab through his trainer that refuses to talk (plus the testimony from Gary Sheffield and a Former Mistress) whereas Clemens only accuser is someone who was basically told “Give us Clemens or go to jail”. He admitted as much from the infamous phone conversation, yet the haters tend to ignore this and go on with their blind bigotry.

Oh by the way where is Bud Selig in all this mess? He can't be happy with what is happening. Here it is a few weeks before the start of Spring training, the good old “Rites of Spring”, when he should be gearing up the old Marketing Machine for the opening of the season.

“Opening Day” used to be the most magical words of the year when growing up, now because of all the scandals and over exposure of the players private lives and gossip sheets like ESPN and espn.com the sports world have sunk to soap opera levels.

Bud and his marketing group need to get on their high horses and grab the headlines with some positive images soon lest the season be known more for this episode than anything else.

Let's face it the “Mitchell Report” has been one of the greatest Marketing blunders since “New Coke”. It was supposed to be a fair and balanced report, yet it only focused on two informants so the report actually is skewed to people these two knew. It was supposed to prove MLB cared, but all it showed that they are so out of touch with their players and fans, as well as have no control over the sport. All it did was skew the perception that a low percentage of players were cheating, to one of a rampant underground drug culture that is so persuasive that no one is above suspicion anymore.

It is a shame that since Bud has taken over as commissioner that all we have is bad images of the sport. We have the Strike in 1994, and then the whole 1998 home run race which they marketed heavily, but now is a joke as it was the year that steroids took over baseball and now look at where we are today.

It is definitely a marketing and image problem and the fault starts at the top in the commissioner's office. Not that the player's Union or the owners are any less culpable, but it could have been avoided and now look where we are today.

Can baseball survive this as they have previous scandals? We'll have to see as there are too many entertainment choices these days, too many alternates to the “National Pastime” to think that it is invulnerable. A shame that this slick talking ex-used car salesman has destroyed the sport of our youth.

Mahalo.

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Cheater's Proof

Well the Mitchell report has finally come out, and guess what? Yes there is cheating in baseball after all. Also Barry Bonds didn't cheat in a vacuum, he was just better at it then other players were.

Of course Barry's legal problems stem from the fact he allegedly lied to a Federal Grand Jury when they were trying to close down illegal labs like BALCO, not just from his use of the substances. There is a big difference between that and if he was just a steroid user. But enough time, energy and bandwidth has been wasted on this cretin so that's all I'll say about him for now.

The juicy part of the report has to deal with the other big names mentioned. There was Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Miguel Tejada (maybe Rafael Palmerio was telling the truth when he said he got the stuff from Tejada after all) amongst the active players. I man wow, who would have guessed it? Except of course rumors have been floating around earlier this summer about these three, so I guess the old saying “Wheres there's smoke there's fire”, rings true in this case.

Of course all the players on the list who would have been considered for the Hall of Fame, need to get the same treatment as Barry Bonds, and Mark McGuire are getting now. If there is an asterisk besides Barry's home run record, there there should be one next to Clemen's win and strikeout totals as well. If Barry's MVP's are tainted, then so is Clemen's Cy Young awards. Fair is fair and we all want to be fair.

The reason for the lack of outcry for these other players is mainly because they don't act like cretins to the public and press. Yes there will be gnashing of teeth and rending of garments for a week or so, but it will go away and become background noise until Spring Training. Then of course the media will storm the camps and besiege these players with ridiculous questions and try to trip them up. Then of course it will die down and the regular season will go along until June/July when the boring part of the season is upon us and a little mention will be made, then go away for the stretch runs.

Baring of course any major busts or a rash of failed tests show up.

The whole problem with this scenario is that it all hinges on the testimony of one person, an ex Club House worker from Shea Stadium. He was caught dealing in HGH and steroids, and part of his plea agreement was to give evidence to the Mitchell panel. It is known that players give money to club house personnel to run errands for them, (washing cars, filling up gas tanks, getting food and drink, etc.) and pay them with cash and checks. The canceled checks are one of the main pieces of evidence he has produced against the players. But one can never really know what he really got the money for, (and of course there is the chance that he is telling the truth).

The next few days are going to be fun and the “Talking Heads” are going to be wagging their tongues and making excuses for some players while trashing others. Ah yes these “Holier than thou” commentators really crack me up and I get a good laugh at them trying to justify their bogus indignation, bias and bigotry (especially ESPN anchors and talk show hosts both on TV and Radio).

Let's all sit back and enjoy the ride and join me for a laugh.

Mahalo.