Black Jack's Comments

Recently Jack McDowell said that Mark Prior's tendon injury was a tell-tale sign of a player on steroids (I paraphrased). McDowell took a lot of flack for his comments and has since backed off his observation and apologized. A number of people have asked who McDowell thinks he is to make such comments. Well people may be forgetting that McDowell was actually a Cy Young pitcher (1993).*

What got me thinking was why McDowell would think what he obviously must think (if at the very least in private). Consider that McDowell was once the toast of Chicago and now at just 38 years old - he's an after thought. Consider that McDowell was 6'5" but only 180 pounds while Prior is also 6'5" but 225 pounds. McDowell may be playing the "what if" game in his head. What if McDowell took steroids - then he would have filled out to about 225 pounds too and maybe have had more pop on his fastball and thus more strikeouts (kinda just like Prior). Mark Prior is the toast of Chicago, a beefy (compared to McDowell) 225 pounds and has a fastball that McDowell can only dream about. Of course he's jealous.

I believe we have just started to see the tip of the iceberg for comments like Black Jack's. First we had Turk Wendell, then Reggie Jackson, then Jim Palmer and now McDowell speaking out and speculating about who was on steroids. The list of players (and ex-players) making accusations will continue to grow (maybe one accusation every two weeks or so). It will be an entertaining summer.

* Randy Johnson should have won the Cy Young in 1993 - the Unit was robbed