Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- The rise and fall of Gerd Bonk, the world champion of doping. It is uncanny how Russia under Putin seems to be replicating the doping deeds of East Germany.

- Sad but true - slavery in the modern world is alive and thriving. Roughly 46 million people worldwide are being forced to live as slaves.

- Mystery object beyond Neptune in strange orbit cannot be explained. There is so much we don't know about the outer solar system.

- Nice scouting report on Red Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi. With Benintendi, Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. - the Red Sox have the best young outfield and maybe the best outfield period in baseball.

- You will see lots of these types of political ads over the next few years. And those who support Trump will get what they deserve.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Gary Kasparov on the danger Trumps poses as an unwitting (or witting) agent of Putin.

- I really want to go somewhere where the Milky Way is visible to the naked eye. This is breathtaking.

- John McEnroe with maybe the best first pitch ever thrown

- In depth long read on why maybe the war on PED's should be ended. I'm of two minds on the subject. I think sports PEDs hurt the use of regular people in their search of better, longer lives but I also don't want parents putting kids on PEDs because they want their kids to be the best.

- Golf fight! Golf fight!

- Things that make you say "Hmmmm..." The one joke Trump banned from his Comedy Central Roast.

PED's and the HOF

"Anyone found or admitted, I think you traded your money and numbers... for your [Hall of Fame] vote." Mike Lowell

I agree 100% with Mike Lowell. Barry Bonds made over $188 million, Roger Clemens made over $150 million and Mark McGwire made over $74 million in MLB contracts. These players were able to get these mega-buck contracts because PED's allowed them to put up bigger numbers and play more years than if they tried to do things the right way - the legal way. They traded their Hall of Fame vote for the money and the numbers - it's that simple. Will I feel bad when these players come up short in getting elected to the HoF? Not in the least.

The players I feel sympathy for are the guys like Fred McGriff who everyone thinks played the game the right way. McGriff finished his career with 493 HR which will be just under what is needed for election to the Hall. McGriff suffers because his power numbers pale in comparison to a guy like McGwire and his 583 HR.

Baseball Hall of Fame - Thought One

Here's a thought I had immediately after seeing that Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio had been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame - combined the four players made a little over $539 million during their careers.

The most controversial quartet of players on the Hall of Fame ballot associated with PED's - Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa combined salaries came close to almost the exact same amount ($537.5 million). The question that keeps popping up is if this group didn't do PED's would they be in the Hall of Fame today? I think the more accurate question is - if this group didn't do PED's would they have been paid like Hall of Famers? More than two-thirds of Roger Clemens money came after he left Boston in the "twilight of his career". The majority of Barry Bonds money was made after he left Pittsburgh. In Bonds last six years he made more in a single season than he made his whole time with the Pirates.

These guys cheated (allegedly) to get paid. Good.

They don't get Hall of Fame induction too. They made their choice and got their big money. They don't also get to enjoy something that Dale Murphy or Don Mattingly will never get close to. That's not right and that's something many sportswriters don't seem to understand.

Alex Rodriguez

Was in the NY/NJ area the past couple of days and the news of A-Rod's churlish behavior has understandably been the major topic on sports radio. I have a couple of thoughts on the subject that I'd like to revisit or share.

First off let me say how happy super agent Scott Boras must feel to be free of this circus. Boras got paid for the big contracts and is now free from this Bozo act. Second let me say that in the back of my mind I still feel like A-Rod's actions seem like those of a man who is for whatever reason building the foundation for an insanity plea. Exhibit A would be A-Rod's fetish for "walk-off helmets". Now I'm just waiting on the news that A-Rod also wanted to also name Santa Claus to his lawsuit because he felt he was promised a 2014 season for Christmas - only to have his lawyers talk him out of it.

With the news that A-Rod actually turned down a 50-game plea bargain I again say that I had the perfect strategy for A-Roid. All he had to do was take the 50-game suspension but then throw himself on the mercy of the court of public opinion. He could have said that he started taking steroids but only after he was bullied by Jason Varitek or even better he could have said yes he bought the steroids and HGH but it was never for him. It was always for his muscular girlfriends. He could have said "please forgive me I will take the suspension without complaint but please understand that I will not stop seeing ripped women." Some women like roses - A-Rod favors women who like free weights and HGH. Different strokes.

If he took my advice the Yankees would be opening the 2014 season with him at 3rd and over the $189 million luxury tax level. Now he's a pariah.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I wonder if medical science came out with evidence that taking steroids saved Roger Clemens from having to get Tommy John surgery whether my opinion would change about either steroids or Clemens?... So how does a 3-D printer work? I've said it before but once they perfect printing 3-D blow-up sex dolls - all the dating sites will go bankrupt... As a fan of the New England Patriots - I love Rex Ryan as the coach of the Jets. In fact they should give him a contract extension... I'm surprised nobody has come out with a Tickle-Me Michael Jackson doll. That would be one of the top gag gifts of all-time... If you watch porn backwards - it tells the story of a woman who gives her man sex so he will clean the pool or deliver some pizzas... Very sad about Linda Rondstadt... When people say they were "born and bred" in a particular place - does that mean their parents specifically had sex in hoping to have a baby in that specific geography? I'm Boston born and bred because my parents wanted to make sure I had the right accent?

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- I've said it before. My thoughts on steroids in baseball.

- Louis CK's take on Rolling Stone. Couldn't agree more. Can't recall last time I even thought about Rolling Stone never mind read an article from them.

- 62 of the world's most beautiful libraries. I love libraries and this is like library porn.

- Very cool Larry Legend anecdote

- Did astronauts really eat astronaut ice cream?

Steroids in Baseball

I've long held the belief that testing for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) is not enough. Those programs try to weed out the cheaters which is fine but other than losing the service of those cheaters - the teams that sign them don't suffer at all (they don't even have to pay those players during drug suspensions).

What I'd suggest is simple - while a player is suspended the team also loses his active 25-man roster slot. Make the team play shorthanded. Make them feel some pain. Give them another reason to think twice about signing a player they have suspicions about. Imagine having to go into the World Series down a roster slot to your competition?

Of course this would never happen because the teams don't want to feel that pain and the players association doesn't want to lose that roster spot either.

Creatine

The Secret Benefits of Creatine Revealed.

Are they really secrets or just things the public doesn't know about creatine? I wasn't aware of them and now that I am - I just may head out to GNC to buy some creatine powder.

One of the things I've always feared is that steroids would get such a bad connotation that proper studies wouldn't be done and the real potential benefits for average people would be overlooked. Creatine has been touted by the media as a steroids precursor. This study seems to show creatine in a very positive light.

Interesting stuff.

Jason Stark, Ryan Braun and Steroids

Jason Stark of ESPN makes the case that perhaps the best evidence that Ryan Braun was as innocent of using steroids as he claimed is the fact that this season Braun is basically hitting the exact same as last season. While the stats for this comparison certainly make for a nice column - the logic behind it is lacking. Two words came to mind when reading Stark's offering - David Ortiz.

David Ortiz is having perhaps the best season of his career - that does not mean that Ortiz never took banned performance enhancing drugs. He certainly did. Ortiz admitted that he tested positive in 2003. If I worked for ESPN I could probably put together a column comparing Ortiz' 2012 season to his 2003 season and what would my argument be - that Ortiz is back on the juice? That would be silly. But would it be as silly as Stark's argument that Braun's 2012 season somehow proves he didn't juice last year?

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

Jeff Passan takes a very critical look at Ryan Braun - tough to argue against what he wrote. The one exception is I don't think he takes the leak of what was supposed to be private testing seriously enough.

Story of Mitt Romney saving some strangers. Well known in Massachusetts but it is strange story hasn't gotten more play nationally. Maybe campaign was waiting until NJ primary?

5 Biggest Whoppers In Obama's Energy Speech

Interesting insight into some great TV history - Being Fred Mertz: The Life of William Frawley

In 1988 there was a live-action musical version of Puss in Boots starring Christopher Walken as Puss. One of the most awesome things on the Internet EVER! 

Ryan Braun

Here are some of my thoughts on the Ryan Braun saga.

First off - we are not talking about a crime here so let's stop with the talk about due process. Ken Rosenthal had a very good take on the subject but his one flaw was thinking this was a matter of due process. It was a case of contractual process and arbitration. If Braun was "guilty" he wasn't going to jail.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement calls for certain processes to be in place and those processes were violated by agents in the employ of MLB. If the lack of adherence had come on the part of the player - say if the player did not provide the urine sample in the presence of a MLB tester - then the sample would have been ruled invalid and rightly so. That is not to assume that the player would have tried to use a Whizzinator if the tester wasn't watching but that same adherence to the agreed upon rules has to apply on the flip side of the coin. Who's to say the courier who failed in his duties doesn't have a Matt Kemp shrine in his apartment and access to synthetic testosterone?

It has been said that the arbitrator was also influenced that Braun's sample was rumored to have three-times the testosterone of the next highest sample ever recorded. Unprecedented levels of testosterone coupled with an unprecedented breaking of the testing process guidelines really left the arbitrator with no choice but to rule the way he did.

In unrelated news - the Milwaukee Brewers announced today that Rocky Mountain Oysters will no longer be served in the Brewers clubhouse. Ryan Braun was the only player eating them anyways.

Let me just say that MLB looks bad in this episode. They responded by saying they "vehemently disagreed" with the arbitrator's decision. They "vehemently disagree"? Is that how it works? MLB disagrees. Overruled. No, no, no - we VEHEMENTLY disagree! Oh, well if you vehemently disagree then the arbitrator should take some time to reconsider - NOT! (Someone at ESPN should definitely get Kevin Pollack to read MLB's statement.)

According to a Tweet from Ken Rosenthal - the 2-1 vote was the result of Union chief Michael Weiner and independent arbitrator Shyam Das siding with Braun while Rob Manfred of MLB voting against Braun. Is it just me or does this seem like a strange arrangement that would always result in any case starting off at 1-1? Why bother having the Union and MLB voters in the first place? Just have the arbitrator. Saying it was a 2-1 vote instead of an arbitrator's decision just makes it worse in my opinion.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

FX renews "Archer." Hooray!

Is Andruw Jones a Hall of Famer? I'm on the fence

What was Ryan Braun guilty of? He was guilty of this!

Is the girl in the background Mr. Bean's daughter? 

Tom Izzo is an amazing 23-1-1 against the spread in 2nd half lines this season 

Pat Forde with a very interesting look at Larry Eustachy's rise from the ashes of alcoholism

The Theory of (almost) Everything!

Wilt Chamberlain, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Andre the Giant on the set of Conan. Awesome!

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

My thoughts on Manny Ramirez "retiring"? Manny made over $200 million in his career. Owners and general managers were happy to pay him even though many must have had suspicions. Now he gets to enjoy that money but he doesn't get a spot in the Hall of Fame... Just saying but if Tiger wins the Masters he is sooo getting laid Sunday night... Well played, Dewey Decimal system... If Freddy Couples wins this year's Masters at age 51 - is that a bigger deal than Jack Nicklaus winning at age 46?... The situation with Manny Ramirez just makes me sad for guys like Fred McGriff. I think he's one of the real victims of steroid abusers. Yes I don't know for sure that the Crime Dog wasn't also injecting but I'm pretty damn sure he wasn't... Am I the only one who reads the NFL headlines about Judge Nelson and thinks the story will somehow be about Judd Nelson and a Breakfast Club sequel?... Not right now. Batman is busy!... I haven't seen the Rebecca Black Friday video nor the 2 Girls 1 cup video and God willing I never will... Have you seen that Viagra commercial where the guy has a classic car with an overheating radiator? He fixes the problem by just pouring in some bottled water. In real life wouldn't steam have blow up in his face or the radiator cap have burned his hand at the very least?... This was silly but it makes me smile every time...

The Barry Bonds Trial

Joe Posnanski has a good piece on his feelings regarding the Barry Bonds trial.

Like Joe, I am also numb to it by now but unlike Joe I want this to be a circus and while Joe doesn't want either side to win - I want both sides to lose. I also disagree with Joe about this:

I often compared him [Barry Bonds] in his younger days to Ted Williams, who was also a genius of a hitter and also widely despised.

Ted Williams was despised by who? Not his teammates. His friendships with teammates was so strong it was immortalized by David Halberstam. The average fan? Kids with cancer who were being helped by the Jimmy Fund? Men who wore the uniform of the US Marine Corps like Williams? Or is Posnanski talking about those paragons of virtue the sportwiters?

Steroids

I need to get this off my chest. With the Hall of Fame ballot results to be announced this week - many writers have been discussing their selections and with their votes how they feel about steroids.

What has gotten me worked up most is the attitudes of normally bright and logical people like Joe Posnanski who becomes illogical and hypocritical when it comes to steroids.

In discussing Jeff Bagwell - Posnanski opines:

I think my e-migo Craig Calcaterra has made this point on Twitter, but I’d like to also make it as strongly as I can: I’d rather a hundred steroid users were mistakenly voted into the Hall of Fame over keeping one non-user out.

He doesn't see that this thinking leads to the exact opposite results. You let in 100 steroid users and their numbers keep clean players from getting proper consideration. You let in a Mark McGwire and you make it harder for a Fred McGriff or Don Mattingly. Posnanski makes a case for Kevin Brown without once mentioning Brown was named in the Mitchell Report for taking human growth hormone and Deca-Durabolin. At the same time he takes shots at Jack Morris. I guess if Jack Morris had improved his numbers by taking steroids then he'd have a better shot in Joe's book.

The hypocrisy drips from his choices.

Fred McGriff and Mark McGwire - he votes No on McGriff but he votes Yes on Mark McGwire! Even if you think McGwire just used steroids for the last 3 seasons of his career (yeah right) then that's 3 seasons in which McGwire made $30 million and hit 126 HR. If for the last 3-seasons of his career McGriff used steroids to hit just half of those HR that McGwire got over his final 3 years then McGriff has well over 500 for his career and is probably in the Hall. Even more insidious though is the fact that McGwire used steroids to secure contracts bigger then what McGriff ever came close to making. The $11 million McGwire made for his final season was 34% more than McGriff ever made in any one season in his career. So not only did McGwire cheat to get paid - his cheating now screws clean players like McGriff's chances at the Hall of Fame as well. That's too much to swallow.

To take it one step further - if you buy what McGwire is trying to sell Posnanski about using steroids just to heal from injuries then what about a player like Don Mattingly? What if Mattingly had used steroids to extend his career? Would that have made him a Hall of Famer? I know you can't play this what if game but at the same time you can't reward a player like McGwire for cheating to get what was denied to a Donnie Baseball. Put another way - Posnanski's thinking on steroids is 0% logic and 100% bullshit.

Rafael Palmeiro - Posnanski has the balls to compare Palmeiro to McGriff:

McGriff: .284/.377/.511
Palmeiro: .287/.369/.510

You know what this comes down to - clean player who will be kept out of the Hall of Fame versus dirty player who would have been in Hall of Fame if he didn't get greedy and come back for one last season. Boo-freakin-hoo for Joe Posnanski who feels bad that he has to vote No on Palmeiro.

I am slightly surprised that Posnanski didn't go full-jackwagon when it comes to steroids and make the case for Jose Canseco.

One argument that really bugs me is the "he was a Hall of Famer before he started using steroids" argument. This is normally used to defend Barry Bonds. Well what about a player like Dale Murphy? He was a Hall of Famer in his prime - what if he started taking steroids at the same time as Bonds? Is he a Hall of Famer now? What if Bonds never took steroids? Does he break down like Murphy?

Two discussions on Twitter really set me over the edge on the subject of steroids.

A number of baseball writers were doing an echo-chamber re-Tweet-athon about how fans don't care about steroids and the Hall of Fame and that it was just the writers making a big deal of this. They have a point but they miss the forest for the trees. People are stopping to care about the Hall of Fame but it is precisely because of steroids.

The other Twitter discussion which pissed me off was the uber-smug King Kaufman knocking Jim Rice as not being Hall of Fame worthy but granting he was at least not a mediocre player. Jim Rice is the poster child for players whose accomplishments have been harmed by comparison to steroid cheats. It was nice of King Kaufman to say at least Rice wasn't mediocre. I'd like to return the favor. King I don't think your writing comes close to being worthy of Sports Illustrated good but I think at least you could hold your own at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Steroids

Here's a player comparison I find interesting:

Player A: 3584 AB / 176 HR / 3 Gold Gloves / 2 MVP's
Player B: 3180 AB / 164 HR / 2 Gold Gloves / 2 MVP's

These players played the same position and seem pretty even - don't they? Player A had more HR but Player B was hitting HR at a better rate (1 HR / 19.39 AB vs 1 HR / 20.36 AB). Player A is Barry Bonds through his age 27 season (1992) and Player B is Dale Murphy through his age 27 season (1983). The next year - each player would win his league's HR title but Murphy would accomplish it by hitting exactly the same number of HR (36) as he hit the year before. Bonds on the other hand had a huge statistical jump from a career best of 34 to a league leading 46 HR (a better than 33% increase) to win his first HR title.

Nobody but Bonds really knows when he started using steroids but with the big jump in HR from 1992 to 1993 - is it really that big a leap to think that could have been when it happened? The reason I bring this up is because I'm sick of Bonds apologists saying that Bonds was a Hall of Fame player before he started using steroids. Bullshit! Most likely Barry Bonds was no better than Dale Murphy and Dale Murphy is not in the Hall of Fame (thanks in large part to having his career skewered by comparisons to cheating players like Barry Bonds).

What if Dale Murphy took steroids after 1983 and his next season's HR total jumped to 46? Most likely he would have won his 3rd straight MVP and his Hall of Fame selection would have been ensured.

One final point of note - it was mentioned to me recently that the only two players to win back-to-back MVP's and not be in the Hall of Fame are Dale Murphy and Roger Maris. A fact I find very relevant when discussing the forgotten victims of the steroids era.

Mark McGwire

As far as I'm concerned the two relevant stats on Mark McGwire's Baseball Reference.com page are 583 home runs and roughly $75 million in career earnings. There is no doubt in my mind that both of those numbers were made possible by McGwire's steroid use. That's the deal he made with the devil. He took steroids which allowed him to hit the home runs which allowed him to get his millions of dollars.

I don't blame him. If someone approached the young Chris Lynch and offered me millions of dollars in exchange for taking steroids and risking having my name tainted as a cheater - I'll be honest - I'd have a hard time turning down the money.

So I can understand why McGwire did what he did. That doesn't mean I have any sympathy for him. He's not entitled to that. He's also not entitled to my forgiveness for what he did and he's certainly not entitled to a spot in the Hall of Fame.

The real victims here are the people like Fred McGriff whose numbers would have been Hall of Fame worthy if it had not been for the explosion of steroids fueled careers (and yes I know I'm making the assumption that McGriff was clean but I'm pretty comfortable with that assumption). Without the Mark McGwire's and Rafael Palmeiro's of the world - Fred McGriff probably gets into the Hall of Fame. Now those steroid fueled careers and those of others move McGriff down the all-time lists and probably into obscurity.

The real victims here are the untold number of clean players whose careers got stuck at AAA ball because they could beat out the Ozzie Canseco's in skill and production but not the Jose Canseco's. These people had their careers blocked and dreams shattered because they tried to do things the clean way.

So good for you Mark McGwire for finally admitting what we all knew was true anyway. Just don't make the mistake of thinking that when the boos die down that it means the fans are forgiving you. It just means you're not worth the time or effort.

Steroids and Injuries

I think one of the most under-reported aspects of the steroids in baseball story has been the effects steroids had on injuries. Injuries seem to be up across the board for all teams in baseball. The A's are going to set a team record for the number of different players to appear in uniform this year (and their trainer was picked for the AL All-Star team). The Red Sox already have matched the number of different players as they used last season. Then you have the Mets.

One of the main benefits touted about steroid use was increased recovery time for the athlete. Steroids allowed the athlete to work out harder and more often. It also helped mask the wear and tear of playing. Now without steroids it seems the injuries from general wear and tear are everywhere.

Many people have commented that you no longer will see players in their mid-30's getting long-term free agent deals. Those days are gone. However, it should also be noted that with all the increased wear and tear injuries - farm team depth will be the new key to success. Look at the Red Sox this season and how the lack of farm team depth at shortstop may end up keeping them out of the playoffs. I think you will start to see much of the money that was going to the aging stars now going toward stocking the minor league teams.

David Ortiz

Today comes the news that David Ortiz flunked a drug test for performance enhancing drugs back in 2003. Is anyone really that surprised?

I travel a lot and I recently had a long conversation about this very eventuality with a cabbie on the way to the airport in Dallas. The cabbie asked if I thought Ortiz was juicing and I responded something along the lines of:

As a Boston fan I really hope not. However, as a parent you would have to be naive to think that even though your kid hangs around with kids who smoke pot that your kid has never tried it. Miguel Tejada, A-Rod, Manny and a few others Big Papi hangs around with down in the Dominican have all flunked drug tests. You would have to be blind not to see the possibility. I don't even blame the players. Look at Rafael Palmeiro who was born poor but made over $100 million playing baseball. He made that money because he juiced. His name is mud in baseball now but he secured the future for his kids and grandkids. They'll never know hunger. I can't blame him at all.

If Ortiz flunked a drug test in 2003 then that would have been within 12 months of having been released by the Twins. Ortiz has made about $57 million since then. Think about that - from being released to making over $57 million. Would you have tried steroids if you were in his shoes? I'm pretty sure I would have.