Reactions To The Mitchell Report
I have skimmed the Mitchell Report and I have some initial conclusions.
1- I think Mitchell did a pretty good job. He will rightly be targeted as biased because of his involvement with the Red Sox but I am pretty sure that is not the reason for all the Yankees named in the report and the lack of many Red Sox players. The fact is, Mitchell got a lot of testimony from Kirk Radomski and Radomski was based in New York. Just as there are a lot of Giants and A's players who got fingered because of BALCO, Radomski brought in the New York element. If Mitchell had gotten someone from a lab in Quincy or Natick, I am sure we would have a lot of Red Sox names. That being said, baseball would have been smart if they had put someone in charge of the investigation who didn't have ties to the sport in any capacity.
2- The sad reality of this report, that Mitchell fully admits, is that he has only scratched the surface. Mitchell talks about how the people who design these drugs are ahead of the testers. Furthermore, they are serious problems with how the test are conducted. MLB can fix some of this, but not without significant help from the players' association.
3- Based on the above, you have to view stats carefully. As the report showed, it's not just power hitters who use this stuff. Nook Logan bought some of it. I will be interested to see how Baseball Prospectus handles this with their PECOTA system.
4- Roger Clemens is as big a crook as Barry Bonds. You cannot excuse one and condemn the other. Reading the reports of Clemens getting injections in the butt makes you realize that the greatest hitter and the greatest pitcher of the past 20 years are both cheats.
Those are my initial reactions, what do you think?
Comments
Clemens fits the profile of the classic cheater. He's a high performer who hits the downside of this career, which creates despearation causing him to cheat. And then, lo and behold, he (like Bonds) posts amazing stats after the age of 35.
It is sad that Pettite is tainted. The only good news in this is that Jeter and A-Rod are in the clear. But was it a coincidence that A-Rod inks his deal minutes before the Mitchell Report is issued?
Posted by: Corey | December 13, 2007 05:27 PM |
Recently, I picked up a book called The Rocket: Baseball Legend Roger Clemens. It's written by a Houston freelance writer named Joseph Janczak.
In his preface, he writes, "Fellow baseball players owe him a debt of gratitude; his strong character has raised the sport out from and above many scandals...He earned it through good, old-fashioned hard work."
How will Janczak's words sound five years from now, when he's eligible for election to the Hall of Fame? How will they look when future baseball historians write about Roger Clemens? Those are some interesting questions to think about.
Posted by: Tyler![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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December 13, 2007 05:51 PM
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Corey,
Canseco has implicated A-Rod
Posted by: Greg | December 14, 2007 06:48 PM |