The Mitchell Report

It seems that professional sports in America are engaged in an ongoing battle to see who is the ultimate anti-roll model for our children. The NHL goes on strike and cancels an entire season, then the NBA admits having a referee who bet on games he officiated, next the NFL has Michael Vick - no further explanation necessary - and now MLB has the Mitchell Report.

For those unfamiliar, the Mitchell Report is a 409 page document that details the use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs in the business of professional baseball over the past 20 or so years. You can download it for free at www.mlb.com if you are interested.

George Mitchell, a fellow Mainer, and his team of investigators spent approximately 19 months investigating steroid use in baseball. They interviewed players, managers, clubhouse attendants, drug manufacturers, delivery drivers, maids, maintenance workers, landscape contractors........and came up with 92 names linked to the purchase or use of anabolic steroids or other drugs - primarily human growth hormone, HGH for short.

92 names? That's it? That's all you got? I am not impressed. We have been hearing for years that baseball is tainted by steroids. Steroids have made batters stronger, helped pitchers recover faster and changed the game as we know it. If that is true then there should be a lot more than 92 names discovered in an investigation of steroid use over the past 20 baseball seasons. I would need to see hundreds of names to reach this conclusion.

Some of the names are no surprise, some players and former players have admitted to steroid or HGH use - Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmerio, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi. Those guys are the classic suspects - power hitters with huge forearms that bashed the ball over the fences. Other names are a bit of a surprise to me - Ricky Bones, Howie Clark, Jason Grimsley, Gary Matthews Jr. - these aren't the guys you'd expect to see. There are a ton of role players, relief and set-up pitchers, middle infielders and starting pitchers named in the list.

Approximately 1,000 people put on a major league baseball uniform over the course of the 2007 season. The report lists approximately 20 players who were active in the 2007 season. If you do the math you see that 0.2% (20/1000) of this years players have been linked to steroids at some time in their career. This does not sound like an epidemic to me.

Maybe it was just the dumbest players who got caught. The ones who wrote out checks to their supplier - David Sequi, Larry Bigbie, Rondell White, Jason Grimsley. The copies of the checks they wrote are shown in the report. Maybe the other players who used were smart enough to cover their tracks by paying cash.

Perhaps this report is like an iceberg. Only 10% of the iceberg floats above the surface of the ocean. The other 90% is below the surface.

It's Ironic:

That DHL is the official express delivery provider of Major League baseball but both times I have ordered something from shopmlb.com this year it has been delivered by UPS.

Random Movie Quote:

"If lovin' the lord is wrong, I don't want to be right!" - Coming to America

Found Porn:

If you happen to find yourself in Troy, Michigan be sure to visit my favorite airport in the world - Big Beaver Airport. It is located off of Big Beaver Road, which is of course exit number 69 on Interstate 75.