Rocket gonna walk?

[hardnox604008]

I sure hope so and even though I suspect he's lying I admire him for sticking to his guns and continuing to lie rather than taking some sort of plea that was no doubt offered.

I suppose in the end it comes down to jury selection and you gotta hope that after they went through beaucoup potential jurors to find a few who didn't think it was all a waste of the government's time and money that some who made it on were sandbagging.

Actually I mark the home run derby of the late 90s as an important crossroads for my becoming a kook.  When you'd make the casual observation that it is unlikely that guys in their late 20s who used to be skinny all the sudden look like Hulk Hogan did so without chemical assistance you'd think that you'd just taken a dump on the steps of the Washington Monument. When the occasional person would actually deem it worthy of any comment as to why they were disturbed by considering such a thing they'd generally talk about how much baseball meant to them and maybe how they couldn't talk about things like that that in front of their children- meaning, I guess, that in order to be an true blue American you have to raised to be stupid.

It wasn't really surprising that the press maintained the code of omerta on the matter- you've got a bunch of guys and gals making maybe 50k who obviously love being around the buzz and they'd get but out by the billionaire owners and millionaire players if they happened to mention the king's nudity.

Anyway, I'm in favor of transparency but not necessarily against steroids. In fact if the billionaires can get people to pay for genetically modified shortstops with 6 arms or jet packs in the outfield, I say go right ahead.

[GoredHusker]

If you're gonna spend the money to go after and then send to jail Martha Stewart and Michael Vick, you can't make an exception for Clemens.  Of course he's lying, but he isn't the only one.  They might as well make the corral a little bigger and get Bonds, Sosa, etc. all in there together.  It's of little wonder why some sports have lost their luster with the American public.  Between all the records in baseball being tainted and football becoming a noncontact sport, it's of little wonder why Nascar is now the most viewed sport in the U.S. 

[dagwud]

I have no problem with them banning performance enhancing drugs from sports but it should be monitored and enforced by the MLB, NFL, or NBA and Congress should keep out of it and stick to more important issues. 

I think that MLB ignored the problem and even went as far as knowingly allowing it to take place.   After the baseball strike in the mid 90's I think the league was looking for a way to get fans back in the stands and figured having half the players hit 40 HR or more could help in that regard.

I didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that it wasn't a late growth spurt the way Bonds and McGuire bulked up later in their careers.

[bruce MN]

Son of a good friend worked for the (currently woeful 8-22 out of the blocks) Twins during that era and got to know many of the players.  This guy says that the real crime with perfomance enhancing drugs in baseball isn't as much the guys like McQuire and Bonds and Sosa who were going to hit 50 but ramped up to hit 70 as it is what happens at the margins.  Doesn't say that abuse by big timers isn't wrong or criminal or whatever, but that those players had the basic skill set, athletecism, timing etc such that they were going to succeed and make a good living at it anyway.

Says it was in the gaps between AA and AAA and "the show" where the heavy juicing took place.  The difference in a player and his family's life that one or two years in the bigs on even the minimum major league salary as compared to languishing  a few years in the minors and then heading ill equipped out into life at 30 was an incredible incentive to take whatever risks the use of perfomance enhancers might have been. 

Hope you feeling well enough that you are are up to getting up for a game this summer.  The ballpark is still beautiful. 

Just heard on the radio that it has passed in the MN  legislature for us to  be building a new football stadium for the Viki---errr...for the City of Minneapolis.  When it gets down to the cutting,  Minnesota IS Minneapolis.  I hate that.  But I'm sure we aren't the only state where it's like that.

[hardnox604008]

By the way, at the risk of being tiresomely political, GWB's Ranger organization appears to have been ground zero for the epidemic.

Perhaps some inquiring minds were watching and approved of the lack of oversight. Palmeiro, Caminiti, A-Rod, Canseco, Pudge.

[dagwud]

I recall seeing Mark McGuire on Letterman or some similar show shortly after he retired and the talk about steroids in baseball was a hot topic.   He said that steroids did not make him a great hitter.   He said to be a good hitter you have to be able to hit nasty curve balls, 95 mph fast balls and wicked change ups.  He said that taking steroids does not help in that regard.