The Mitchell Report

I really haven't posted much about this at all, except for a few random Barry Bond's posts, because i've been waiting to see what happens. Well, that time has come.

Tomorrow, Thursday, at 2pm Eastern, George Mitchell will hold a press conference in Manhattan announcing the results of his 20-month investigation of steroids in baseball. MLB officials reviewed the report yesterday, and commissioner Bud Selig will hold his own press conference at 4:30pm Eastern Time to discuss the findings. The report will be posted on mlb.com shortly after Mitchell's press conference.

With as many as 60 current and former players expected to be named in the report, it could be an interesting day. Big names already linked to the report include Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, and Juan Gonzalez, among others. Expect more names to follow, but not necessarily big names. What i will be curious to hear are the names of lesser-known players, such as pitchers trying to crack the big leagues, or the outfielder with small power numbers. I think this will be the jewel of the report, to see how many 'regular' players have tried steroids in an effort to gain an advantage and get to the Majors.

Either way, expect tomorrow to be a fun ride, and expect radios and televisions to run with this story constantly over the next few days...

You Can't Even Make This Stuff Up

From The New York Times, via Deadspin:

Steroid testers in baseball, those of the supposed 'random' drug tests, have gotten into the habit of calling the team they are coming to test the day before they arrive to request parking passes and stadium access. Some officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity of course, said they his club usually knows two days in advance when s tester is coming.

(Sigh). What more can be said about the steroid controversy in MLB? This is just another sad tale about how the system is obviously and blatantly failing...

The Barry Bonds Controversy

Sitting at just two long balls away from breaking the all time record, Barry Bonds has been mostly quiet as of late. I would guess most of this is due to what the steroids controversy has brought upon him in the last two years or so. While Barry pursues this record in almost solitude, the commissioner Bud Selig is keeping everyone on their toes with whether or not he will be on hand to watch the record be broken. Up to this week he has been rather evasive about whether or not he will attend, but this week has shown up at some of Barry’s games in Milwaukee and San Francisco.

While I think Selig has no intention of trumpeting Bond’s for this achievement when he does reach it, I also think he should be there as commissioner of the sport. It seems fairly obvious he wants nothing to do with Barry, but it is history after all. I’m also guessing that if Mr. Selig had his wish, Bonds will break the record while Selig is in Cooperstown this weekend and thus unable to attend. That way Selig can say he wanted to be there, and tried to be there, but couldn’t. It’s a win-win, in a way I guess.

As for Bonds, things don’t seem to be getting much better for him. This week the maker of an anabolic steroid called the Cream, Patrick Arnold, called out Bonds by name saying he was on ‘the program’, which was administered by BALCO founder Victor Conte. While Bonds has repeatedly denied knowingly taking steroids, the evidence against him isn’t exactly circumstantial.

Nevertheless Bonds will, sometime very soon, break the all time home run record and place his name atop one of the greatest records in modern sports history. And while you can argue it should come accompanied with an asterisk, it will not in official record books. The only solace we can take, as sports fans, is that Alex Rodriguez, who yesterday hit his 499th career home run, will eventually pass Bonds and claim the record for himself. While not exactly Mr. Congeniality himself, at least A-Rod hasn’t been accused of using steroids to help him attain that record.