OT: The Mitchell Report

by jlagace on Dec 14, 2007 8:15 AM PST Comment 12 comments

I know this is mainly a Warriors site, but I know all you baseball heads probably have alot of interesting incite on this issue.

I'm not the biggest baseball fan there is, but I used to be a huge Giants fan in the 90s. It amazed me to learn that it wasn't just a few steroid users in the league that have skewed the record books as well as the W-L column in the last couple of years, but rather a significant percentage of players that I thought were good for an era spanning a few decades.

It not only made good players great, but it also made alot of bad players good, imo. I see names like Marvin Benard on the report and I can't help but thinking how bad they probably would have been without the juice.

I think this is going to be VERY bad for the MLB. This combined with the huge descrepancy of team payrolls only confirms that teams and players trying to compete in the MLB haven't been on a fair playing field for the last couple of decades or so.

Baseball, at its fundamentals, is a great sport, I think. But the message that comes across is this: if you're not a rich team that can go out and buy the best players in the league, and if your players aren't taking steroids, then you're not going to compete with some of the other teams in the MLB. And this is a very very negative influence for the mindset of the young baseball players and fans today.

I also hope that Barry Bonds won't be used as the primary scapegoat anymore. He's no more at fault than anybody else on that report, and yet he might face jail time. Sure Bonds lied about it, but who is to say that everybody else on that report wouldn't have lied either.

What are your guys' thoughts on all this? There's so many issues that this thing brings up.

This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!

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a good source

If you want to get some high quality blogging about the Mitchell report, head over to the McCovey Chronicles. Not to hijack your diary or anything, jlagace, but baseball is what they do over there. There's some quality posts, and some pretty hilarious ones too.

by yohan on Dec 14, 2007 8:25 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Basically

This doesnt REALLY affect the MLB. Arod just signed the largest contract in baseball history. Attendance is higher than ever. TV ratings are up. None of the players are going to get punished for their actions. So why is this so bad for baseball again? It just told us what we already ALL knew.

by Dubs4Life on Dec 14, 2007 11:08 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Right

A big dog and pony show if you ask me.

They got one of their buddies to give the league a slap on the wrist with enough dirt/allegations on OLD players past their prime and guys who are out of the league so they can say: "Look, we're clean and pure now" (what's with MLB's obsession with the purity of the game?).

Why so many Yankees? Because 75% of the players named (and the most damning info) come from ONE guy, who happened to be a Yankees trainer. I'm sure there were a few other big distributors in the majors, who knows how many in the minors.

Basically, they paid Mitchell 10M to compile all of the information they already had, find one of the distributors, not name any big players, and say "Tsk, tsk, Mr. Commish, MLB players. Shame on you. Now do better. But you won't lose your jobs".

by Dubs fan in Boston on Dec 14, 2007 11:33 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

really?

I know that the MLB probably isn't going to do much about this.

But you don't think it's going to change how people see the MLB? Personally, it makes me not want to watch it anymore. The playing field is so lopsided that it detracts from the game itself. What's the point in watching when you know that, at the end of the day, the teams with the most wins are probably either:
a) full of steroid-injected, overachieving players
b) so rich that they can go out and buy more steroid-injected, overachieving players

by jlagace on Dec 14, 2007 4:15 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

So your OK with the NFL?

I don't know what the big fuss is. I think Marvin Bernard, Bobby Estella, F.P. Santangelo, etc. show that the roids or HGH really don't help performance. You still have the god given skills to play at a high level. I guess you could say they were taking spots from others in the minors.
And why is everyone focusing on baseball, which prompted the Mitchell Report. Watch a game any given Sunday in the NFL and you'll see a lot of chemically enhanced players running up and down the field. No investigation there because people would lose interest if the players were slower and physically smaller. Less money for the league!

by tangel29 on Dec 14, 2007 5:40 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

here's what makes me mad . . .

the whole thing is based on the testimony of two jobber-hangers on (a trainer and bat boy) and BALCO, no wonder it's mostly yankees, giants, and mets on the list!!! it's a very biased sample of steroid use in baseball, and grossly underestimates how prevalent it really is. it is being treated like a comprehensive review of the issue, when in fact it is very limited in scope. at least clemens is getting knocked down a few notches he had it coming. i'm already tired of hearing about it.

My girlfriend hates that I'm into basketball again, and that I yell at the TV during games.

by sfwarriorcvg on Dec 14, 2007 8:55 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

headlines

I find it sad that while the Mitchell report gets front headlines, these are other recent stories:

Gov and Nunez agree on a healthcare plan for the state, for better or for worse
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/14/BA12TV2EC.DTL

Rudy Guliani visits the Bay
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/12/11/MNBQTRIQQ.DTL

US attorney general refuses to give info on u.s. interrogations
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-12-14-mukasey-cia-tapes_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Thats just a couple minutes of browsing

Why should I give a crap about baseball?

24 > 23

WE NEED A BACKUP POINT GUARD

AIM: Jetforze

by OptionZero on Dec 14, 2007 11:10 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Highly Recommended

The Mitchell Report: Absolving the Owners by GSoM friend Dave Zirin
http://www.edgeofsports.com/2007-12-13-302/index.html

by Atma Brother ONE on Dec 15, 2007 1:28 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

basketball juice

was watching the lakers on tv at the roaracle and enjoying myself immensely. not thinking at all about the mitchell report. then someone's hyperencephalic brow ridge caught my eye and all a sudden like i'm thinking about anabolic steroids and human growth hormone. bling now i'm looking at all my favorite 7 footers in a new light. i'm thinking about george mitchell talking about the 'hundreds of thousands' of high school ball players who juice, and i realize like many others i've assumed it's just baseball players he's talking about. but what about all those hoop players who grew so dramatically in high school, from guard to forward to center size? all those college players who come to the pros and have to 'bulk up?'

as someone who has enjoyed any number of illicit substances for a variety of reasons, i am no one to judge athletes with performance enhancing substances. but for the first time it actually got in the way of me enjoying a game.

when will the nba (fuggedabout the nfl) have its own mitchell report and name names? i have the sinking feeling that it's coming.

by Ormolov on Dec 15, 2007 10:22 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

now u got me thinking...

It's tough to name the names you're probably thinking...

but let me guess..

Dwight Howard?
LeBron James?

It would be a REAL shame if those guys are on the juice.

by jlagace on Dec 17, 2007 1:52 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Sigh...

From what I hear, steroids mostly help you recover faster on a day-to-day basis. While this helps build muscle for baseball players, it would IMMENSELY help basketball players during the season.

Sigh, I also wonder when I hear that football players don't practice during the week because of injury, but then they get out on the field and they look pretty much fine... Steriods? Maybe, but it's more likely a painkiller like Cortizone (I played against a tennis player who'd had a cortizone shot at 11 years old... crazy).

Brett Favre used to be addicted, but I'm sure he's just the most famous case. Pete Rose used to be addicted to greenies (but that's probably No-Doze cuz baseball's so F-ing boring to begin with!).

As long as there's money to be made in sports, drug abuse will continue to be a problem in sports as long as people keep inventing new drugs. And that won't stop because we all want to live better and longer.

by Dubs fan in Boston on Dec 17, 2007 9:24 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs