Mitchell Report (PDF, 409 pages)
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1:45 PM: No matter how many names are in Mitchell's report, it will not be a complete list of users. Any suspected player not on the list will continue to be suspected. And there will likely be some clean players named in the report who have been falsely accused. We will have no way of knowing who they are.
So what's the point of this exercise? Drug use is rampant in baseball. And ....? I suppose MLB (who hid its head in the sand for more than a decade) is hoping that this will show how super-duper-concerned it is about getting PEDs out of the game? But who the hell over the age of six is going to believe that?
P.S.: Mitchell's report will say nothing about amphetamines -- a drug with a far bigger role in baseball history than steroids.
And if you think the sports media -- which also stuck its fingers in its ears and yelled "la-la-la-la, I can't hear you" for more than a decade -- has been self-righteous and moralising on this issue in the past, well, just wait another 15 minutes ....
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At 2 PM today.
ESPN's Buster Olney quotes an agent as saying the Report includes "landscape-changing names. Names that will change the way we look at the sport."
A former Yankee strength trainer says Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte are in the report. According to the Bergen Record: "It's going to be a rough day in the Bronx." An unconfirmed list making the rounds via email (and being discussed at SoSH) includes Jason Varitek.
I'm wondering if the entire report will be released as a PDF to the public.
67 comments:
http://www.wnbc.com/sports/14845845/detail.html
Link was on drudge. Names include 'Tek, Damon, Nomar, and a few others who moved through Boston.
Wow.
You can find a list on CNBC.com
http://www.cnbc.com/id/22243678
Includes Tek, Trot, Mo Vaughn, Gagne...and lots of Yankees/Orioles/Indians
I had to expect a name or two to come out that would sting, but Varitek was one that didn't particularly come to mind.
May as well wait for the report.
redsock,
I heard on the teletube yesterday on some news or sportsnews program that the report would be on MLB.com after the press conference.
Whether it's in PDF form or not - well, given MLB's history of doing things bassackwards, I wouldn't hold out for it. Or maybe it will be a DRM-protected PDF file ;-)
Frankly, the biggest problem I'm seeing with this list is that so many are all-stars and MVPs. You would expect a realistic list to contain mostly rank and file type players, with maybe a couple of big names on it. Unless you believe steroids guarantee success, which I absolutely don't.
I wouldn't put much stock in WNBC's report on names. Other reports [rumors] refute the names, citing MLB officials who have seen the report.
I'd just say... wait until 2:00 and read it yourself. Any large document that is posted online will probably be in .pdf format. So at 2:00 the link will be opened and circulated online and we'll all be able to pour over it ourselves. That is, what I'm expecting to happen.
Heyman reports:
Miguel Tejada
Roger Clemens
Andy Pettitte
Mike Stanton
Chuck Knoblauch
Jason Grimsley
Brian Roberts
David Justice
Meanwhile, the Yankees announced Slappy's signing, which just so happens to fall on the same day as this. As a bit of a timeline...
Game 4, WS: Boras announces A-Rod opts out of his contract.
News breaks that A-Rod agrees on a new contract with the Yankees about a half-hour after Barry Bonds is indicted on perjury charges.
Today: Official announcement of new contract for A-Rod with the Yankees, on the same day as the Mitchell Report due.
As much as he will try, A-Rod will not always be the top story in baseball.
So ... anyone think this report will slow the Barry Bonds Bashing Bandwagon ("BBBB")?
So ... anyone think this report will slow the Barry Bonds Bashing Bandwagon ("BBBB")?
Nah. Bonds has long since been dubbed the Face of Cheating and I doubt this will do anything to change that, even if he's not on the report. I think most of the Bonds bashing comes from people who don't even follow baseball.
It'll be interesting to hear the fan reactions at the ballpark for each of these players. Whether it be home or away. Andy Pettitte's deal with the Yankees have been finalized, and it would be interesting to hear the reactions in parks around the country. Fenway might not be so telling, because of that whole booing him anyways thing.
In some other news, the Red Sox have signed C Kevin Cash, RHP Scott Atchison, 1B Jeff Bailey, 2B Tony Grandillo, INF Keith Ginter, 2B-OF Joe Thurston, and INF Gil Velaquez to minor league contracts and invitations to Spring Training.
woot.
It's not going to make me dislike Bonds any less.
Bob Ley of ESPN: "Jose Canseco is at the Mitchell press conference. It is officially a circus."
A WNBC list includes Sexy Lips!
Noooooooooooooooooo....
I think most of the Bonds bashing comes from people who don't even follow baseball.
The bashers are also 95% of all baseball columnists.
Judging from some of the other shit they write, you may be correct that they do not follow the game.
Gammons on Damon, August 21, 2005:
"The McCarthy-esque rumor-mongering about players on the Internet -- and in some media outlets -- that speculates about positive steroids tests has gotten to a dangerous, insidious point. Johnny Damon actually addressed his rumors, which was the equivalent of him having to announce he is not a member of Al-Qaeda."
SoSHer: "Jeremy Schapp reading from the report "McNamme injected Clemens...""
:>)
PDF!!!!!!!!!!!
HERE
http://www.foxnews.com/
carrying it live.
Someone searched the PDF:
No Varitek.
Worth mentioning: just cause someone's not on the report doesn't mean they weren't using. Just means Mitchell didn't happen to catch them. (and it seems he was looking at a small number of sources)
I'm looking at a shipping receipt from Radowski to one Eric Gagne.
Dodger Stadium
c/o Eric Gagne, L.A. Dodgers Home Club
Checks from Mo Vaughn...
Check out the shit on FB on page 169 (217th page of the file)!
text of email to theo about gagne on page 219
"lacks the poise and committment to stay health, maintain body and reinvent self ... "
it's a large risk to bet on a gagne "without steroid help"
Brendan Donnelly...
In considering whether to trade for Donnelly in 2007, the Red Sox baseball operations personnel internally discussed concerns that Donnelly was using performance-enhancing substances. In an email to vice president of player personnel Ben Charington dated 13 Dec. 2006, Zack Scott of the Red Sox baseball operations staff wrote of Donnelly: "He was a juice guy but his velocity hasn't changed a lot over the years...If he was a juice guy, he could be a breakdown candidate."
Text of Clemens section.
Snip:
"Canseco told members of my investigative staff that he had numerous conversations with Clemens about the benefits of Deca-Durabolin and Winstrol and how to “cycle” and “stack” steroids. ...
"Clemens approached McNamee and, for the first time, brought up the subject of using steroids. Clemens said that he was not able to inject himself, and he asked for McNamee’s help.
"Later that summer, Clemens asked McNamee to inject him with Winstrol, which Clemens supplied. McNamee knew the substance was Winstrol because the vials Clemens gave him were so labeled. McNamee injected Clemens approximately four times in the buttocks over
a several-week period with needles that Clemens provided. Each incident took place in
Clemens’s apartment at the SkyDome. ...
"According to McNamee, from the time that McNamee injected Clemens with Winstrol through the end of the 1998 season, Clemens’s performance showed remarkable
improvement. During this period of improved performance, Clemens told McNamee that the steroids “had a pretty good effect” on him. ...
"In 1999, Clemens was traded to the New York Yankees. McNamee remained under contract with the Blue Jays for the 1999 season. In 2000, the Yankees hired McNamee as
the assistant strength and conditioning coach under Jeff Mangold. According to McNamee, the Yankees hired him because Clemens persuaded them to do so."
This is fucking hilarious.
"Later that summer, Clemens asked McNamee to inject him with Winstrol, which Clemens supplied. McNamee knew the substance was Winstrol because the vials Clemens gave him were so labeled. McNamee injected Clemens approximately four times in the buttocks over
a several-week period with needles that Clemens provided. Each incident took place in
Clemens’s apartment at the SkyDome. ...
Redsock, it's on TSN as well. (Canadian ESPN, not The Sporting News)
Looks boring. I'll just read you guyses comments on it.
Your wishes are granted.
http://files.mlb.com/mitchrpt.pdf
Lots of "rank and file" guys in with the big names, as we'd expect if the report reflects reality at all.
Assuming the search function for PDFs is accurate (and it appears to be), I found no references to Varitek (phew), Damon, Nomar or Trot Nixon, yet apparently there were rumors that all of the above were on "the list." It is F-ing scary how these rumors start and how damaging they can be. Imagine being the child of one of those players and having kids start taunting you about your father. Who knows whether the "list" has any truth to it or whether it is comprehensive. The little I read of the actual report just reminds me of McCarthyism---people naming names to distract attention away from themselves or because under some pressure to give names.
No Sosa?
Since Mitchell had only X number of sources from which to draw, this list has to be limited. When other sources talk, that list will grow and grow.
The only names I could find of current Red Sox players were Gagne (indicating that his power days were based on use of drugs and that he would not rebound without them--guess we all saw that) and Donnelly. I searched for all references for "Sox" and found some former players like Mo Vaughan and others whom I cannot remember but who were not big names.
Zaun's in the PDF and I haven't seen him on the "leak lists".
There are actually a lot of rank and file names in there.
Danny Neagle, Ron Villone, Kent Mercker, Mike Lansing, Glenallen Hill...
Zaun :P
So ... what time is Roger's press conference?
:>)
...
Was sure Nomar would be there, but maybe he didn't have anything to do with Radomski.
Page 267: Theo's e-mail to a scout asking him to dig about steroids in Gagne's past; scout replies that in LA he was known as a user and is a bad risk for a variety of reasons, not all PED related.
And and all Red Sox in report:
Manny Alexander
Mike Spinelli
Paxton Crawford
Jeremy Giambi
Josias Manzanillo
Roger Clemens (post-Boston)
Mo Vaughan
Chris Donnels
Mike Lansing
Kent Mercker
Mike Stanton
Eric Gagne
Brendon Donnelly
Steve Woodard
Take that, Gagné!
I think Selig is talking at 4:30.
And ...
FUCK YOU ROGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yankees listed (according to the SoSH thread -- I haven't had a chance to download the report itself):
Giambi
Sheffield
Clemens
Pettitte
Knoblauch
Rondell White
Grimsley
David Justice
Glenallen Hill
Denny Neagle
Ron Villone
Todd Williams
Mike Stanton
Kevin Brown
Dan Naulty
Josias Manzanillo
Hal Morris
I wonder if the NY Post, which was so giddy to put an asterik on anything Bondsian, now slap one on those MFY titles in the late 90s?
"A WNBC list includes Sexy Lips!
Noooooooooooooooooo...."
AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. This made my day, thank you.
Lenny Dykstra, say it isn't so!
Seen this?
http://pics.livejournal.com/aloha_moira/pic/000f97q6
Sorry for the non-HTML-linkage.
Whew, no Julian after all!
Anyone watching Selig?
BR has a list of everyone mentioned in the report "for possible or confirmed use of performance enhancing drugs".
RS: Just happened to tune in to your last question as I'm watching Bud on "the Score" channel. God, he's pathetic. Saw an item in this morning's NY Post that MLB spent more than 20 mil. on this. It's all a farce. If I hadn't grown up with the sport, I would have baled long ago.
Seen this?
http://pics.livejournal.com/aloha_moira/pic/000f97q6
Sorry for the non-HTML-linkage.
lawlz
Thanks to that BR link, I was able to come across this gem.
Wow, what an incredible waste of time that was. I really hope that man didn't make the site himself.
Mitchell, from the report:
"I have not included every allegation that we received or the results of every interview we conducted or every document we reviewed."
Also Mitchell writes "Six players are named based on information obtained from persons other than Radomski or former major league strength and conditioning coach Brian McNamee."
Which makes this a very limited investigation.
SoSher reports that Mitchell said Selig has had the full report for three days and Bud says he has not yet read it.
Limited scope, exactly. Instead of camping out at 5-star hotels, Mitchell might have been better off just hanging out with local gym-rats in each MLB city.
Just flipped over to CNN where by chance Wolf Blitzer has Mitchell on live. First words I hear are Wolf asking "Senator, what do we tell the children?" Will somebody please drop by my place and shoot me?
Maybe too early to speculate, but does this affect Roger getting to the HoF?
If your FBI file is thick enough, Woti, I doubt it will be a problem.
Red Sock has carried a hatred for Clemens for quite some time now, with none of it based on steroid usage.....
I assume this doesn't change your opinion of him in anyway?
You still hate him , but now also get to laugh at him.....
The media better run with this one and run till the cows come home, because his trainer admits to shooting Clemens full of steroids on numerous occasions....that is way worse than what we actually know about Bonds.....
Clemens should not be let anywhere near Cooperstown.......
Very busy day around here. Dealing with a massive snow blitz here in the Boston area to deal with along with this report. It's been a fun day.
redsock said...
Which makes this a very limited investigation
They have basically the best right handed pitcher in baseball history....It maybe limited but Clemens has to fall and fall hard....
You still hate him, but now also get to laugh at him.....
Yeah, I REALLY want to watch him talk about this.
The media better run with this one and run till the cows come home, because his trainer admits to shooting Clemens full of steroids on numerous occasions.
They have been elevating Billy to Godlike status over the past few years, so we'll see.
Just Sayin' Dept.: Lotta guys on Mitchell's list helped the MFY in the 2000 WS.
"What do we tell the children?"
Gee Wolf, how about the truth? Some people cheat. In baseball, on their homework, on their taxes, at the ballot box. Come on, they can take it. They aren't stupid until we make them stupid by lying to them about how the world is all rosy.
Give me a fucking break.
Rotoworld:
Agent Randy Hendricks sent out a statement saying Roger Clemens "vehemently denies allegations in the Mitchell Report that he used performance-enhancing steroids." Hendricks's release says that Clemens "is outraged that his name is included in the report based on uncorroborated allegations of a troubled man threatened with federal criminal prosecution."
i have one thing to say. RAH-GER!
The media better run with this one and run till the cows come home, because his trainer admits to shooting Clemens full of steroids on numerous occasions
Ah ah ah....his trainer admits to injecting fluids into his bum on multiple occasions ;-)
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