Big game hunting

A few thoughts this morning before I go headlong into work:

• This reeks of big game hunting; where are the other 103 names? They brought down the elephant but who else is out there?
• All the names should be released so we can take the lumps and go on.
• These seemingly annual pre-Spring Training bombshells are getting more and more painful yet more and more tiresome.
• How brazen must a person be to go on 60 Minutes and say that he has never used when he knows he has tested positive at some point?
• How dumb must players be to have used when they knew a test was forthcoming, even if promises of anonymity were given?
• The Union totally screwed up here. Completely and unequivocally. They should have had these destroyed years ago.
• Why, when the 10 names from this list of 104 were subpoenaed for the BALCO case, was the entire list turned over?
• Who leaked this?
• If ARod thought all of the prior "noise" that surrounded him was loud, he hasn't seen anything yet.
• Teix was a teammate of ARod in 2003. Guess he's going to be asked some questions.
• Does this elephant block out some of the spotlight for CC, Burnett and Teix?
• Has there been a potentially more berzerk "players report" day than what the Yanks have got coming? Between the off-season splurges, the Dead Torre Scrolls, and this ARoid mess, it might be totally bonkers on a level we've never seen.
• How does Gene Orza remain employed after tipping off players about tests (remember, too, that this was discussed last December in the Mitchell Report but the story never had any legs)?
• What's Selig's reaction gonna be?
• Speaking of the Mitchell Report, Shysterball nailed this one:

...the Mitchell Report was a PR piece that failed on every level except one: convincing the weak-minded that it approached comprehensiveness or represented finality. How does it look now that it missed the biggest name in baseball when evidence that the biggest name in baseball had used was in the league's possession all along? How can anyone associated with Major League Baseball point to the Mitchell Report as anything other than a historical curiosity when Alex Rodriguez and, presumably, a hundred other ballplayers' names will be leaking out over the coming weeks and months? Guess what? I hate the Mitchell Report, so I'm glad it has had its horse shot out from under it. I know everyone is sick of it by now, but let's have a real blood-letting and really get it behind us, cool?

• The remaining NINE years on this contract could look terrible if ARod matures like every other mortal.
• However, if he shows the fortitude that he hasn't shown in other "crunch" times and he delivers another MVP-worthy year (and continues to do so for the next few years), that might help his "case"
• The Yanks' brass have gotta be seething over this. This contract also has Hank's fingerprints all over it, doesn't it?
• Let's see Boras earn his commission on this one.
• The flat out damnation of ARod is a bit much. Was getting my eggwhites this AM at work and saw the Post's headline reading "A-HOLE". A bit much, no?
• The tone and content of ARod's press conference, whenever he gets back from his Bahamas party, will set the path towards either redemption or persecution. I reserve the right to wait until I hear his words before I condemn him.
• Will he go the Pettitte/Giambi route or the Bonds/Clemens route? We've seen one way benefit the player and the other benefit the Attorney General and defense attorneys.
• The Hall can wait, for now. After all, we're 14 years from ARod appearing on the ballot.