THE LIST? Are these the real 103?

Shysterball and Jay from FackYouk clued me into a Tim Marchman article that identifies the "alleged" 103 names who tested positive in 2003. Craig downplayed the significance of the names ("there are maybe 2-3 names on it that will raise an eyebrow"); I firmly disagree. I think there are more big names than I expected.

I am not going to post the names until I get a confirmation. But if this list is legit, we got a whopper coming. You can follow those links to get it yourself. It's a fake.

Stay tuned; as soon as there's a confirmation, I will post it. After all, more than 60% of you wanted this list released, so this might be your chance.


UPDATE: The list is bogus, a fake, fraudulent, a sham, spurious, a con, faux, ersatz... Please resume your daily duties with no further chest-beating.

Ponson tests positive for suckiness stimulant

He must have been tired after yet another binge eating experience. Suffering from "PPGSD", aka "post-pre-game-spread depression".

Kansas City Royals pitcher Sidney Ponson tested positive for a stimulant during the World Baseball Classic and has been banned from international competition for two years.

Major League Baseball will not suspend Ponson. Under the drug rules, he will be treated as a first-time offender and is subject to a medical review and fine.

Whatever. Long as the Royals are stuck with him. At least he can't hurt them right now:

He is 1-5 with a 7.27 ERA for the Royals, and is currently on the disabled list because of a strained right elbow.

And the focus sharpens on Manny and his doctor

The DEA is involved. Yet another acronym baseball players, MLB and the MLBPA want no part of...

Investigators believe the prescription for human chorionic gonadotropin, known as hCG, was written by Pedro Publio Bosch, 71, a physician who has practiced family medicine in Florida since 1976. His son, Anthony Bosch, 45, is believed to have worked as a contact between his father and Ramirez. It's unclear how far along the DEA is in its inquiry but sources indicated that investigators want to know whether either man ever procured improper or illegal prescriptions for other people. DEA officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
[...]
Anthony Bosch is well known in Latin American baseball circles, sources say. His relationships with players date at least from the earlier part of the decade, when he was seen attending parties with players and known to procure tickets to big league ballparks, especially in Boston and New York.

Expect fall out. Possibly lots of it.

Anytime you can connect a possibly dirty doctor and "well known in Latin American baseball circles", you have a chance at some major exposure. This just might be the beginnings of the next baseball PED landslide.

You know, if anyone cares anymore.

ESPN can't hide their Manny-love

Their writers may pound their chests in abject horror or utter disappointment about Manny Ramirez, but ESPN is almost giddy about getting Manny back. Who said Manny's not good for business? Betchya Bud wishes Manny got voted in as a starter to the All Star Game, eh?

Ah, the allure of ratings. Makes ya wanna toss your moral high ground right in the trash, right ESPN?

IIATMS Poll results: the 102 names remaining

Last week, I posted a poll for all of you to weigh in on the following question:

Should the remaining 102 names from the 2003 'anonymous' test be released?

I hemmed and hawed about this for sometime before voting.

The results:

• NO! It was supposed to be anonymous and that's how it should stay: 37.8%
• YES! The names keep getting leaked; let's just get it overwith already: 62.2%

Suffice it to say, most of you want to get this torture over with quickly. Waterboarding is preferred to the slow-drip-on-the-forehead, I guess. We can only wonder if the Union feels the same way and that's one of the reasons why Fehr is stepping down...

Fehr stepping down

Breaking news:

Don Fehr is stepping down as executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, a position he's held since the mid-1980s, a source tells ESPN.

Fehr will be replaced by general counsel Michael Weiner, pending board approval, the source said.

The announcement is expected to be made later on Monday afternoon.

This is a huge move by Fehr.

What will you most remember him for? The labor issues? The stonewalling of PED testing? Something else?

I'll have more to come on this later (work's in the way right now, sorry).


UPDATE: Shysterball was able to put fingers to keyboard on this topic:

Love him or hate him -- and as the reaction starts to come out about this, be assured that it will run about 10% love, 90% hate -- you can't say the guy didn't generally do a good job. In terms of working conditions and pay, baseball players are amazingly better off now than they were when he took over in 1985, and it was largely through Fehr's leadership that the union was able to fend off ownership tactics which bordered on criminal at times, and which could have meant the end of the union if not successfully combatted. Here I'm talking about Collusions I, II and III and the 1994 lockout. If you want an example of how these episodes could have gone without better leadership, you need look no further than the NFL, whose union has repeatedly rolled over for ownership, and the umpires, who were absolutely destroyed by Selig and his friends.

The big exception here is PEDs, where Fehr's instincts to fight tooth-and-nail against ownership ultimately did the union's membership a disservice in my view. Yes, many were responsible for that mess, but it strikes me that it took Fehr too long to recognize that, unlike the often boring minutiae of the usual collective bargaining fodder, there were (a) competing interests within union membership on this issue; and (b) a strong public interest in its resolution. Fehr misread both of those things, and because of it, the players remain stuck in something of a P.R. nightmare and will for some time. I think that angle will be overplayed in the Fehr commentary that will follow in the coming days, but it's not something that can be ignored either.

Shall we nominate Craig to the soon-to-be-vacant General Counsel role?

Canseco to sue MLB: It's about the money

The slow, sad downward spiral of Jose Canseco continues:

"A lot of these players have not been inducted into the Hall of Fame: Mark McGwire and so forth. They're losing salaries, because obviously when you're inducted into the Hall of Fame, you get asked to do certain, you know, appearances and shows and so forth, which incorporates income. So there is a major income loss.

"Not even that, baseball blackballs you from their family, meaning you can't have a future proper reference from them, a job, no managerial jobs, no coaching jobs, nothing. They completely sever you."

Canseco "intends to enlist Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro to join in the suit". Yeah, good luck with that. Those guys have made their money and (likely) not pissed away as recklessly as you have, Jose. Palmiero has chosen to fade into the ether. Sosa's in the forefront due to recent events, but will likely fade as well, enjoying his stature in his homeland (and his megamillions). [Canseco earned $45m over his career; Palmiero $89m; Sosa $124m]

Time to look in the mirror, Jose. You did this. You brought this upon yourself. You chose to write the book. You knew what it would mean to you. Just because you're broke and forced to "fight" 7' Japanese dudes to make rent doesn't mean MLB owes you one more red cent than you already have taken from them. Nobody owes you $%^&, Jose.

Want some money from baseball? Go crusade against PEDs. Go do something good for the game instead of constantly trying to tear it down.

Knucklehead.

Buster wags the finger at his MSM brethren

This was a surprising passage to read from Buster. I'm thrilled he wrote this. Really. It's about time someone from the MSM is saying this, particularly the parentheticals:

Morris did nothing to erode the credibility of Ibanez. He only posed questions that are reasonable, because we've all seen aged star after aged star insist that they were innocent, only to be proven that they are liars. Like Charlie Brown, fans like Morris have had the proverbial football yanked out from in front of them time after time.

Only now, instead of Bonds and Sosa and Palmeiro and McGwire, it is Ibanez who is propping up some big numbers in front of them -- and is anybody surprised when there is skepticism?

(As a note: Some of the mainstream media outrage to the Jrod column was fascinating, because some of the same writers who have said they will never vote for a player they suspect of using steroids are saying it's wrong for others to blog about their own suspicions of players' steroid use. Think about the laughable inconsistency there.)

Ibanez insists he's clean, and we have no reason to doubt his word. Assuming he is clean, the circumstances are wildly unfair to him. But those elements were not put in place by Morris, who just happens to be part of a generation that does its communicating via e-mail and Twitter and blogs -- rather than through word of mouth, as a lot of writers did in the late '90s and the earlier part of this decade, as they stood alongside batting cages and speculated on who did steroids and who didn't.

My own standard as a journalist is that I won't speculate, in print, on who does steroids and who doesn't, at least without proof. I don't think any news organization should.

But if Morris and others do so, after being lied to time after time after time, you really can't blame them.

Bravo, Buster.

Say it ain't so, Sosa (subtitle: Not Sosa-prised)

Yet another one bites the dust.

Sammy Sosa, who joined with Mark McGwire in 1998 in a celebrated pursuit of baseball’s single-season home run record, is among the players who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the drug-testing results from that year.

The disclosure that Sosa tested positive makes him the latest baseball star of the last two decades to be linked to performance enhancers, a group that now includes McGwire, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and Rafael Palmeiro.

Sosa, who is sixth on Major League Baseball’s career home run list and last played in 2007, had long been suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs, but until now had never been publicly linked to a positive test.

What more can we say? Surprised? Of course not.

And now we're going to have to continue to bleed out the balance of the 104, 103 102 names not currently known. Which is equal parts dumb, sad and painful. I'm still torn on this. Should the 102 left in anonymity be kept there until someone outs them, or should MLB and the MLBPA agree to release the list and just get it over with? There's a poll to the upper left; please vote.

Sing it with me: One hundred and four dirty ballplayers on the wall, one hundred and four dirty players. Take one down, write a book about it...one hundred and three dirty ballplayers on the wall...

(shrugs)

The evisceration of bloggers

Because we haven't been professionally trained or have a masthead to work under, we are not allowed to question anything. At least according to Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times:

But there is a training that has to occur. You either learn it in school, or learn it on-the-job at a paper before going out in the field. Or from me. But you have to get some training before you head out there. That way, you don't embarrass yourself nationally, as this blogger just did, or risk ruining a ballplayer's reputation when you may not be right.

I don't think the blogger, Jerod Morris, embarrassed himself. He laid out a case that pointed a direction that wondered if Ibanez was on some PED. Passive-aggressive, true, but I'd rather read that than Morris come out and say definitively that Ibanez was on something without proof. Hell, I did the same thing 5 days prior, with less statistical "evidence". As I noted at the bottom of that posting, we'd be lazy to assume everyone is innocent.

But Geoff, what would you say to your esteemed colleague, Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun Times, who kicked this innuendo door WIDE OPEN? Would you want him to attend your class? If it's good enough for the Chicago Sun Times to run innuendo questioning a hometown player, why can't anyone else? Said Telander, just as a reminder:

To wit, Theriot -- no disrespect, but if he's 5-11, I'm 6-12 -- hit two home runs Wednesday night at Wrigley Field against the Padres, giving him five times more home runs in 33 games this year than he hit all last season.

That rings the steroid/HGH/ whatever-designer-drug-is-in bell, doesn't it?

Mr. Baker seems to take particular delight in the fact that Morris was "eviscerated on national television", as if that represents a nationwide beatdown of guys like me who love the game and love writing about it. Guess again, Geoff.

And in this case, the blogger really didn't have a leg to stand on. That much was clear when he was eviscerated on national television by Fox Sports columnist Ken Rosenthal, a longtime baseball writer for the Baltimore Sun. I've seen some commenters to various fan blogs the past 24 hours try to say the blogger "held his own'' but let's get real. It was ugly. I give the blogger -- I won't mention his name because I'm reluctant to give him his 15 minutes -- credit for going on with Rosenthal. If it was me on the air instead of Rosenthal, I would have torn the blogger to shreds in much the same way. Maybe even worse. I know Rosenthal and spoke to him at the ballpark yesterday after his ESPN appearance with said blogger. When you go on TV and radio a lot, you learn how to destroy people like the inexperienced blogger on-air. It was like that Korean dude pounding on Jose Canseco in Japan the other day.

But I give the blogger props for standing up and taking his blows like a man. There is not enough of that in the internet world these days. Not enough accountability. And the fact he was ready to stand up for what he believed in gives me hope that he can one day rise to better things. That his blogging career was not just ruined by this one misstep. I don't think his was. It took some guts to wade into this topic.

I was lucky enough to enjoy 15 minutes of fame via my VoteForManny idea. I did interviews on the radio, in print. I was on ESPN Radio, MLB on XM, local radio in St. Louis, Chicago, San Diego, New York. I had a blast. It takes a bit of practice to get your feet under you to get your point across in a short window without sounding foolish. You have to learn to anticipate and have your rebuttals rehearsed. I learned quickly to have my responses "canned" and ready to go. I got better at it. Guessing Mr. Morris did not have that chance to learn from his on-air mistakes, but let's face it, the blogger got on national TV to debate with the pros. How AWESOME is that? Just ponder that for a quick moment: That's our equivalent of making the field at the US Open golf tournament as a walk-on weekend warrior. Behold the power of guts, verve, passion, and ignoring the intimidation of the pros. Good for Mr. Morris.

Morris has his last word, follow-up available and it's well done.

Ken Rosenthal asked at one point, “how did we get here?” What I wish I had said was: “We got here because one newspaper mischaracterized what I said, because a reporter from that same paper went running to Raul Ibanez for a comment without (ostensibly) Ibanez or the reporter reading the actual article I wrote, and because the mainstream media and its holier-than-thou high standards decided to run with the story. If none of that had happened, the Raul Ibanez story would be making its way towards 300-400 views right now and fading from relevance even here at MSF, as opposed to being a national story.

I wasn’t setting out to create a firestorm, but it is curious (there’s that word again) that the MSM was so quick to jump on the story. Could it be because the MSM salivates anytime the terms “steroids” or “PEDs” and an actual player’s name are in the same sentence? Might such stories drive pretty high traffic and viewership? Seems to me they would (and, admittedly, the last few days have proven it for us here at Midwest Sports Fans. Thanks mainstream media!).

Rock on.

Ibanez defends himself

When I first heard that Ibanez was speaking out against a blogger for daring to question the purity of his bloodstream this year, I thought that he heard/read this. Evidently not.

"I'll come after people who defame or slander me," he said before last night's game against the New York Mets. "It's pathetic and disgusting. There should be some accountability for people who put that out there."

A column in yesterday's Inquirer brought to light an Internet blogger who wondered if Ibanez had used such drugs.

However, I DO like his tact here:

"Unfortunately, I understand the environment we're in and the events that have led us to this era of speculation," he said.
[...]
"You can have my urine, my hair, my blood, my stool - anything you can test," Ibanez said. "I'll give you back every dime I've ever made" if the test is positive.

"I'll put that up against the jobs of anyone who writes this stuff," he said. "Make them accountable. There should be more credibility than some 42-year-old blogger typing in his mother's basement. It demeans everything you've done with one stroke of the pen."

Whew, I'm not 42 and thankfully my parents have no basement. But I am always accountable.

And in case you weren't sure where I stand on Ibanez's surge:

Do I think that Ibanez is cheating in some way? No, I don't think so. But doesn't it, at least, look like the same late-career outlier that we now look back at for other players and point out "ah ha!"? We've done this for every player we thought/knew was using.

Mark Cuban's brother thinks Manny was a major user

Brian Cuban, Mark Cuban's brother, has some pretty interesting things to say about Manny:

As a former steroid user, I am familiar with HCG. I have used it on numerous occasions. HCG itself is not a steroid, but a natural hormone which develops in the placenta of pregnant women during pregnancy to controls the mother’s hormones.

Any experienced steroid user knows that including HCG or a similar agent is a must for proper recovery after a steroid cycle. When a person takes testosterone steroids the body shuts down it’s natural production of testosterone to compensate for the huge spike in the artificial amount entering the blood stream. When the athlete finishes the 8-12 week cycle, the body is no longer producing adequate amounts of testosterone and must be “kick started” to get it flowing again.

If a person does multiple heavy steroid cycles over an extended period and does not use HCG, one of the worst nightmare of every male occurs. His balls shrivel up eventually looking like a couple of raisins. HCG is used to bring the family jewels back to normal size and and full “erectile” function.

What does all of this tell me about Manny Ramirez? It tells me that it within the realm of reasonable probability that he was probably doing significant and repeated testosterone steroid cycles.

Wonder if Boston knew of this or not, or at least had their suspicions.

Manny channels his inner McGwire

As a wise man once said: "You can't fix stupid".

Example #489,204:

The dreadlocked slugger, who also talked to manager Joe Torre, told reporters he isn't going to formally address the media about what led to his 50-game ban because it's in the past.

"I don't want to be a distraction for this team," Ramirez said. "What happened, happened. I spoke to [owner] Frank McCourt, I apologized, I spoke to Joe, my teammates and I'm ready to move on.

"I didn't kill nobody, I didn't rape nobody, so that's it, I'm just going to come and play the game."

You'd think that maybe, just maybe, Manny would remember the McGwire mistake: "I'm not here to talk about the past". Except that he clearly doesn't. If we've learned anything from those who have been outted: being upfront and honest (at least a reasonable attempt at honesty) goes a long way in a player's public relations rehabilitation. Worked for Pettite and others quite well. McGwire, Bonds, Clemens and others similarly defiant, not as much.

The last sentence, about murder and rape... well that's about as dumb a comment as you can make. I'll leave it at that.

All Star voting: Hypocrisy edition

DISCLAIMER: This is not intended to bash the fans of any particular team, but rather serve as an example of how hypocritical we can all get regarding the voting for the All Star Game.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

When I launched the Vote For Manny site two weeks ago, some of the (publishable) hate mail looked like this:

• f**k Manny vote for Raul Ibanez who is 6th in the voting and actually deserves to be a starter
• if Manny gets voted in then a more deserving player does not get to play in the ASG
• It's funny now; but, what if he would take a spot from another deserving player that works their ass off, and contributes everyday to his teams success?

There's the rub: Many people felt that a vote for Manny would be taking the spot away from a player --like Ibanez-- who otherwise deserved to start (or make the team). Big kudos to the fans in Philly who got out and voted like mad. They launched Ibanez from 6th to 2nd last week, and up to 1st in this week's tally. Totally deserved, too.

So, my Philly friends, how do you reconcile the fact that you also voted for a shortstop who is hitting just 0.222 with and OBP of 0.261, three HR and just ten SB? Doesn't the vote for Rollins fly right in the face of "a more deserving player does not get to play in the ASG"? Isn't that hypocritical, silly, contradictory?

You know what, I'm OK with Rollins being selected as a starter because the selection process allows the fans to dictate who the starters are. I love that we get to vote. I also like that every team has to have a representative. What I DO NOT LIKE is that after that very democratic and fan-friendly selection process, we have a rule that the game counts towards home field advantage in the All Star Game. I've been up on this soapbox for a while, so hopefully you understand my stance by now: These two concepts are in direct conflict. Either the game is an exhibition with the current selection process, or change the selection process to match the game having significance.

Mr. Selig, should you or one of your team in the Commissioner's Office be reading this: Please change something surrounding this game. I'm begging. Keep the fan-friendly selection process and let the game go back to being an exhibition, a nine-inning exhibition with no worries about a tie. The managers will manage in a fan friendly way, trying to work everyone into the game without worry about extra innings, since it would be merely an exhibition.

On other thing, Mr. Selig: You also need to figure out a way to battle the MLBPA to keep those who have tested positive out of their next eligible All Star Game. For integrity's sake. Ya know?

Philly rocks the vote

Jimmy Rollins and Raul Ibanez are now atop the NL voting leaderboard.

Still whining about it being only this year's best players should be selected with Rollins pretty much sucking it up this year? He's batting 0.222 with just 3 HR and 10 SB.

The third 2009 National League balloting update for Major League Baseball's All-Star Game, to be held July 14 in St. Louis, was released Monday and two more Phillies -- shortstop Jimmy Rollins and outfielder Raul Ibanez -- have taken the lead at their respective positions.

Manny, my horse to ride to change the rules of this selection process, remains fifth, though the Philly vote is having an impact:

Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez, suspended for 50 games on May 7 for violating baseball's drug policy, remains a topic of conversation. The slugger remained in the fifth spot but with an edge of fewer than 6,000 votes over the Phillies' Shane Victorino. Two weeks ago, Ramirez was in the fourth spot among outfielders on the ballot.

Remember, either keep the game an exhibition (and leave the fan vote/mandatory representation intact) or have the game count (and pick the best 32 players via a new hybrid selection process). Not both. And no one suspended for a violation of the drug policy should be eligible for selection to their next available All Star Game.

Got it?

"Without 'Roids"

Please feel free to sing along, especially if you're old enough to remember/appreciate the Doobie Brothers:

Adios, Sammy

It's a mere formality at this point, but Sammy Sosa is retired. So many thoughts about Sammy (and how could any Sammy discussion not have McGwire along side?)...

• ...I wish that my boys were born to witness the fun that was 1998
• ...I wish the fun of 1998 was still appreciable in 2009
• ...Between the Sosa/McGwire home run derby and the Yanks magnificent season, 1998 was a special one as a fan.
• ...I loved the hop
• ...I loved the hand/kiss/chest/sky routine that Sosa did in the dugout after a HR
• ...I loved the sprint to right field
• ...I loved how Sosa was the only one to get McGwire to loosen up
• ...I was so disappointed when Sammy went to an interpreter in Congress
• ...My older son's first night game (in Section 39 of the bleachers) was a game against the Orioles, with Sosa in RF. The verbal assualts against Sosa were astounding and thankfully, my son, didn't realize what they were saying.
• ...I am surprised that there has been no smoking gun to implicate Sosa for PEDs; shocking considering how the others have fallen.
• ...Just as I am disappointed in McGwire's conspicuous silence and absence, I wish Sosa was more forthright
• ...I didn't/don't buy his explanation for the corked bat
• ...I think Sosa's comment ("I will calmly wait for my induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Don't I have the numbers to be inducted?") is absurd
• ...So is this: "It's all about timing and this is not the moment to discuss that topic [drug tests]. ... Perhaps we'll discuss some other time"
• ...And this might be slightly hypocritical: "Manny's case has been truly hurtful. It hit me but now it's time for Manny to get back on his feet and face the consequences of his actions". Et tu, Sammy?
• ...I miss the ability to watch a game with wonder, without wondering
• ...I can't get over how far we've come, or how far we've fallen, in 10 years

If Rick Telander can wonder, can I?

Mid-May, the esteemed Rick Telander from the Chicago Sun-Times penned a controversial article about the small Ryan Theriot who was on a mini-home run binge (for him). Telander wondered aloud, that given the cloud of PED use enveloping MLB, could we assume that Theriot was doing this cleanly.

To wit, Theriot -- no disrespect, but if he's 5-11, I'm 6-12 -- hit two home runs Wednesday night at Wrigley Field against the Padres, giving him five times more home runs in 33 games this year than he hit all last season.

That rings the steroid/HGH/ whatever-designer-drug-is-in bell, doesn't it?

To see that from an established MSM cornerstone like Telander and the CST was, um, revealing. The jokes about David Ortiz's downfall have been mostly around him "being off the juice", though I tend to agree with Bill Simmons' take more than a lack of "juice".

The point of the run-up is that I have to wonder aloud what's going on with Raul Ibanez? He's been a quietly consistent run producer in relative anonymity for years in Seattle (and KC before that). He hit a career high 33 home runs with 123 RBI in 2006. His 162 game average is 23 home runs and 95 RBI. A solid major leaguer and from all reports, an even better person. The kind of guy who's hard to root against.

Last night, on his 37th birthday, Ibanez pounded 2 more home runs, giving him 19 on the season, 50 games into the season. We can point to a better lineup and a smaller home ballpark, but it was precisely this type of late-career spike that we ignored 10 years ago. Isn't it?

Ibanez is "on pace" (the dreaded term in stats) for 61 HR and 165 RBI. Really?

Wondering if he's a product of his small-park? Not really. He has hit 11 of his 19 HR away from home. Only 8 HR and 23 RBI (he's at 51 now) have come at home. Maybe it's due to having Howard, Utley, Victorino, et al surrounding him instead of Yunieski Betancourt, Adrian Beltre and Russell Branyan.

Playing at age 36/37, Raul Ibanez is having a career year. Know who else had a career year at the same age? That Barry dude. Yep, 2001. Remember that year? Barry turned 37 mid-season and hit 73 home runs that year (after a previous career high of 49 the year before). Phillies fans, before you sharpen your spears, please just finish reading and allow yourself to consider this. If you "wite-out" his name and merely look at the raw data, you have to wonder.

You know who else had a similar mid/late-career spike after a solid, above average MLB career: Luis Gonzalez. Previous high of 31 home runs. Hit 57 in 2001. Never hit more than 28 after that. Gonzo's 2001 season came at the age of 33. Do you think Gonzo's 2001 season was lillywhite pure?

Do I think that Ibanez is cheating in some way? No, I don't think so. But doesn't it, at least, look like the same late-career outlier that we now look back at for other players and point out "ah ha!"? We've done this for every player we thought/knew was using.

One thing we (all of us baseball fans) have the benefit of is the ability to look back and point out outliers and spikes. Players DO have career years. We're good at looking back and saying "see, this guy was a good ballplayer for years and suddenly, BOOM". But given the climate and the cloud that remains over the game, should we just ignore what we are seeing this year because of better testing? If Manny Ramirez could get caught while still trying to skirt the PED testing policies and procedures, who's to say others aren't doing the very same thing?

I'm as sick of the PED discussions as anyone else, but we're witnessing an incredible spike right now for Ibanez. We at least have to wonder if he's clean. That's a real shame. There's no way to prove innocence. We just have to hope that he's clean. But it'd be lazy to assume it.



* Please don't construe this as some "anti-Ibanez for the All Star Game" thing. It's the coincidence of hitting 2 HR on his 37th birthday, giving him 19 HR in 50 games, that's all. I continue to say that Ibanez's performance justifies a starting spot. The point of this posting is noting the curiosity of his spike and the parallel to Bonds' 2001 season at the same age.



Follow-up, related posting: Ibanez defends himself

Rigid denial drives rampant doping

This is a fantastic article about PEDs, their prevalence in sports, etc.

[Trainer Sal] Marinello rejected ‘roids in the 1980s as a college football player and weightlifter, and he criticizes doping today as trainer and writer based in New Jersey. But Marinello concedes the virtual hopelessness to change cultural craving for performance-enhancing substances [PES].

Thus the denial really irks him. “If guys wanna do it, let them do it, but I always say, ‘Ya know what, don’t tell me you’re doing it naturally,’ ” Marinello says. “Don’t send the message that you’re just like anybody else, especially to kids.”

“Don’t tell us you’re a better athlete than somebody else when all you’re doing is taking these drugs to get better. If people wanna [juice], that’s a different argument. Let’s just recognize first that they’re using and what it’s done for them.”

IIATMS on 670 The Score in Chicago today

From this morning with Mully and Hanley (link to mp3)