07.16.08
Posted in Culture, Media, Steroids, Baseball, Morality, Roger Clemens, O.J. Simpson at 6:03 pm by addisport
The New York Daily News’ I-team is reporting that Kirk Radomski … the Kirk Radomski … has found his shipping receipts for packages of steroids he’s sent to Cheater No. 2 (aka Roger Clemens) to help solidify the case against him.
This is what I like to call a slow death. Everything is unraveling for this former great. His wife is accused of injecting steroids. He’s charged with perjury. His son is badgered with questions. Shoot, the I-team is working so hard they have a list of women they’ve found to be connected to the ex-power pitcher.
I wonder, does he ever think he can just hide and it will all go away? It certainly doesn’t work for O.J., Michael Jackson, Barry Bonds and every other disgraced star we once idolized.
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02.28.08
Posted in Steroids, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte at 2:18 pm by addisport
There’s not a day that can go by without me chiming in on cheater No. 2. What can I say, I don’t like liars.
Apparently, neither do the feds and congress.
One question for Roger, are you going to cry like Marion Jones when this is over or are you going to apologize sympathetically, fully understanding the wrongs you’ve committed and the harm you’ve done?
I’ll wait. No, seriously, I don’t think this man has the integrity he claims in any of these stories where he’s questioned. Always talking about how he’s going to handle this the right way.
That’s funny. Nobody ever seemed to tell him the right was telling the truth. Good thing he has friends like Andy Pettitte to help him out.
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02.25.08
Posted in Culture, Steroids, Baseball, Roger Clemens, Mitchell Report at 3:21 pm by addisport
Just look at him. Doesn’t he look evil. In the back of those eyes, I see a scared little child. His story is deserving of a book. Not by me, but somebody who actually knows him and is willing to out this fibber for what he is.
“C’mon Roger. No more tall tales. Time to grow up.”
I’ve been absent from this blog for two weeks plus. There are two reasons why: 1) If I would have been posting in the last couple of weeks every single thing I would’ve written about would have to do with steroids in baseball. 2) Every single damn thing I can think of has to do with Roger Clemens.
The mixture of the two would be deadly to my sanity.
I just want to stop for a minute and list the craziness from the past few weeks via links. The headlines should speak for themselves:
- Congress May Single Out Clemens - New York Times
- Most convincing witness was the one who wasn’t there - Mike Fish, ESPN
- Clemens says Pettitte ‘misremembered’ him; McNamee grilled - ESPN
- After hearing, reps, lawyers debate if spectacle was worth it - Associated Press via ESPN
- For Clemens, No Joy Found in Testimony - New York Times
And these are just the highlights. The hearing was pure comedy. Brian McNamee’s cool demeanor was expected. Clemens’ awkward “testimony” was dually expected. The accusations and dissapointment lobbied by the congressmen and congresswomen was theater.
But in the weeks later, what do we have? Not a damn thing. We’re back to square one, meaning cheater No. 1: Barry Bonds. Yup, I’m tying this back to the big fella. I would swear under oath to you right now, BALCO, which spurred the Mitchell report and the Steroids Era itself, will also be the final chapter in the misery baseball has received. Bonds, being the chief investigated proponent of BALCO, will be the final leg of the journey. When he is convicted (and I do say ‘when’), it will be a day of relief for Bud Selig and the MLBPA. It’ll take the shoulder of blame off of these folks and pin it squarely on th donkey who they’ll claim lied to them and their families and friends en route to gain an advantage.
There’s nothing great about these tainted years. Nothing fond to look back on when everyone and everybody is a suspected cheat. There’s no pride in outing these folks. But I sincerely feel, if I cheered for you in some way or another, and you cheated (and therefore cheated my trust) then I have as much right to boo you now more than ever.
I could go on and on, but you’ve heard that story before.
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02.04.08
Posted in Culture, Media, Steroids, Baseball, Football, Michael Vick, Morality, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Andy Pettitte, Eli Manning at 1:31 pm by addisport
They were arrogant. Now they’re 18-1.
I wonder how they like those apples?
The New York Giants stunned the world, that is, everybody but themselves on Sunday by beating the previously unbeaten New England Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl 42. Eli Manning threw a game-winning touchdown to Plaxico Burress and an improbable third-and-long to David Tyree in the waking moments of history.
It was the stuff of champions.
But in their most sour moment, the Patriots’ leader turned from good sport to sore loser faster than Britney Spears’ bipolarity kicks in. Coach Bill Belichick, the alleged genius, bolted to midfield, shook Giants coach Tom Coughlin’s hand and then left the field with :01 seconds on the clock.
His gruff was recognized by more than a few writers including Tim Smith of the New York Daily News, Terrence Moore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Mike Freeman of CBS Sportsline as well as others.
The thing is, you gotta take your whipping like a man. Step up and swallow your spit. Give props where props is due and keep your chin up. Instead, what we saw was another example of Belichick being over arrogant and under prepared for the thought of losing.
Needless to say, as others have said before me, he didn’t deserve to win. Cocky bastard.
Michael Vick gets to keep his bonus money
Of all the things stripped of Michael Vick (his pride, his endorsements, his freedom), you can’t take away what he’s actually earned.
At least that’s what a federal judge said Monday, giving the embattled quarterback some room to breath with all of his financial woes. The Atlanta Falcons had tried to recoup his bonus money when he pleaded guilty to dogfighting charges in 2007, arguing that he forfeited the money because of his troubles. But the judge ruled that you can’t take away what he’s earned when he had already played three years on his contract.
Every dog has his day. (That was a cheap one, I know.) Vick can find comfort in the fact that he may have some money left over when he gets done with his 23-month jail sentence and he may have a home to return to. But if he gets caught up on those gambling charges in the NFL, he may be done for. Crossing fingers here.
Andy Pettitte is gonna talk but what is he gonna say?
Today, he talked with the congressional lawyers in a deposition. On Feb. 13, he’ll talk before the house committee overseeing steroids in which he’ll either rat out Roger Clemens or exonerate his buddy.
On a scale of 1-to-10, with 10 being Pettitte ratting his boy out and just dumping on him, and one being him going to jail rather than talk, I see a solid eight. Yup, Pettitte will waffle, but he’ll tell the truth. And when the questions become precise and too accurate for him to deny what he knows, he’ll think about Barry Bonds’ perjury case, Dana Stubblefield’s lying, Rafael Palmeiro, Marion Jones and a host of others. I think for him, it won’t be a smart decision, it will be a decision to speak made out of fear.
And, ironically, that may be the smartest decision out of every baseball player that has stepped on congressional hill.
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01.30.08
Posted in Culture, Steroids, Baseball, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Andy Pettitte at 12:43 pm by addisport
Roger Clemens showed up at the Houston Astros training camp. I guess he doesn’t realize he has an appointment with the House coming up that he should prepare for.
BTW, does he read the news? I mean, did he see Dana Stubblefield plead guilty to lying about using performance enhancing drugs in his connection with BALCO. For that matter, did Barry Bonds see this.
It’s this case of deny, deny, deny that these guys are running into the ground. Look, it didn’t work for Richard Nixon, what makes them think it’s going to work for a bunch of baseball players when both the media and the feds are working against them. I believe this speaks to their intelligence, as well as their stupidity to keep throwing money at these situations. They should be saving up for that rainy day when prison becomes a reality.
What’s funnier is that Brian McNamee’s lawyer is saying he’s expecting Andy Pettite to rat out Clemens in the upcoming hearing. Now if only somebody in the San Francisco Giants organization was ready to rat out Bonds, we’d all get some closure.
The positions of all sides has been sad and standoffish. And worse yet, incomplete. I just can’t wait for this mess to be over with — if that’s possible.
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01.11.08
Posted in Culture, Media, Steroids, Morality, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Marion Jones at 11:12 am by addisport
The hammer has been dropped on the first major athlete of the steroids era. Marion Jones has received six months in prison for lying about taking performance enhancing drugs and 800 hours of community service.
I’ve hesitated to address Marion Jones in the past because I’ve been so caught up with the major sports and the local athlete in my neck of the woods: Barry Bonds. But I’ve always told myself, I’d come back and rip Jones for everything. Rip her for the years of lying, rip her for using her kids as a reason to stay out of jail and rip her for, as she says, ignorantly using flaxeed oil and not knowing what it was.
She’s jail bait now. And as far as I’m concerned, she’s taken more heat in the steroids era than the B-12 Rocket and Barry “This record is not tainted” Bonds.
Her five Olympic medals have been stripped of her, as they should have been. She has finally admitted to her wrongdoing and her lying. She is banned/retired from running track. As silly as this sounds, that’s all I could ever want. Just tell the truth, take your whipping and do your time. Six months seems appropriate.
So I’ll pile on by only saying this: With a possible maximum sentence of five years, she should’ve got at least two years to make an example out of her. We got too many athletes to deal with to not bring the steel hammer out of the judge’s closet. And I’ve got a good feeling if she gets six months, cheater No. 1 is looking at a long time in the box. We’re talking shoe program, 22-hour lockdown and community showers. It’s the works.
Right now, Bonds and Clemens better be taking notes. This is what faces them. They are likely to get much more severe penalties under penalty of perjury if they continue to lie about their actions. Bonds may get the worst of it because of his vehement denials and his dumb lawyer who thinks it’s a smart idea to tell the feds he’s been “kicking their ass in the courtroom.” (Smart move, buddy.) And Clemens because, at this point, he’s voluntarily going to tell his version of the “truth” to congress, a move that can box your boy in further than an umpire with a diamond-sized strike zone.
Matter-of-fact, everybody’s getting boxed in. Bonds is just next.
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01.10.08
Posted in Steroids, Baseball, Stories, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte at 1:18 pm by addisport
With the congressional hearing into steroids now being delayed, let’s take a quick look at implications of the upcoming circus.
In a column I wrote for my newspaper, I explored how Andy Pettitte will either bury or exonerate Roger Clemens. Clemens seems to think that Pettitte has nothing to do with him. By every account he’s wrong.
Here’s an excerpt from my column:
The bottom line is, in all of Clemens’ attempts to reconcile his persona and fight for his respectability in the court of public opinion, he has failed to unequivocally answer the most important question in the proper context: How are the fans supposed to believe you when Pettitte has admitted to what you so vehemently deny? …
The man who prides himself on his hard work ethic, now prides himself on doing the best he can to win over his good name. His suit against McNamee is his best bet. Answering the media’s questions will only poke more holes in his argument.
And if he’s true to his word, and goes before Congress under oath, he will seem open. But the X factor will come up again.
What kind of friend will Pettitte be? We’ll find out on either Feb. 13 or whenever (if ever) the defamation lawsuit goes to court. I’m sure no member of Brian McNamee’s defense team would go without subpoenaing him and congress would be smart enough to need his cooperation as well.
Now, we wait.
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01.07.08
Posted in Culture, Baseball, Morality, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mitchell Report at 3:44 pm by addisport
I choose Brian McNamee. Not because I’m some cynical blogger / columnist / sports writer. No, because he’s “hogwash” as he so eloquently put it on “60 Minutes” last night.
Apparently, at 44, he doesn’t think he has the equivalent of third ear coming out of his forehead while throwing 90 miles per hour. It was at best a failed attempt at regaining his reputation as the famed training pitchers and seven-time Cy Young award winner.
But then again, “60 Minutes” is old news.
Today’s press conference for Roger Clemens is the latest telling saga in the steroids era in which we all are a little more confused, and feeling all the more contempt, because of all the individuals and players involved. Cheat No. 2, Clemens, has finally put his story forward by letting the press and world listen to a recording of a conversation with McNamee from Jan. 4.
In the conversation, McNamee (rather emotionally) asked Clemens what he should do? He was broken up over outing the Rocket. Because of his lawyer’s advice, he could not tell him what to do — whether that be just tell the truth or join in on the press conference.
Two things need to be taken away from the press conference:
- McNamee never said he lied and he never disputed that Clemens said he never took steroids.
- Clemens never asked McNamee why he would lie or anything close to that nature.
The significance is simple: There was nothing definitive about the conversation, meaning it was just a big show for lawyer Rudy Hardin to have people sympathize with Clemens.
After last night’s interview, Clemens sued McNamee for defamation. This is his biggest move to date, one that can clear his name in the court of public opinion, even on this blog. But if McNamee, as rumored, will file a counter suit he’s screwed. It’ll just be more of a he said, he said campaign to out do one another. Obviously, they’re close, but they’re both persistent in telling the truth, whatever that is.
What are we left with after these two days of breaking news on Clemens and McNamee jabbing back and forth with another through lawyers and whatnot? Nothing. As determined previously, the steroids era will be decided and judged upon in the court of law. Until that day comes, there is no such thing as credibility for taped conversations and repeated denials. The evidence is staggering.
Although I have to give it Clemens, filing the defamation suit and willingly going before Congress is a lot more forthcoming than Barry Bonds. I’d say his juevos have dropped.
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01.03.08
Posted in Culture, Steroids, Baseball, Roger Clemens, Mitchell Report at 12:30 pm by addisport
ESPN - Report: McNamee’s lawyer says he may sue Clemens - MLB
You knew this was going to happen. Roger Clemens was going to run his mouth and the only person who would be able to shut him up is Brian McNamee. I’m pretty sure the pitcher’s old trainer has got some evidence lying around the satisfied former senator George Mitchell enough to go ahead and include his name in the Mitchell Report.
What makes Clemens think if he starts slandering McNamee, he’s above being sued?
It’s turning out that sports writers, like myself, are in need of a good lawyer just to start understanding the full complexities of the steroids scandal. Otherwise, this is a normal kiddie argument, just with more dollars and a hall of fame nomination involved.
Roger: Stop lying about me!
Brian: No, you stop lying!
Roger: No, you!
Needless to say, the steroids resolutions of the new year may come in a courtroom rather than in senator Mitchell’s report.
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12.29.07
Posted in Culture, Steroids, Baseball, Basketball, Football, Michael Vick, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mitchell Report, Videos at 12:10 pm by addisport
I’ve railed and railed against steroids this year, both in this blog and in my column for The Union. Should it be any surprise that some of my top posts and just overall better work here is on the very same issue? Not at all.
For me, 2007 will be remembered for the cheating bums who tried to take away the integrity and humility of sports. Tim Donaghy, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. And then defending some who didn’t deserve the crap they were getting (Michael Vick and O.J. Simpson).
The bad always outweighs the good. But there were smaller incidents, which brought some life lessons to me, like when Bill Walsh died. It kind of put reporting into perspective.
Without further ado, here are my top posts with a quick summary of what they each contain, organized by month:
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