More Fehr and Loathing

More Fehr and Loathing

Don and Bud May Need Some HGH to Recover from
Patting Themselves So Hard on the Back

Congress Aims at Tejada, Clemens, Bonds
N.Y. Times: Spring Training and the Syringe Generation

"There were a few signs of outrage Tuesday in the hearing room where Mark McGwire declined to get nostalgic for the past and Sammy Sosa forgot how to speak English and Rafael Palmeiro wagged his finger at the world on that fateful March 17, 2005.

'Every fan who bought a ticket to see games for the past 20 years has been witness to a fraud � an industry promoted as honest that is in fact rooted in cheating for profit,' said Representative Betty McCollum, Democrat of Minnesota. She called for tighter regulation of baseball, which she called an industry 'filled with lawbreakers and co-conspirators who ignore the problem or actively fuel the problem.'

"Representative Christopher Shays, Republican of Connecticut, badgered Selig and Fehr about the three-strikes-and-out penalties put in three years ago.

'Why should someone be allowed to appeal when they�re cheating?' Shays said about the players� right to appeal a lifetime banishment for a third penalty." -- 1.16.08, George Vescey, New York Times

Verducci: Hearings confirm Success of the Mitchell Report

"What I believe happened," said one former player, "is the union was totally blindsided by this. They operate with such arrogance that they think they're always right. So they figured Mitchell was just a boob for Bud who wouldn't come up with anything, especially if none of the players cooperated. Nothing to worry about. But when the feds gave Mitchell [Kirk] Radomski and [Brian] McNamee, the game changed. The union never saw it coming." -- 1.15.08, Sports Illustrated

And More Dirty Laundry

Adderall and Ritalin Rear Their Ugly Heads

Munson: Hearing Raises Big Issues for Tejada and Magowan
Ratto: Selig, Giants Might Be Stuck in Unforgiving Spot
Mariotti: Selig's Only Legacy: S-T-E-R-O-I-D-S

"Oh, the nerve of this spinning, revisionist phony. It's galling enough that he didn't assume the blame three years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago, 13 years ago. But in one of his defining moments in office, the day that shamed him permanently as the baseball boss who let steroids smear the sport forever, Selig had the audacity to take credit for what actually was his complicit role in allowing juicers to kick-start a dying industry." -- 1.15.08, Chicago Sun Times