MLB Steroid Melodrama

[schillingfan]

Bunning is reported to have Alzheimer's. OTOH that makes sense for baseball.

Jim Bunning for Commissioner of Baseball!!

 

[moviegeekjn]

Why would you feel sorry for McGwire? He lost all credibility today. He brought this on himself. He is a loser in my book. Any of the players that used steroids to gain that extra edge are losers in my opinion.

Well that statement certainly eliminates you from any potential jury pool in this area.

 

[Hordispack]

Why would you feel sorry for McGwire? He lost all credibility today. He brought this on himself. He is a loser in my book. Any of the players that used steroids to gain that extra edge are losers in my opinion.

I heard he was choking back tears. Is that true? I heard his statement on the radio and his voice was shaky when he was talking about Canseco. I thought it was anger in his voice. ??

 

[moviegeekjn]

What I thought was funny (not ha ha) was that he was almost crying throughout his opening statements. Several times he really choked up. Why? One of the few explainations in my mind is that somehow he sees himself as being peripherally responsible for kids' deaths from steroid use. Why else would he jeopardize his reputation as the big, tough slugger?

Roll back to the immediate aftermath of the Andro revelation. McGwire publicly admitted to using Andro, and MLB initially took no stand against Andro. It wasn't on their banned substances, and it was an over the counter type thing you could pick up at any GNC store.

It was later when McGwire learned that a number of young kids who emulated him had begun taking it indiscriminately, leading to a dangerous health risks to them.. .that McGwire very publicly declared that he was no longer using Andro, and he participated in a few public awareness campaigns against using Andro and steroids.

MLB didn't ban the use of Andro until several months after this.

 

[arthurracoon]

I saw the last hour of the player interrogation

McGuire looked extremly guilty.

The best part was that one senator's monologue near the end.

 

[Lefty]

Roll back to the immediate aftermath of the Andro revelation. McGwire publicly admitted to using Andro, and MLB initially took no stand against Andro. It wasn't on their banned substances, and it was an over the counter type thing you could pick up at any GNC store.

It was later when McGwire learned that a number of young kids who emulated him had begun taking it indiscriminately, leading to a dangerous health risks to them.. .that McGwire very publicly declared that he was no longer using Andro, and he participated in a few public awareness campaigns against using Andro and steroids.

MLB didn't ban the use of Andro until several months after this.

When they asked McGwire about using andro he basically took the 5th. He said he no longer played. What a bunch of crap. I have no respect for him or any of the steroid users.

 

[moviegeekjn]

When they asked McGwire about using andro he basically took the 5th. He said he no longer played. What a bunch of crap. I have no respect for him or any of the steroid users.

He was the frickin' poster boy against Andro previously after the story broke and he realized that it had more consequences than he had considered. All that has been throughly explored again and again publicly in 1998-99 ... What he did today was follow the advice of his lawyer.

 

[Lefty]

He was the frickin' poster boy against Andro previously after the story broke and he realized that it had more consequences than he had considered. All that has been throughly explored again and again publicly in 1998-99 ... What he did today was follow the advice of his lawyer.

That very well could be true but what he did today made him look like the loser he is. He cheats during his career but now that he is retired he thinks he does not need to bring up his past. Guess what, when his name comes up for the Hall of Fame, I hope the voters remember today. I have a feeling he is a borderline Hall of Famer at best now.

You can tell when a guy is innocent and when a guy is guilty. Look at how Palmeiro was very adament that he never took steroids and look at how McGwire and Sosa reacted today when asked.

 

[Southpaw]

The only character on the panel who had any credibility was Canseco. Sammy brought an interpreter and a script reader and played dumb as a rock. Maybe he is. Schilling was the ass clown once again. Mr. Tough guy who puts himself above everyone. McGwire bawled like a baby, and came off as a guy with absolutely no credibility. I am betting the disclosure by the New York Post article will bring him to real court. Frank Thomas had a very convenient electronic communication malfunction. All Rafael ( Mr. Viagra ) Palmeiro wanted to do was deniy ever taking any performance enhancing drugs. A bit of irony there.

Every clean player ought to be pissed at these clowns for not fingering the dirty ones. They did absolutely nothing to clear the muddy waters. These hypocrites think not getting caught in a lie is the same as telling the truth. How fashionable.

 

[RonF]

The one common thread I heard among the players and owners for the most part was denial, denial that there was a serious problem with performance enhancing drugs in the major leagues. I didn't see it and don't know anything about it to, We have a drug plan in place today which is much better than no drug plan. I think the only thing congress is trying to do is to scare the major leagues into dealing with this issue.

Selig indicated that he won't do anything about players suspected of taking steroids and doing an investigation to determine if their baseball record should be exspunged. And as far as McGuire goes, what a joke he is, talk about denial.

 

[AZZenny]

I watched most of Bunning - I'm pretty sure he doesn't have Alzheimer's (remember, early diagnosis is what I do for a living) - his responses to questions were sharp, quick, well-stated, none of the linguistic vagueness or social covering you would expect to see - think Reagan his last term.
Now Selig - geez, his memory for stuff looked so bad and his responses so fuzzy and repetitive, if you didn't know he was just being his normal self, you'd have to wonder about Alzheimer's.

I agree all we got from the baseball side was denial. They really do think the fans and everyone else is stupid, don't they? Fehr should be replaced, and of course, so should Selig.

The congresspeople kept joking that baseball and steroids had actually brought Dems and Repubs together - well Congress brought the Player's Union and Management together, and that's even more remarkable.

 

[arthurracoon]

I agree all we got from the baseball side was denial. They really do think the fans and everyone else is stupid, don't they? Fehr should be replaced, and of course, so should Selig.

What's more sad was that players such as Schilling were in denial as well.

If only Bonds had been summoned. That would have been a sight to behold. Him and McGuire sitting next to each other.

 

[Scott MS]

Pardon me for not follow this in detail, but I've read most of Conseco's allegations against Palmero, McGuire, Rodriguez, etc. I also didn't read "Juiced", but why were Sosa and Schilling dragged into this?

Are they mentioned in the book? How would Conseco know about these guys with first hand experience?

Any why didn't they call Bonds? That is beyond me.

.

 

[moviegeekjn]

Boston Herald article addresses possible reasons that Schilling was called.

It was forgone conclusion that NONE of the players was going to be another Elia Kazan. And foregone conclusion that ONLY Conseco would talk openly about using steroids and would go on the record to name names if granted immunity; otherwise, he opens himself to lawsuits that he would be certain to lose.

Anyone expecting anything but Congressional grandstanding is choosing to remain naive.

 

[Dback Jon]

I disagree that it was grandstanding. Congress is the only body that can keep the heat on MLB and the Players Association for meaningful illegal drug regulations in Baseball.

MLB and the Players Association want us all to forget about this and sweep it under the rug. They knew what was going on, and turned a blind eye to it. For that, they should be ashamed. Who knows how many youngsters did steriods because all their favorite players were doing them? How many will and have gotten ill or died?

 

[moviegeekjn]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch coverage:

McGwire Refuses to discuss Past

Cardinals react to hearings

LaRussa surprised by Mac Testimony

"In my opinion, being under oath wouldn't have changed what he said," La Russa said Friday. "I think he was overcoached.

"Mostly, I think it was a missed opportunity to explain that if you use substances like creatine and over-the-counter stuff that's not illegal, you can get the benefits of a hard-core weight training program. And that was never discussed.

"You can get bigger and stronger doing this legally, and I didn't hear that."

 

[Dback Jon]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch coverage:

McGwire Refuses to discuss Past

Cardinals react to hearings

LaRussa surprised by Mac Testimony

LaRussa is such a lying piece of doo doo

 

[cardsunsfan]

What was funny is afterwards Conseco said that nobody who he stated in his book would lie in front of the congress because it would be a felony. Well Palmero said he didn't and Conseco said he did. So I guess Conseco was lying in his book right?

 

[UncleChris]

I heard a commentator say today that he believed that Schilling was invited because he would likely provide some good sound bites, being so adamantly against 'roids and being the quick wit that he is. He didn't come through for them, though. Just a thought....

 

[azsouthendzone]

I thought CAnseco came off the best and McGwire looked horrible. Sosa got caught with sterroids in his car glove box back in the 1990's and no one brought that up for some reason.

 

[Hordispack]

Did anyone else see Steve Sax interviewed on MSNBC? He had nothing good to say about any of this. He looks great. He's gotta be in his mid 40's (?)

 

[Renz]

I lost a lot of respect for Curt Schilling on Thursday. First, he says steroids are rampant and then when push comes to shove he backtracks and says they aren't. He's just spouting the company line now and trying to maintain the union's "code of silence". Gutless!

Schilling said Canseco's book "ruined a lot of lives". Wrong, Curt. They ruined their own lives by going on the juice.

 

[moviegeekjn]

I lost a lot of respect for Curt Schilling on Thursday. First, he says steroids are rampant and then when push comes to shove he backtracks and says they aren't. He's just spouting the company line now and trying to maintain the union's "code of silence". Gutless!

And if your lawyer advises you that you would be setting yourself up for certain lost legal causes and multi-million dollar lawsuits IF you make accusations for which you have NO concrete proof, then you'd spout off your speculations????

 

[AZZenny]

Schilling spouted off his speculations, which he always does on the spur of the moment, (Open mouth, insert foot, engage brain, in that order) and when he's under oath he has to stick to what he actually knows, not loose conjecture. Curt talks first and aims later - he always has - and I suspect his backtracking is more a matter of reigning in his own hyperbole than toeing the company line.
I mean come on, you guys know Curt - his heart is in the right place, but he talks all the time off the cuff. Most of us do the same thing at times, and put under oath, we would be a whole lot more circumspect.

 

[devilalum]

Schilling spouted off his speculations, which he always does on the spur of the moment, (Open mouth, insert foot, engage brain, in that order) and when he's under oath he has to stick to what he actually knows, not loose conjecture. Curt talks first and aims later - he always has - and I suspect his backtracking is more a matter of reigning in his own hyperbole than toeing the company line.
I mean come on, you guys know Curt - his heart is in the right place, but he talks all the time off the cuff. Most of us do the same thing at times, and put under oath, we would be a whole lot more circumspect.

I've never seen a professional athlete that enjoys hearing himself speak as much as Curt Schilling. As far as I can tell he seems to be the foremost authority on every subject known to mankind.