Deeper Thoughts on the Mitchell Report

You've read my broad view of the Mitchell Report, but now it's time to delve a little deeper.

I know it's taken me a long time to get to it but after printing it and reading it, I figured I might as well say what's on my mind.

First off, I've changed my mind a little, I now think all players mentioned (and those not mentioned) should have until March 1 to write and sign an affidavit detailing their steroid use in exchange for full amnesty. Anyone who fails to do so and is later found to have bought or used steroids will be subject to the current penalties, not the penalties in place at the time of the infraction.

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The Mitchell report included the names of mostly marginal players who quite possibly would never have had major league careers if not for steroid use. Many people pointed out that it's hard to blame someone for trying it, if they felt they weren't good enough without it, and if they felt they had to in order to keep up with everyone else.

That's exactly the point. Of course they would do it. Maybe we all would do it, if we didn't think we would get caught. That's why strong testing is needed. I won't get into all the specifics of how testing should be done, but obviously it needs to be tougher, it needs to be more frequent (at least 2 tests in the offseason) and they need to test for everything (including a blood test for HGH).

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The report named about 60 position players and about 30 pitchers. Since teams usually have about 13 players and 12 pitchers, these numbers are slightly weighted towards the hitters, but not as much as some would have thought. This doesn't exonerate Bonds just because he was hitting his steroid aided home runs against juiced pitchers.

It seems that steroids aid pitchers differently. It helps muscle recovery, helps them pitch longer and even if it does add a few miles per hour on the fastball, steroids did not have the destructive impact on the pitching record books the way they did on the offensive numbers.

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Because the main sources of information for the report were New York based, the report shows a dearth of Latin American players. I believe many Latin American players purchased steroids during the offseason (in some countries they're legal), avoiding the paper trail that brought down many of the people in the Mitchell Report. Also, because all the information in the Report can trace it roots to a government investigation, the Latin American players will never be found out, but I believe they were a much larger part of the problem.

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The Mets should have won the 2000 World Series. All four games won by the Yankees were started by pitchers named in the Mitchell Report (Clemens, Pettitte, Neagle).

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While I'm not surprised at the number of Mets and Yankees who were named, I was shocked at the number of Montreal Expos. Remember the mid-90s when those spunky undermanned Expos always managed to hang tough in the NL East? As it turns out, many of the team's players (David Segui, Mike Lansing, Tim Laker, Rondell White, FP Santangelo) were using steroids.

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Load of crap #1: Players were not given the chance to respond to the Mitchell Report.

At the end of every passage involving a player, Mitchell concludes with the sentence, "In order to provide [player's name here] with information about these allegations and to give him an opportunity to respond, I asked him to meet with me; he declined."

Almost all players declined.
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Load of crap #2: Mitchell was biased because of his position with the Boston Red Sox.

Mitchell included a conversation between Red Sox GM Theo Epstein and a scout about Eric Gagne. Epstein said "I know the Dodgers think he was a steroid guy. Maybe so." To which the scout replied "steroids IS the issue." But the Red Sox traded for him anyway and he was a disaster.

Also he included a story told by Paxton Crawford to ESPN, that Crawford dropped syringes on the floor of the Red Sox clubhouse, and everyone laughed.

Mitchell, though hired by Selig for this purpose, hammered Major League Baseball, for its inaction and ignorance on steroids, he did not simply blame everything on the players.
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Load of crap #3: Mitchell's source weren't reliable.

Kirk Radomski has notes, canceled checks and shipping receipts from many of the players named in the report. And 11 players admitted to being supplied by Radomski. If Radomski had all that credible evidence, why would he bother to make up anything? Because he can prove so much, I believe everything he said, even if he didn't back up every single transaction with every single player with hard evidence.

The same is true of Brian McNamee. Yes, he was forced to cooperate with Mitchell as part of his plea agreement. But his agreement stated that he must give truthful testimony. So if he was telling the truth about Pettitte (which he was), that was enough to get him his deal, why would he make up anything about Clemens? Because if McNamee is found to have lied, his deal with the Feds is off.

A couple side notes on Radomski. When he was growing up he lived near Charlie Samuels, the Mets equipment manager at the time and that's how he starting working with the team in an informal capacity. In 1987, he was hired as a fulltime clubhouse attendant. In 1994 the Mets cut the salaries of the clubhouse guys, leading Radomski to quit and become a full-time personal trainer and bodybuilder.

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Paul LoDuca was introduced to Radomski by another Mets catcher, Todd Hundley, after Hundley went to play for the Dodgers. Radomski did at least 6 transactions with LoDuca, produced 3 checks for $3200 each (2 kits) and several notes from LoDuca. One said "I haven't been able to call you back because my phone is TOAST!" Another was written on Dodgers stationary and said "Thanks! Call me if you need anything."

After the 2003 season Dodgers executives said LoDuca "got off the steroids...took away a lot of hard line drives" but warned "if you do trade him, will get back on the stuff and try to show you he can have a good year." He was traded on July 30, 2004. But the Dodgers were wrong because he hit much worse after the trade.

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It is my sincere wish that the Mitchell Report goes down as the tipping point for baseball, when the Players Association finally stops fighting testing and becomes a proponent of the type of testing necessary to clean up the sport once and for all.