Quote of the Day
“Everybody likes to see him play. But there must be some things going on there that we don’t know about.”
– Mets manager Willie Randolph when asked about Barry Bonds injury. Maybe Willie knows something the rest of us don’t?
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Bonds Rage
A frustrated and melancholy Barry Bonds announced to the media yesterday that the rehab from his latest knee surgery could possibly keep him out for all of the 2005 MLB season. The following are some quotes from his address:
- “You guys wanted to hurt me bad enough, you finally got me.”
- “You wanted me to jump off a bridge, I finally did.”
- “You finally brought me and my family down.”
The “you” in this case was the media.
I have some news for you, Mr. Bonds. The media isn’t to blame for your troubles. True, the media has been on your case through most of your career and especially in the last year since your name is at the center of the Balco hearing and steroids rumors. But they’re just doing their job which is to follow the story. If any of them have wished you ill, either privately or through their reporting, it’s probably because you never treated them professionally. The media didn’t make you have an extramarital affair. The media never made you allegedly take steroids. The media didn’t injure your knee.
A wise man once told me “you only have yourself to blame for the things that befall you in life” and when you’re a public figure things get magnified. By this point in your career I’d expect you to realize that and use the media to your advantage instead of looking like an ass by publicly ridiculing them.
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Blog Improvements
I’ve made a few edits to the sidebar to make the blog a bit mor user friendly. The changes are as follows:
- Added a recent posts list.
- Changed the Categories list to be a drop down menu.
- Added a calendar feature to the Archives section.
- Changed the name of the Blogroll section to Links.
- Moved the MLB scoreboard from under Contact Info. to under the Links section.
While I’m on the subject of the sidebar I should probably explain a bit about the functionality there. The Categories, Search, Archives and Site sections are dynamic dropdowns. When you click the down arrow (
) the section will expand and show you more content/features. Likewise when a section is expanded you can close it by clicking the up arrow(
).
I hope you like the improvements. Feel free to communicate your questions, comments and suggestions to me using the comments link below.
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Quote of the Day
You don’t get points for touching first base.
– Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson when asked about Kazuhisa Ishii‘s habit of walking batters.
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Mets Want Urbina
According to Ken Rosenthal on FoxSports.com that the Mets are hoping to acquire Ugueth Urbina from the Tigers. The sticking point is regarding Urbina‘s salary. Rosenthal, you may remember, broke the Phillips-Ishii story late last week.
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Suspension Only Steroid Policy
Last week MLBs drug testing policy came under extreme scrutiny on Capitol Hill. The plan called for a 10-day suspension or up to $10,000 fine for a first positive test, a 30-day suspension or up to $25,000 fine for second positive, a 60-day suspension or up to $50,000 fine for a third positive and a one-year suspension or up to $100,000 fine for the fourth positive. On Sunday MLB and the MLBPA agreed to change the sentencing structure to a suspension only punishment.
The fines were questioned by congress as being too lenient. Ten thousand dollars, while a lot of money to the common man, is just a drop in the bucket to someone making millions of dollars a year. By dropping fines as a possible sentence and leaving suspension as the only sentence MLB is hoping to convince the public that they are truly moving in the right direction as far as steroid use goes.
I have to wonder why it took an inquisition by congress to make baseball make any changes to its policy. If they were truly concerned about what was going on as well as the repercussions of it then the policy would have been stronger to begin with. And even with the new change I still have to question the severity of the punishment. A player who is juiced up is selfish enough to risk the 10 game ban he’d get if he were caught. Besides, if I was caught juiced up by my employer I’d be fired on the spot. Certainly a plan could be implemented with more bite.
I’m realistic enough to know that a lifetime ban on the first offense wouldn’t fly so here’s my proposal:
- 1st offense – 30 day suspension.
- 2nd offense – 1 year suspension.
- 3rd offense – lifetime ban.
It’s a simple 3 strikes and you’re out policy. The punishment for the first offense is strong enough to dissuade the casual user but mild enough to not hurt the team any more than necessary. The punishment for the second offense is obviously quite a bit harsher and forces the player to deal with whatever fallout may occur as a result of a 1-year absence from his team. The third ban is obviously the nail in the coffin that says “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, fool me a third time shame on both of us”. I would also implement a rule that prohibits clauses that plan for contractual issues like what happens if a player missed an incentive as a result of a steroid suspension.
There’s a plan with bite that would go a long way toward mending the public relations fiasco that is going on right now over the steroid issue.
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Quote of the Day
Strikes.
– Los Angeles Dodgers pitching coach Jim Colborn when asked what pitch former Dodger pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii has the most trouble with.
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Ishii On The Way
The trigger has finally been pulled on the much talked about Jason Phillips for Kazuhisa Ishii deal. I said previously that I don’t think Ishii is a significant enough improvement over Matt Ginter to make this deal a good one but my feelings have changed ever so slightly. Though Ishii will be frustrating to watch and keep pitching coah Rick Peterson busy it’s not a bad deal when you can trade a backup catcher, likely to get most of his playing time in day games following night games, for a pitcher who will be out there every 5 days. I still stand by my point that it’s not a significant enough upgrade from Ginter but I appreciate Omar Minaya’s thought process here.
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Albom on Steroids in Baseball
Mitch Albom had a great column in yesterday’s Detroit Free Press in which he compares a players obligation to be weighed with their opposition to be tested for steroids. Very well done.
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Spread Firefox
This weeks interesting non-Mets related link is the Spread Firefox Blog.
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