I have been following the MLB performance enhancing drug usage scandal as much, well maybe not as much, as anyone. I read and listened to the Marion Jones debacle and shrugged my shoulders and bowed my head. I remember when Ben Johnson lost his status in the track world for using outlawed drugs and did much the same thing. I firmly believe that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were using performance enhancing drugs when they went on their homerun barrage that helped return the fan to MLB. I also firmly believe that Bud Selig and Donald Fehr knew about it and didn't do anything constructive about it. MLB and the MLBPA have to be responsible enough to step up to the plate and accept responsiblity for this ugly mess we have in MLB. And it starts with their respective leadership. Instead of casting stones at one another they have to put that behind them come to some kind of agreement on what is banned and what and when testing should be done. It is something they have to agree upon and I, personally, think it is the only way baseball will ever get past the steroid era.

I am sick and tired of hearing Bud Selig sound like the tough guy now after he turned a silent ear and eye to this issue when the power hitters were filling the seats again. This guy is a sham and should be considered as such. Here is the tough guy on the result of the Mitchell Report which he authorized on March 30, 2006.

"I haven't seen the report yet, but I'm proud I did it." - a comment on December 12, 2007 the day before the report was made public.

Selig referred to the Mitchell Report as "a call to action. And I will act."

"Discipline of players and others identified in this report will be determined on a case-by-case basis. If warranted, those decisions will be made swiftly." - another comment made by Selig as a result of the Mitchell Report.

Is Fehr an innocent here? Not hardly, but you know what, he knows it. In his press conference regarding the Mitchell Report Fehr accepted some responsibilty for the steroid problem in MLB. At the same time he voiced his concern for the players named in it and how they would be treated by the league. Was Fehr wrong to issue to the players the following statement regarding their cooperation with Mitchell? "While Senator Mitchell pledges in his memo that he will honor any player request for confidentiality in his report, he does not pledge, because he cannot pledge, that any information you provide will actually remain confidential and not be disclosed without your consent. For example, Senator Mitchell cannot promise that infromation you disclose will not be given to a federal or state prosecutor, a Congressional committee, or even turned over in a private lawsuit in response to a request or a subpoena."

The Mitchell Report, authorized by Bud Selig, focused on players using and did not investigate the role teams played. The Mitchell Report claimed that the MLBPA was "largely uncooperative." Can't imagine why. Hadn't the MLBPA agreed to anonymous testing in 2003 only to find out that anonymous went out the window when the names of those who tested positive appeared in government documents during the BALCO investigation. How could that have happened, Bud? And why did Mitchell give Selig an advance copy of the report but not the MLBPA? Jason Giambi was interviewed by Mitchell because of his history and comments regarding steroid usage. He was also threatened with discipline by Big Bad Bud.

So, who do you believe? Bud and MLB or Donald and the MLBPA? Do you believe Roger and Barry or do you believe Kimberly Bell and Brian McNamee? Do you believe the 89 players who weren't supposed to be named in the Mitchell Report, but were, or do you believe a couple of guys who wrote a book about steroid usage in MLB? I don't know. I have such a hard time with it and apparently the lying isn't only in MLB.

Imagine how shocked I was when Robert Irvine, the culinary star of "Dinner:Impossible" on the Food Network disclosed that he kind of "cooked up" some of the stuff on his resume. Like he never really cooked for the Royal Family or various U.S. Presidents. His response..."I am truly sorry for misleading people and misstating the facts." Really? The Food Network's response...it won't be renewing his contract. How about that...simple and easy. He lied and now he will fry.

And then there is Margaret B. Jones who had her critically acclaimed memoir, "Love and Consequences" published last week. Margaret had a rough life being half white and half American Indian growing up in South Central Los Angeles as a foster child hanging with gang####ers and running drugs with the Bloods. Sounds rough doesn't it? Guess what...it ain't true. Maragret B. Jones is actually Margaret Seltzer who is all white and grew up in well to do Sherman Oaks, CA. Didn't hang with gang####ers and probably wouldn't know a Blood from a Crip or a red crayon. Her response..."For whatever reason, I was really torn and I thought it was my opportunity to put voice to people who don't get listened to," she said. "Maybe it's an ego thing...I don't know. I just felt that there was good that I could do and there was no other way that someone would listen to it." Her publisher's reponse. Recalled all copies of the book and has cancelled her book tour. Simple and right to the point. Bingo. You lied...you stay home and put roses between the pages of all the copies of your never to be read book.

So, do any of you think MLB and the MLBPA could ever get to satisfactory justice the quick and easy way? Hell no! Neither is willing to make the kind of concessions necessary. Fehr will continue to be a stalwart for the players and until they direct him to make changes and find a peaceful middle ground nothing constructive will happen on their end. And as long as Allan "Bud" Selig is the commissioner of MLB the ego driven attitude of its leadership will never be willing to admit any responsibility for this sad part of MLB. Selig is more than willing to jump to the front when it comes to accepting accolades for increased attendance and revenues. He is more than willing to jump all over the accolades that come with establishing International play. He is more than willing to take credit for the success of Wild cards and the playoff format and interleague play. And, maybe he should. But it ain't all it seems Bud. You have to take the good with the bad. You are the presiding leader of MLB during what could arguably be called it's greatest scandal. And you ain't lily white in this deal.

Sadly, in MLB, on the Food Network and in certain literary pages, nobody is who or what they appear to be. I suppose it is like that all around us. So why do we let the baseball thing get us where we turn into something other than what we really are? Or is this really the worst thing going on around us now? Is this really what should be taking up our news pages and our Congress and FBI's efforts on a daily basis? Can't they just say that if you used these drugs you are done? Can't they just say that if you lied about it you are done? You know, as much as I cannot stand the hypocrisy of the Court of Public Opinion I think in some cases I would appreciate the expediency with which these kinds of things are dealt with. It hasn't been proven that Barry Bonds used these drugs or even lied about it but the COPO (Court of Public Opinion) has determined he is guilty. Barry...you're fired. Roger hasn't admitted using them and any evidence against him is...well...curious at best. But the COPO says he is guilty as hell. Roger...you're fired. The 89 guys in the Mitchell Report...sorry fellas...you're fired. Donald Fehr...you're fired. Hey Bud, this Buds for you and...you're fired...twice! 

Maybe it really is time to shut off the television and cancel the newspaper subscription. Now ain't that a sad state of affairs.

 

And that's the bottom line...

BOOMER SOONER!!!

Information used in this post came from the Tuesday, March 4, 2007 of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and from MLB.com and wikipedia (yea, whatever!)

Now that the high school hockey season, at least for my teams, is over I find myself with a lot of time on my hands. And now that the school I work at finally hired a full-time teacher to take over for the teacher we lost around Thanksgiving I have the same dilemna...a lot of time on my hands. So what is there to do with all of this newly received gift of time. I have random thoughts. Not important thoughts really. Just random! How random?

I read the other day that MLB has had record shattering attendance in each of the past four years. And I wondered why? You know with all of the negative #### going on I randomly wondered how MLB could have record attendance year in and year out. So I checked. In 2004, the first year of record attendance in MLB, 73,022,969 people went to a MLB game. In 2005, 74,926,174 people did the same. In 2006, 76,043,902 people left their hoes and ventured out to the MLB stadium of choice (or not) and watched a bal game. In 2007 MLB attendance rose 4.1% and 79,502,524 people went to a ball game of the MLB variety. Yea, more and more people are going to MLB games than ever before. MLB credits the rise in attendance to increased competitive balance brought on by economic reforms of the last decade. The winning percentges of all teams were within the .600 to .400 range. By the way all of these numbers come from MLB.com so it ain't like I racked my brain to come up with them. Then I came upon things like this. For only the SECOND time in MLB history all teams winning percentages were in this range. So, it happened before. The 2007 season is the first one SINCE 1988 in which no division winner repeated. So, it happened before. HMMMMMM!!! And yet the past 4 years have shown record attendance increases.

"The immensity of this record is staggering, and it serves as a perfect illustration of the passion and excitement for the game that exists across the entire Major League Baseball landscape," Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig said. "Our sport has reached heights that were unimaginable only a few years ago. By any measure, this is truly a golden age for Major League Baseball." - comment on record breaking attendance on 10/2/2007

Random thought! Those heights were considered unimaginable only a few yers ago...why? Could it be that MLB was losing fans because of things like All-Star game tie, no World Series, Contraction issues, Conflict of Interest talk regarding Commissioner/Owner Selig, embezzlement convictions of Selig and Montreal Expos owner during or around contraction era...among other things. And what made them imaginable and obtainable? Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chasing HR records while on performance enhancing drugs. Peak interest in the game...return fans to seats...records being broken right and left. Yea, baby. And in the conference rooms and board rooms whispers of these performance enhancing drugs and their usage was being disregarded by Selig and others. Bad Bud has commented on this situation numerous times always attempting to separate himself from any responsibilty. HMMMMM!

Another random thought! How can he consider this a "golden age in Major League Baseball" in light of all of the MLB players accused of using PED's and with Congress and the FBI involved in investigating these same players. I mean it ain't like the attendance records are making the nightly news...NIGHTLY!

Latest random thought! I think Bud likes the media circus in every park that surrounds every team in MLB with regard to PED's and their usage. Keeps his sport in the media spotlight day in and day out! And as long as he can throw up other stuff (record attendance) as a smokescreen to shield his initial neglect of this problem then I guess I can see how he thinks this is a "golden era" for MLB. That or he has Pee'd all over it for so long it has taken on a permanent golden glow.

Another random thought...this may or may not end this random thought process.

Ya'll knew this was coming, didn't you? And I'm not going to let you wait. Today the NCAA, in response to the Rhett "Mr. Selfish" Bomar incident, passed down it's decision on the actions to be taken against the Oklahoma Sooners football program. ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?

Bomar, offensive lineman J.D. Quinn and walk-on Jermaine Hardison were all found to have accepted pay from a car dealership for hours worked...when they weren't even there. Hell, Hardison supposedly was on the clock at Big Red Sports and Imports when he was involved in a scrimmage and a spring game. Nice gig if you can get it...and not get caught. Alas, they did get caught and immediately upon being caught "in a deliberate scheme to deceive both the employer's payroll system and the university's employment monitoring system in an attempt to violate NCAA rules of which they were very aware," head coach Bob Stoops dismissed them from the team. They also banned the booster, Brad McRae, their "supervisor" at the dealership from being involved with Sooner athletics in any way until at least 2011. Bad Brad was approving those time cards all the time.

So, the football program finds this out and kicks the offending players off the team (they all subsequently left OU), reports the infractions to the NCAA and self imposes sanctions on their program like reducing the number of coaches they will send out on the recruiting trail in the Fall. In reporting the sanctions today, interim chairman of the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions Paul Dee, who is also the athletic director at the University of Miami (who OU plays on September 8 at Norman, I believe), stated that Oklahoma should be praised for quickly dismissing the players from the team, calling that action "very influential on the committee." I would like Dee to spell out his definition of "very influential." This follows up, or leads, the NCAA report that "although this case centered on a few violations involving three student athletes, the committee finds this case to be significant and serious for several reasons." The report then refers to the length of time of the violations and the proximity in time that OU had been in front of the committee in April of 2006 because of then head Men's Basketball coach Kelvin Sampson's recruiting and phone calling violations in that program. So, this isn't all about the football program, or Bob Stoops (maybe it is), or three student athletes who put themselves before the program or the kids who did nothing wrong and have to pay the NCAA's high price. This is about the NCAA making a stand...flexing it's way too arrogant muscle.

When Sampson's program was investigated the NCAA, for the most part, accepted OU's self imposed sanctions of less scholarships, less recruiting calls and trips and visits to the school by perspective recruits. Sampson left OU for Indiana with a little slap on the wrist while OU still got hammered. Nice move Kelvin. And now that the football program is in the NCAA's high beams...they aren't going to be very forgiving. Both infractions have been "failure to monitor" violations. Hey, at least it ain't the death penalty (can you say SMU?)! But it still stinks. And there are a few reasons it stinks.

1.) It stinks because in both cases the violations of NCAA rules were commited by people who got a slap on the wrist and aren't even there anymore. Sampson took his slap on the wrist about too many calls to recruits and went to Indiana. Yea, the hallowed Hoosiers. Okay, that hasn't been the case since Bobby Knight left town but it is a school rich in basketball tradition. Slap his wrist and he lands a sweet job. Bomar and Quinn never batted an eyelash at this thing. Bomar's dad was hooking his golden boy up at Sam Houston BEFORE he packed his bags on the way out of the dorm at OU. Through the athletic department there Rhett offered up the standard "no comment" to the announced sanctions at his former school today. At least Quinn was a little more communicative. He offered up a "it sucks" followed by a "I couldn't care less" about the sanctions. Thanks boys for all the support.

2.) It stinks because there are still a lot of student athletes at OU who have to deal with this. In announcing the university's intention to appeal OU President David Boren said, "Above all we do not believe that erasing the 2005 season from the record books is fair to the over 100 student athletes and coaches who played by the rules and worked their hearts out for a successful season that year." This is the price one pays for dedicating yourself to a school and showing loyalty to it. A few morons ruin the ride for so many.

3.) It stinks because ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME what good does taking away OU's 8 victories in 2005 do...for anyone? Bomar's and Quinn's records will be wiped from the record books at OU. Wow...big deal! Stoops loses 8 wins off of his record. This is the guy who dismissed the players immediately upon hearing of their transgressions. Do the right thing...and get hammered for it. Oh, and for all of you Stoops detractors out there who will whine and complain that Stoops is cryin' over this and can't get past it...I got this for ya.

David Boren, OU's President, has stated that OU will appeal the NCAA's findings and seek to reinstate the 8 victories. Before anybody gets all riled up, this is the same David Boren who demanded that the Oregon game last year not count, like it had never been played. But this situation is different. But I digress. For the Stoops detractors..."Our current team is focused on the upcoming season. The university is dealing with a matter that relates to the 2005 season. This group of players and those that will join our program later have no reason to be concerned about our goals or the direction of our program. Those things remain unchanged. We remain a program that is concentrated on winning championships and my expectation is that we will compete on that level for many years." - Oklahoma Sooner head football coach Bob Stoops in response to NCAA announcement on July 11, 2007. Oh, and by the way, he strongly supports Borens intent to appeal.

4.) It stinks because as Pete Fiutak says, there is a lot of things that need to change if you take away OU's 8 victories that year. Nebraska would win the Big 12 North in 2005, not Colorado based on OU's forfeiture of it's 31-24 win the Huskers end up 5-3 and based on the 30-3 pasting of the Buffaloes Nebraska would be the Big 12 North champion. Texas, then, by the same logic, didn't beat the Big 12 North champion that year and therefore can't be considered the National Champion. Baylor goes bowl hunting at 6-5 and so does K-State and Texas A & M all at 6-5. Why do these programs still get nothing but OU gets to keep the money it received for beating Oregon in it's bowl game that year?

Leave it up to the NCAA to make a ruling that does nothing but set a bad precedent. But that is the arrogance of the NCAA. We can make this assinine decision because we are the NCAA and who cares what you think. And, no, we don't have to explain our thought process to you (basically because we aren't quite sure what it is ourselves). We are we and we are the NCAA, so screw you. Whatever! Two less scholarships a year becomes problematic if you run into a serious wave of injuries, people quit or people go NFL early (can you say Adrian Peterson or, possibly, Malcolm Kelly). Adding 2 more years to double secret probation is, well...its 2 more years to double secret probation. OU has changed the policies of their compliance office and moved it into the general counsel's offices. Maybe, instead of doing something as nonsensical as taking away 8 Sooner wins, arbitrarily with no concern for other programs that in all reality should now be compensated, the NCAA should have demanded the firing of the head compliance person at OU. Naw, it still wouldn't have been enough. The NCAA has to put their imprint on it. Kind of like MLB.

Stoops dismisses transgressors immediately and gets hit with sanctions. Jason Giambi says a few words about steroid usage and Big Bad Bud Selig says let's investigate Giambi. Its #### like this that really make people want to come forward. I place the NCAA in the same category as Selig who has the power to do the right thing in so many situations but continually find ways to "screw the pooch" so to speak.

So there you have it. If every step of the appeal process is followed it could take up to 6 months to sort it out. All imposed sanctions are manditorily stayed until a final decision is reached. Makes recruiting for next year a bit interesting no  matter how you look at it. Four scholarships in 2 years...ok. Removing games and players stats is just wrong. If you remove the 8 wins from Stoops' record and take Bomars freshman QB records away...how many yards did Adrian Peterson rush for? How many tackles did Rufus Alexander have?  Does Zach Latimer has to give up the interception he made to end Oregon's final drive? Maybe it is a good thing this ruling came down today. Rufus may have never been drafted if his 2005 season stats had to be removed...or at least 8 games of them.

And that's the bottom line...

Go Sooners

Excerpts and quotes from Associated Press, FoxSports and Scout.com