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Block User"Where ya been son?" they asked.
"Right here. Right where I've always been. Just waiting for the time to be right again. Had to get my head clear and now I think the old skull's screwed on tight".
That's kind of how I imagine a pretend conversation with Jason Giambi's stats could sound later this year. I think he's going to have a good year.
It's a tired old topic. One whose boat I missed in the past few months... and quite frankly... missed intentionally.
Steroids? Ho-hum.
Barry...Raffy...Sammy.... Big Macked...
Hittin'...Homers...Just Cause...They're Jacked...
A-Rod... Jose... Can-Sec... Ole ("O-Lay" for you Spanish-Mexican challenged)
Scratching... Temples... Saying... Oi Vay (You don't speak Yiddish either?)
Go after the big ones if you must but if you ask me most of them cheated. This whol
It's simple math basically. They can change the curriculum... They can increase the standards... They can introduce no child (or cheater) left behind...but let's be real here. There've been plenty of cheaters left behind in baseball's witch-hunt no matter how you count the heads.
Think of entry-level high school truth tables for example. You can change things all you want...You can tell me that Pluto really isn't a planet... You can put slang in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate... Michael Jackson can turn into a child-hating albino for all I care... But when in 
As Yogi Berra (or was it Casey Stengel) once said..."You can look it up".
If that's the case then the following holds true regardless if you're a positive, negative, glass half-full or glass half-empty sort of person:
Juiced up hitters plus juiced up pitchers equals positively fair baseball.
Also...you can't compare eras (as if) due to improvements throughout history in medicine, 
I bet The Babe himself would have taken them if he were around. I'm just not so sure it would have helped the hot dog eating, liquor drinking, womanizing, pot-bellied, American apple pie hero we seldom discuss. Like I said...you can't fairly compare eras.
"Let's get the big fish. Let's make them squirm. We can't get them all but if we get the big ones then the dust from the impact crater will make those commoner dummies forget about the bigger picture. Take it on the chin Roger...Take it to the gut Barry...Take it for the good of the game you guys"...(Bud Selig speaking in his sleep).
You know what? I empathize with Roger and Barry for their perceived lies. Why should they be the fall guys even if they looked a lot skinnier 20 years ago?
I guess they're just being punished for the riches and accolades that records buy. Well screw that...the sentences should be no different for the little guys.
Oh well. I could run in circles all day, which would only serve to make us even dizzier. That's why I suggest we all move on...preferably on the straight and narrow...no more 'roids from here on out... and when the cream of the crop still rises to the top...it will still be the same old baseball it always was. A game of HAVES, HAVE NOTS AND SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN. Barry won't have the home run record for long and Roger isn't the all time leader in WINS, Ks, or ERA so let's get over it shall we?
Which finally brings me to The Giambino...Jason Giambi...The Sultan of Suave...Greasy Looking Hair Product that is. You know...the one steroid guy who actually told the truth...well kind of...at least what they were willing to let us know...I guess he's just not a 
Can you imagine what big news it would have been if Barry or Roger had come AS clean as Giambi?"
STOP THE PRESSES (OR AT LEAST GET THEM WARMED UP)!!!
Like former Arizona Cardinals former head football coach Denny Green once said, "They are what we thought they were!!!". Instead of talking about the Chicago Bears I'm talking about The Giambino's stats.
First of all NO athlete is a total dummy. Sure steroids might enhance performance but every credible source states that the use of steroids definitely increases the risk of injury and/or disease. The players acutely know this so it's not like they "juice 24-7". Chances are they "indulged" when they are either nursing an injury (most common) or looking for a "lil' boost". Giambi's body not only broke down but he also developed a problem with his pituitary gland that correlated with steroid use.
Let's pick an arbitrary number for after all...speculation is rather arbitrary...is it not?
What if during Jason Giambi's 12-
Styles make fights or so I've been told. Try this one on for style. Tonight we get to see "Sugar" Ray Leonard take on Roberto "Hands of Stone" Duran all over again. Except this time the year is 2007. It's the same fight...only the names have been changed and they're not innocent. 
zapping Cotto's chin...Cotto's suspect chin...a couple of times over again...Cotto decided to take the fight to Zab's "little friend"...Far below the belt just wasn't nice...Once wasn't enough so he did it twice. 
Torres had him down twice later that same year. The thing is that Cotto got back up. Wobbly as a weeble but he got back up. Showing great survival instincts he managed to recoup. Came out madder the next round and opened his can of whoop...there it is. Patented punches to the body...whoop there they is. 
Player haters why do you hate? So much gets made out of knocking star athletes, teams or coaches off their lofty, self-created pedestals. The problem is that no matter how many people claim to "hate" these individuals, there's always a fan base ready to step up in their defense. I'm typically the first person to defend just about anyone, but the real reason that some attract so much ire has nothing to do with the standard accusations that we've become accustomed to. 
Besides, if that were the case then we should basically hate every athlete since even most bench warmers make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, if not far more. Nope, that can't be it. 
on sway to his side. Smug is then choosing to make his "opt-out" announcement on the day that the rival Boston Red Sox won a second World Series title and demanding 350 million dollars as the starting point of negotiations. Talk about a fleeting moment of renewed popularity. 
The ensuing history regarding the "rift that would not be spoken of" was easier to track from then on. It was still 2001 and Rodriguez had his sights set on an up and coming Latina singer by the name of Joy Enriquez. It's alleged that he went out of his way to meet her. The problem is that she also wound up meeting Jeter, his notorious partner-in-Wine & Dine. That is where the story got really good. According to sources, the sexy Enriquez was more interested in Jeter than she was A-Rod. As a result it was Jeter she wound up dating, which was likely a damaging blow to Rodriguez's fragile ego. Kind of like Marcia and Jan Brady from The Brady Bunch, I can see Alex stomping his foot whining "DEREK...DEREK...DEREK!!!" 
women like an express train through a subway tunnel. Championship rings were collected as easily as ring-pops. His face was the most recognizable in all of baseball even if he wasn't even close to being its best player. All A-Rod did was put up huge numbers while getting significantly less exposure and publicity. He was yet another great player, stuck in a smallish market, that most people rarely got to see in action. 
hated A-Rod they lusted for him. The feeling was mutual. He wanted a chance to play for a winner and rightfully so. This also provided another opportunity to get back at Jeter by playing for the hated rival of the Yankees. Alex even tried to give some of his contract back to sweeten the deal (Tell me he wasn't obsessed). Unfortunately for him the greedy players' association put the kibosh on his trade to Boston. Sawx fans would later claim they never wanted him in the first place (yeah right... but I guess it all worked out). 
t over from third base to play second. Instantly their infield has arguably the greatest regular season player in history, the slickest shortstop in all of baseball (Jose Reyes) and the best hitting second baseman in the game this side of Philadelphia's Chase Utley. Don't think for a second that David Wright cannot physically make the transition or that he would be unwilling to do so. He is a great athlete and a true team player. 
if he keeps coming up with post-season clunkers he'll be forced to continue living the equivalent of a modern day Greek Tragedy. Mets fans will be sure to take care of that too. The great "hero"...destined to meet with perpetual doom and gloom. And to think it all started out like Helen of Troy except this time her name was Joy and she was from Latin America. 
thousands of people can resort to revisionist history to suit themselves. 
Ask yourself this. Why is it that the majority of people who now defend Joe Torre are not fans or even followers of the Yankees? I may not have conducted a Gallup poll but I do know LOTS of Yankees fans. Most of the ones I know aren't disappointed to see Joe go. Sad perhaps but not angry. Somebody will no doubt tell me that these Yankees fans are not upset to see him leave because Yankees fans are... and always have been... total A-Holes. Yeah, that's a great argument...but bring it if that's all you got. Besides, that would only serve to reinforce my point about the blind hatred of all things Yankee that so many have. 
common perception of Joe Torre was that he was not an elite manager and that a monkey could lead the club. The team had great players and anything they were lacking could be easily attained using their vast finances. All Torre had to do was kick up his feet, get caught picking his nose on camera at least twice a game, collect his check and enjoy the ride. The Yankees were the Evil Empire, they were "ruining" baseball by winning all the time and it had nothing to do with the ability of "Clueless Joe" (their words not mine).
The fact that so many Yankees players spoke up for Torre should surprise no one. For Jeter, Posada and Rivera he is practically the only manager they have ever known. They briefly played for Buck Showalter in 1995 but that was as late season call-ups. Other players would support him too. Why wouldn't they? He doesn't get on their backs when they play poorly and he lets them do their thing. He's an emotional fatherly figure with a kind heart. How could they dislike him? They certainly wouldn't blame him, nor should they have. 
separates an elite manager from an average one such as Torre. People only remember this next point when it's convenient, but so much of achieving success in any sport is mental. The elite coaches are the ones who can provide their teams with an edge where it matters most. That would be in their heads. This ability is lacking in Torre and it always has been. It just got covered up during the early years of his tenure with New York. The team won 4 World Series in spite of Joe Torre, not because of him. The real leader was Paul O' Neill. For all intents and purposes he was virtually a player manager. Paul led by example on the field and in the clubhouse. It's no coincidence that the fire has been missing since he retired. 
players to field an elite level team year after year. They made him the highest paid manager in professional baseball...AND despite knowing better they still made him an offer to come back next season. An offer they knew he might refuse...but an offer that would have still kept him the most highly compensated manager in the sport by far. Just because it was a one-year deal that implied, "this is your last chance to win it all", doesn't change the fact the Torre is the one who decided to leave. Point blank, the Yankees provided him with the opportunity to enjoy the best 12 years of his managerial life.