The Bud and Donald show heads to Capitol Hill for hearings on steroids.
Some folks get to choose their teams, while some are thrust upon them. Football, for me, is a sport where my teams were driven into my heart at an early age, and there's nothing I can do about it. For better or worse, I'm stuck with the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Cleveland Browns. Being a Browns fan has been a tough road. Memories of John Fucking Elway and Ernest Fucking Byner still can drive me to distraction. And then there was Art Fucking Modell tearing out a city's heart when he moved the team to Baltimore. I was at Sports Illustrated at the time, and ended up working on the story, which would have been easier if I could have kept from crying.
The Browns have a new quarterback today, having signed Jeff Garcia, who was let go by the San Francisco 49ers. This means the Browns have officially given up on Tim Couch, who was supposed to be the franchise when he was the reborn Browns first pick in 1999.
Couch deserved better than he got from Cleveland fans -- the memory of some fans cheering when he got hurt sickens me as much as those memories of Elway and Byner. But I understand the frustration that they have expressed with Couch. Cleveland has lived and died with the Browns for so long, and had very little reward to show for it.
Garcia is a good QB, and he's got speed that Couch could only dream of. I think it's a good signing. If nothing else, it's enough to get me excited about Cleveland's chances in 2004, which I haven't been for a while.
Running off an undefeated season in any sport takes a combination of a lot of talent and more than a little luck. That's what Stanford and St. Joe's have put together this season, as both teams are one win away from an undefeated regular season. Stanford has pulled out a couple of games at the buzzer, including a 3-pointer to beat Washington State last night. I'm loving watching these two teams -- it's a great story for college basketball. Here's hoping that the two teams make it through the tournament and meet in the final.
The San Francisco Chronicle has been doing the best reporting in the country on the ongoing BALCO case, and this morning, they come up with a very carefully worded bombshell: Authorities Were Told that Bonds Got Steroids.
San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, New York Yankees stars Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield and three other major-league baseball players received steroids from a Burlingame nutritional supplement lab, federal investigators were told.The baseball stars allegedly got the illegal performance-enhancing drugs from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative through Greg Anderson, Bonds' personal weight trainer and longtime friend, according to information furnished the government and shared with The Chronicle.
In addition to Bonds, Giambi and Sheffield, the other baseball players said to have received steroids from BALCO via Anderson were two former Giants, outfielder Marvin Benard and catcher Benito Santiago, and a former A's second baseman, Randy Velarde.
It's surprising to me that it's taken this long for this sort of leak from the federal investigation into steroid use--I would have imagined this sort of story appearing months ago. You know the Chron waited until they felt like they had it nailed, and you'll notice that they aren't actually reporting that Bonds et al. used steroids. They're reporting that investigators were told that they received steroids, which isn't the same thing at all.
Later in the story, we get some details of how and what federal agents where told:
Internal Revenue Service investigator Jeff Novitzky wrote that while agents were searching Anderson's home on Sept. 3, the trainer allegedly told them the names of the ballplayers to whom he had provided illegal performance- enhancing substances.
"Anderson admitted that he had given steroids to several professional baseball players whose names I was familiar with from my review of other documents in this case," Novitzky wrote. Another IRS investigator, Brian Watson, wrote that Conte, the BALCO president, had made a "confession" to illegal steroid dealing to elite athletes. That also came on Sept. 3, after agents had raided BALCO and Conte's San Mateo home.
I'm guessing that the Chronicle has these documents in hand, and has at least two investigators confirming the names that they've run with--that's the minimum I'd want to run this story.
All along, federal investigators have insisted that this case isn't about trying to get athletes, but those who deal in steroids. But there's no way that this case is going to move forward without some serious impact on athletes. They might have been granted immunity for their grand jury testimony, but that's not going to help them with their sport, or in the court of public opinion.
I still think that sometime soon, we'll see one of these players come forward and say that they might have taken steroids, but that they didn't know what they were being given by Conte and the other BALCO defendants. Admittedly, that stance is getting harder and harder to imagine, especially as Bonds, Giambi, and Sheffield have all vehemently denied using steroids. It should be a hell of a day in Tampa and Scottsdale, that's for sure.
Some interesting statements from attourneys of two men charged in the BALCO steroid case: according to them, Barry Bonds turned down steroids that were offered to him by their clients.
"Barry Bonds never took anything illegal. He declined to take any of these illegal substances," said Tony Serra, the attorney for Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson.Serra said Bonds "was offered substances via the schedule," referring to a calendar seized in a search of Anderson's home that listed doses and scheduling of substances taken by the athletes he trains.
In other news, Jeff Kent wonders if players were clean in the past.
While I'm no fan of Bush's foreign policy, here's one good outcome of the war in Iraq. A new Iraqi Olympic Committee has been establish, and recognized by the IOC. The previous committee, under the leadership of Saddam Hussein's son Odai, tortured and beat athletes who didn't perform as well as hoped.
Dusty Baker thinks that hunt for steroids in baseball is the new McCarthyism.
Get ready to read a few dozen versions of this story during spring training. Apparently, Jason Giambi looks thinner this year, and that leads, inevitably to questions about steroids.
It's no secret that Major League Baseball has a marketing problem. Last year, a group of reporters was talking to A's manager Ken Macha, who was discussing the exciting games that the A's had been in recently. "What are you doing now, Mach? Marketing the game?" asked one of the writer.
"Somebody has to," I said under my breath, which managed to crack up the assembled scribes, as well as Macha.
Anyway, a good story on ESPN by a marketing executive on how MLB could do a better job selling the sport. I'm on board with everything here, especially the notion that Bud Selig has got to go. He does come across, as the story says, as a "scold," and that's no good for the game's image.
No, that's not the NFL Network that the league started earlier this year, it's the Football Network. Jerry Solomon, former sports agent, and Nancy Kerrigan's husband, launched the network to cover the world of football, and hired Pat Summerall to be the voice of the network. Unfortunately, they couldn't get picked up by cable systems, and they've shut down for now. There's a good story in the NY Times on the pitfalls and perils of trying to start a sports network that required reading for anyone wondering how the TV business is really run.
According to documents relesased today, Greg Anderson told federal agents that he distributed steroids to several professional baseball players. Anderson, who is Barry Bonds' personal trainer, is one of four men who face federal charges stemming from the ongoing BALCO grand-jury investigation in San Francisco. It doesn't take a huge leap to go from Bonds' trainer admitting that he gave steroids to players to thinking that one of those players is Bonds. You have to imagine that as the pressure on this mounts that Bonds will need to say something, whether it is to deny that he took steroids, or to possibly claim that he was given steroids by Anderson without his knowledge.
I hope against hope that Bonds didn't take steroids--he's long been my favorite player, and I'm in awe of his accomplishments. But as more information comes out, I'm less and less sure.
I'm not sure the point that Murray Chass is making in today's New York Times. In his column, he argues that Major League Baseball and the player's union should fight a federal subpoena issued by the BALCO grand jury that seeks to get the results of baseball's steroid testing last year. He also seems to argue that some players should just come out and admit their steroid use. And, he implies that Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa are on steroids. This issue is one that produces a ton of fuzzy thinking and writing, but I'd like to think the Times and Chass could do better. There's no reason that the MLB testing results shouldn't be fair game for subpoena, except to save baseball from embarrassment. To argue anything else is to apologize for baseball's ongoing drug problem, and I don't think anyone want to be doing that.
After months of grand jury hearing, indictments were handed down today in the steroid investigation involving the Bay Area Lab Cooperative. Victor Conte, the president of BALCO, and James J. Valente, the lab's vice president were names, along with Greg Anderson, and Remi Korchemny, a track coach.
Anderson is Barry Bonds' personal trainer. Bonds, along with a dozen other athletes testified in the case. No athletes are named in the indictment.
According to the AP:
The charges include conspiracy to distribute steroids, possession of human growth hormone, misbranding drugs with intent to defraud and money laundering.
According to the indictment, the four were involved in the scheme between December 2001 and Sept. 3, 2003, in which steroids were distributed to athletes on six different occasions.
No surprises here, but the NFL is asking for an immediate stay of the ruling in the Maurice Clarett case, pending their appeal. To be granted a stay, the league must prove that they would suffer irreparable harm if the ruling isn't put on hold. According to the Times:
In its motion, the league argued that if the Clarett decision were allowed to stand, there would be "immediate, fundamental and profound adverse consequences" for the league, teams, undergraduate players and even veteran N.F.L. players who may lose their jobs as teams consider the additional underclassmen available in the draft.
Frankly, I don't think the NFL has a leg to stand on here. Despite what the league thinks, this is a genie that can be put back in the bottle if they somehow win on appeal (which I don't think they will). Clarett could be in the league, but it's not as if we've heard of a flood of underclassmen preparing to enter the draft.
Incidentally, Clarett has indicated through his attorney that he will formally declare for the draft if the stay is denied, and that he's planning on attending the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis next week. That is going to be one scrutinized workout.
Update: The NFL lost their attempt to get the ruling stayed, with the judge rejecting their arguments.
Over at the New York Times, their longtime national baseball writer Murray Chass weighs in on the possibility of a Baseball World Cup, basically arguing that if Major League Baseball can't reach an agreement with the international federation, they should run a World Cup on their own:
Drug testing, as dictated by the sanctimonious satraps of the sports and drug worlds, is not the ultimate element that rules athletes. Just because it's done for the Olympics doesn't mean it has to be done for everything and everyone else.
As the players union points out, its members have rights, too. If they want to negotiate away their rights, that's their right. They did that to some extent in the 2002 labor negotiations with management.
The self-appointed, self-important observers who have criticized the baseball drug-testing agreement have a right to their opinion, but that's all it is, an opinion. They cannot dictate to baseball or its players the kind of drug testing they should employ.
I'm not sure that I buy Murray's argument here. I'm no fan of the world of international sports federations, with their petty despots ruling from on high. But I do think there's value in integrating MLB into an international framework, and not coming off like the high-handed ruler dictating to peons.
Oakland assistant GM Paul DePodesta outlines how he thinks, and how he and the A's challenged traditional thinking in baseball, at the Credit Suisse First Boston Thought Leader Forum.
Maurice Clarett, the former Ohio State star running back, has won the first round of his court battle with the National Football League. A U.S. District Court judge ruled that the NFL rule banning players from the Draft until three years after their graduation from high school is illegal under anti-trust law, and that Clarett, who graduated in 2001, should be allowed to enter the draft. On the face of it, the legal issues here are clear cut. Clearly, excluding a class of players from eligibility for employment due solely to their age is a violation of anti-trust law. In fact, the entire draft is likely a violation of anti-trust law -- players have to play for the team who drafted them, or they cannot play in the league at all. The NFL argues that the Draft has been collectively bargained with the player's union, and that's true, but the union isn't negotiating on the behalf of players who aren't in the league already.
The NFL will fight this -- they've already vowed an appeal. But unless they find a judge who is willing to put emotion before the law, they'll lose. What we see in the NBA is what we'll see in the NFL, with high schoolers entering the draft. Which is as it should be, legally.
Listening to John Madden this morning on KCBS, I found myself agreeing with a point he made (not a common occurrence). He said that the current system assumes that every football player will go to college, and therefore forces guys to go to college even if they have no business doing so. We don't expect great musicians or actors to go to college before they can play or act. The talent and ability is what we measure.
Of course, none of this means that it's actually a good idea that 18-year-olds can play in the NFL. Frankly, 99.999% of them don't have the physical maturity and strength to do so. But the simple fact of being 18 shouldn't prevent them from taking a shot.
One of the first posts on this blog was about the rumors of a Baseball World Cup that was being planned for March 2005. Now, that story has collided with another story I've been following here -- the ongoing efforts of the World Anti-Doping Agency to get all Olympic sports onboard with their testing guidelines. Baseball, internationally, has signed on with WADA. But the Major Leagues have their own drug testing policies, which don't sync with WADA's.
Which leads to this: A possible Baseball World Cup could be scuttled if Major League Baseball won't do more stringent drug testing. Specifically, Cuba will not participate in such a tournament without IBAF, the international baseball federation, sanction. Japan has also indicated that it would prefer the tournament to take place under the IBAF, and not MLB.
Of course, MLB could just run a tournament on their own, without teams from Japan or Cuba, but that would be a damn shame. It would also be a shame not to have a Baseball World Cup at all, since such an event would be a huge boost for the game internationally, not to mention a ton of fun to watch.
Given the player's union's stance on drug testing (they don't want it), this could be a hell of a fight.
Michael Young won a gold medal in Sydney as a member of the US 4 x 400 meter relay team, a team that was anchored by Michael Johnson. Young also tested positive for steroids in 1999, but was cleared to run by USA Track and Field. But now, the IOC is demanding records on Young's case, and there is the distinct possibility that the US team will be stripped of their gold because of Young's participation.
Is this fair? It seems that stripping medals from competitors who did nothing wrong because USATF screwed up is harsh justice at best, and no justice at all at worst.