myopiclunacy.com

I must admit - I was surprised at the long list of names:

Brady Anderson, Manny Alexander, Rick Ankiel, Jeff Bagwell, Barry Bonds, Aaron Boone, Rafael Betancourt, Bret Boone, Milton Bradley, David Bell, Dante Bichette, Albert Belle, Paul Byrd, Wil Cordero, Ken Caminiti, Mike Cameron, Ramon Castro, Jose Canseco, Ozzie Canseco, Roger Clemens, Paxton Crawford, Wilson Delgado, Lenny Dykstra, Johnny Damon…

…Carl Everett, Kyle Farnsworth, Ryan Franklin, Troy Glaus, Rich Garces, Jason Grimsley, Juan Gonzalez, Eric Gagne, Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi, Jose Guillen, Jay Gibbons, Juan Gonzalez, Clay Hensley, Jerry Hairston, Felix Heredia, Jr., Darren Holmes, Wally Joyner, Darryl Kile, Matt Lawton, Raul Mondesi, Mark McGwire, Guillermo Mota, Robert Machado, Damian Moss, Abraham Nunez…

…Trot Nixon, Jose Offerman, Andy Pettitte, Mark Prior, Neifi Perez, Rafael Palmiero, Albert Pujols, Brian Roberts, Juan Rincon, John Rocker, Pudge Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Scott Schoenweiss, David Segui, Alex Sanchez, Gary Sheffield, Miguel Tejada, Julian Tavarez, Fernando Tatis, Maurice Vaughn, Jason Varitek, Ismael Valdez, Matt Williams, Kerry Wood.

But I’m glad someone finally exposed Roger Clemens for the testosterone-shooting roider that he is.

Maybe now these myopic baseball fans who want to string up and asterisk Barry Bonds as the lone gunman will now see that the entire sport is on roids and that it’s the era that needs exposing, not just one guy. I’ve already heard people criticizing the report for being too light on specific situations or not taking into account the people who slipped through the cracks. Hello?? The union prevented the players from talking! Way to go guys - continue to circle the wagons and drive the sport into the ground. Real baseball fans should see this as a positive and should thank Jose Canseco (a Hall of Famer in my eyes) for exposing the truth because if it weren’t for his book, nothing would have been done.

BTW - I heard that Canseco tried to get into the press conference where they revealed the report, but was turned away. C’mon - let the father see his baby! Now - I’m going to read the only Mitchell Report I care about.

Good Reading over at SVP Style on what should happen, why nothing will happen, and other random thoughts.

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No shit. President Bush had something to do with this:

If you were down with LBS going back a few months, you know that I was all over the upcoming indictment of Bonds. I said the feds were getting close to indicting him back in July, and also speculated that President Bush could have had something to do with it. For quite some time, I’ve had the inkling that Bonds was going to get indicted, and that Major League Baseball knew it was coming as well. All those questions about Bud Selig being reluctant to attend Barry’s record-breaking game? It’s because Selig didn’t want to be associated with a player guilty of federal crimes.

You know - as long as they come down on all the other roid users I’m fine with it. Even if it’s just some misdemeanor that they plead out of - as long as it’s on their record. The problem with singling out and only acting on one person is that it makes the issue seem as if it was ONLY about that one person. If Bush and all the headline seekers are only interested in hanging the big fish then I’d say that’s typical politics. But for the game of baseball to not follow up hard on this is quite frankly sad.

The other thing that bothers me about this is that Bush owned the Texas Rangers at the time Jose Canseco was there being “The God Father of Roids.” You’re telling me that as an owner he knew nothing about what was going on behind the scenes? That’s the biggest lie in the world. I’d expect that from a shady guy like Bush since I’ve seen his body of work over the past 7 years, but if Baseball is really serious about cleaning itself up, it can’t keep pulling the wool over it’s own eyes. The cheaters will always be ahead of the drug testers. Another reason why baseball sucks.

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Tennis starlet Martina Hingis and Eagles head coach Andy Reid may both be seeing the end of the line - and both because of drugs.

Reid has almost always managed to put a good product on the field. But after last season, and on the same day, 2 of his sons were arrested - and not on the first time. Now it seems both will spend more than a year in jail. And of course a publicity seeking judge was there to pile on

A judge who sentenced Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid’s sons to jail on Thursday likened the coach’s home to “a drug emporium” and questioned whether his adult sons should live there.

“There isn’t any structure there that this court can depend upon,” Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill said before sentencing 22-year-old Britt Reid to up to 23 months in jail plus probation.

“I’m saying this is a family in crisis,” O’Neill said.

Then there’s the Swiss Miss. She dominated women’s tennis for a period in the late 90’s and had to retire early because of injuries to her leg. She started a comeback but it seems to have abruptly ended both on news of her retirement and of a positive test for cocaine.

Hingis then asked the reporter whether he thought she could get back close to the top. “Only if you are 100 percent committed, because the way things sound from you now, you already have one foot out the door and teenagers will blow right past you,” the reporter responded.

“That’s a problem,” she said. “Some days I just don’t know where the fire is.”

It’s very possible that, at that time, Hingis already knew that she had failed her drug test at Wimbledon, testing positive for cocaine.

On Thursday, the former No. 1 player announced her retirement, saying that “I have no desire to spend the next several years of my life reduced to fighting against the doping officials.” She added, “I’m now 27 years old, and realistically too old to play top class tennis.”

She also strenuously denied that she had used cocaine and said she had never taken drugs. “They say that cocaine increases self-confidence and creates a type of euphoria,” she said. “I don’t know. I only know that if I were to try to hit the ball while in any state of euphoria, it simply wouldn’t work. I would think that it would be impossible for anyone to maintain the coordination required to play top class tennis while under the influence of drugs. And I know one other thing — I would personally be terrified of taking drugs.”

Meanwhile - someone who isn’t terrified of taking drugs - Barry Bonds, it seems, may boycott the Hall of Fame over the whole asterisk on the 756 ball thing. Which is funny, because I’m pretty sure the Hall of Fame may boycott Barry Bonds for the exact same reason!

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No one thought they could do it. Everyone questioned the money for Dice K and JD Drew. Even the Gagne pickup didn’t derail the train - though it almost did. Beantown gets it’s 7th World Series Title. The curse is gone. Forever. Perhaps Alex Rodriguez reversed it. And try as he might have to usurp the headlines on Sunday with news that he planned to opt out of his Yankee contract, almost assuring he’d played his last game in pinstripes, the real story is how the Red Sox have won 2 of the last 4 word series, surviving 7 elimination games in the ALCS in those years, and undoubtedly are the team of the decade so far.

Meanwhile, the Yankees continue to chase the wrong things. Perhaps they’ll continue to light their wallet on fire by paying for old broken down players who get to leave the team whenever they want. Perhaps they’ll continue to foster a cancerous atmosphere by throwing teammates under the bus, constantly criticizing the manager, and letting the CEO pick the lineup. With A-Rod chasing monster money in Chicago or Anaheim and Torre rejecting a crap offer to contine - it’s Joe Girardi’s ship to captain now:

ON DECK? Joe Girardi, who was a World Series studio analyst for Fox, could be announced today as the Yankees’ next manager.October 29, 2007 — The Yankees offered Joe Girardi their managerial position and are currently negotiating the terms of the contract, according to sources close to the discussions.

“The Yankees have offered Joe the opportunity to become their next manager. Discussions are ongoing,” Steve Mandell, Girardi’s agent, told ESPN.

SI.com reported that Girardi would receive a three-year, $6 million package to become Joe Torre’s replacement on the Yankee’s bench. However, Mandell told The Post that “there was nothing” to those numbers. “There’s nothing to that. We’re in discussions,” Mandell said at 1:50 p.m. today. “They’ve shown an interest in Joe. There’s no timetable on a deal. We’re just in discussions.”

So Yankee fans. Do you like apples?

While you tried to construct soulless over-the-hill all-star teams and trade away your best minor leaguers, The Marlins, White Sox, D-Backs, Angels, and Cardinals have all celebrated World Series titles - the Marlins in your own yard. The Red Sox cemented your status as the biggest chokes in all-time sports history for 2004 and now have 2 titles and a pennant to boot. And you just hired a curmudgeonly malcontent to manage your squad full of egos.

How do you like them apples? Ehhhh?

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OMG - what happened to the ESPN pregame show? To borrow a phrase from Charles Barkley, “It’s Turrible, Man!”

I haven’t really checked in on ESPN’s NFL Pregame show since week 1 or 2, but checking in today I was flabbergasted. They all suck. Chris “The Ego” Berman’s making bad baseball references, Tuna and Keyshawn sound nothing like the flamboyant and incisive interviewees they were when they were playing, and Emmit Smith was better at dancing the cha-cha than dancing around the teleprompter.

I don’t know how else to say it. The guy just shouldn’t be anywhere near a microphone and if you read this ESPN (which I know you do) please get rid of the guy. I know that you spend a ton of time prepping people before they go on-air. Well if that’s the case….When he’s asked which 0-2 team would be falling to 0-3 could he say the Chargers?

It’s not like we’re talking about 5 or 6 games here….we’re talking about two. 2 games. The Chargers were 1 and 1 coming into this week. And Emmitt is also the early leader in the clubhouse for the dumbest quote of the year……..

His biggest gaffe came during the Week 3 edition of Sunday NFL Countdown, while debating the question of whether Moss can be a leader in New England. At least twice Smith uttered this sentence: “You cannot change the stripes of a leopard.”

Has ESPN finally cornered the market on mediocrity? I mean - gimme the Pleamaker and Steve Young any day! Ditka and TJ are the only ones there that are salvagable. First Primetime goes away and MNF is ruined, and now this. Seems even MLB knows better than to give ESPN their playoff games. I suppose with the FSN Final Score, networks like the NFL Network and media-rich internet outlets - no one really needs ESPN anymore. It’s obvious that ESPN is responding with confirmation that they’ve given up!

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