Random Thoughts of the Day

The Japanese team shutout the team from China 4-0 in the opener of the World Baseball Classic in front of almost 44,000 fans at the Tokyodome. Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish was the pitcher of record after tossing four no-hit innings to open the game. Ichiro Susuki went 0-5 and stranded 5 men on base. Not a good way to start there Ichiro. Nevertheless Japan, the favorite in this group, notches its first victory on what they hope is a return to the finals and a repeat of the title. Up next, Korea, who won the Olympic gold in Beijing, takes on the Chinese Taipei team.

Man, a weird game for me to watch was yesterday's exhibition between the Houston Astros and the team from Venezuela. Who was I suppose to root for? Betray my country or betray my favorite team? Luckily for me the game ended, fittingly, in a 4-4 tie. Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers and Jose Lopez of the Mariners provided the firework with two RBIs each for the Venezuelan team. On the other side, Astros 2005 first round pick pitcher turned outfielder Brian Bogusevic went 2-4 with a run scored and an RBI to pace their offense. He is now hitting .500 this spring. Not bad.

It looks like Alex Rodriguez is going to miss playing in the Classic after an MRI done to his hip revealed an internal cyst on the right side that requires immediate surgery. Apparently the recovery for this kind of procedures is about 10 weeks and that might also force him to miss part of the regular season as well. This is another blow for A-Rod who was hoping to concentrate on playing baseball after having gone through his worst and most contorversial offseason to date.

And finally it's official...Manny Ramirez is back with the Dodgers. The enigmatic outfielder re-signed to the nifty tune of a 2 year 45 million dollars contract. I wish I was on that guy's Christmas list. The contract plays out like this: $25 million in 2009, $20 million in 2010 with a player option after the first year. If Ramirez decides to stay, payment will be deferred over five years without interest at $10 million each for the first two years and $8.33 million each for the next three years. If he opts out, he'll receive $25 million over the course of four years, $10 million, $5 million, $5 million and $5 million. In other words: ka-ching!

Oh and by the way, there are only 31 days until the regular season starts. And then after that 6 months of pure baseball! Can't wait!

Quotes about A-Rod

"One thing that really upsets me a lot is when you hear everybody say it was the 'Steroid Era' and everybody was doing it. Well, that's not true. Everybody wasn't doing it." – N.Y. Yankees captain, SS Derek Jeter.

"I'd welcome him if he got elected to the Hall of Fame. I always seem to walk down the middle of the fence. I understand the old hard-line guys that use the words, 'He cheated. He cheated.' And the other guys that go, 'It was a culture thing back then.' If you played then, you would have been tempted, too. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I don't want to get that wrong. We've all got some things in our closet."- Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt.

"On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am saddened by the revelations concerning Alex Rodriguez's use of performance-enhancing substances. While Alex deserves credit for publicly confronting the issue, there is no valid excuse for using such substances and those who use them have shamed the game.” – MLB Commissioner Bud Selig.

"When you get beyond that, for him, I think there's going to be some redemption. Because when you come clean the way you should come clean, and you face a problem or an issue, that's human nature how somebody deals with a problem. [Either] you store it up inside and it compounds into a bigger problem, or you say, 'This is something I did,' and admit that it was a problem, and it was wrong. And from there, it'll take some time, but I think there'll be some redemption." – Detroit Tigers pitcher Nate Robertson.

“A-Rod's numbers shouldn't count for anything. I feel like he cheated me out of the game. The few times we played them, when he got hits, it could have cost me a game. It could have cost me money in my contract. He cheated me out of the game and I take it personally, because I've never done [PEDs], haven't done it, and they're cheating me out of the game."- Houston Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt.

"I think it had to be a big monkey for him to get off his back. It's another big cloud over all baseball, and his accomplishments, but I think it will be good for him in the long run."- Cleveland Cavalier All-Star LeBron James.

"I feel personally betrayed and deceived by Alex. He was supposed to be one of the hardest working players in baseball. He had legendary offseason workouts that he told me lasted five hours a day in Florida. Now I don't know who to believe or what to believe." - Texas Ranger owner Tom Hicks.

"I consider myself a friend of A-Rod's and someone I had a lot of faith in and trusted and, I don't know, he's lied before when he did the '60 Minutes' deal and now he comes out ... and says 'Well, I did do it. But I only did it for two years.' Where does the circle of trust end here? It's a real bad story. The one thing I am impressed with is he came right out and admitted it. But I don't think that that's going to -- I mean, God, the poor guy, his career's ruined, and, for what? Just trying to compete with everybody else." – Hall of Famer George Brett.

"I knew we weren't taking Tic Tacs."- A-Rod

What’s your take? Does A-Rod still belongs in the Hall of Fame? Take the poll and let the world know. Also If you have any other interesting quotes feel free to share them with me in the comment box.

Guilty until proven innocent.

With all of baseball now talking about Alex Rodriguez recent admission of steroid use, I have no choice but to join this fray. This is truly a sad day for me. A-Rod is not only one of the best players in the planet, but also one of my favorites. I have all his rookie cards, and I have followed his entire career with excitement. The steroid monster strikes again. Soon after that, in another twist, Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada is now pleading guilty to charges from Washington that he lied to federal investigators about his own substance abuse. So much for the end of the Steroid saga. Those are two former MVP players. Since everyone is weighing in on this here is my take. I applaud A-Rod for coming clean so soon after Sports Illustrated published a report that he tested positive for steroids twice during the 2003 season, one of his MVP seasons, instead of letting it drag on through Spring Training, and I respect him more as a human being for admitting his mistakes. I feel like I understand him now, since there was a time in my life where I was also young and naïve and made some bad choices. Don’t we all? We seek forgiveness and vow to ourselves not to get down again, and I’m sure he regrets this choice. He realizes now that it wasn’t worth it. All those people who are understandably angry at him need to give him another chance. I got another chance.
There is more to this though. A-Rod was only one of 104 players that tested positive for steroids in 2003. That was the first year that major league baseball implemented a random drug test, and if more than 5% of the players tested positive that year they would continue but with penalties (104 players is roughly 14%, almost three times what MLB thought). There were no repercussions if you used prior to 2004. Curt Schilling suggested that the rest of the list be made public, and I agree. If they don’t it would be unfair to A-Rod and it would cast a shadow of doubt to every player that played in that era. Looking back at this “loosey-goosey” era, say from 1996 to 2003, there are a lot of players who might be in that list. I looked at some of the players who had career year in between those years and see if there might be a connection. There is Luis Gonzalez, who from 1999 to 2003 his numbers stand out dramatically, including a 57-homer season in 2001 when his Diamondbacks team won the World Series. On those 5 years he averaged 34 homers a season. In all his other years he averaged 14 per season. There is also Tejada who was an iron man in his Athletics days, playing in every game and winning the MVP in 2002. Ironically his production has decreased ever since Rafael Palmeiro implicated him in this scandal. Talking about former Orioles, do you remember Brady Anderson? In 1996, this leadoff hitter hit 50 homers, 26 more than any of his other seasons! Another former MVP, catcher Ivan Rodriguez, won the award in 1999 after hitting a career high 35 homers to go with a .332 average. His name is also in the Mitchell Report. Eric Gagne saved a record 84 consecutives games between 2002 and 2004 and won the Cy Young in 2003. He's been a bust since. How about Randy Johnson and Schilling himself? I mean, besides being teammates with Gonzalez in Arizona, they matched each other pitch by pitch. Between 1999 and 2002, Johnson won four consecutive Cy Young awards, winning 81 games against 27 loses. He reached over 300 strikeouts in every one of those seasons and averaged 257 innings pitched per season. Oh, and by the way, he was 36 in 1999. His names has never been brought up in this scandal, and believe me, I hope it never does. I wouldn’t be surprise though. Schilling finished second in the Cy Young voting in both 2001 and 2002, both to Johnson, and was a close friend of his. If you look at the MVP winners in this era you can see players that might also be in that list: Juan Gonzales, Chipper Jones, Jeff Kent, Larry Walker, Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds. Were they all juiced up on their MVP campaign like A-Rod and Tejada were? Who knows? Unless the list is released every player should be guilty by association.

The end of the Steroid Era?

With recent news about Barry Bond's perjury case and his steroid scandal, I couldn't help but be taken back to the time when the home runs where flying out the ballpark in record numbers. I remember vividly the summer of 1998 when Sammy Sosa and Mark Mcwire were going back and forth trying to break Roger Maris record of most home runs in a season. For the record, Mcgwire finished with 70 to Sosa's 66. I remember in 2001 when Bonds hit 73 o f them! (Number 70 was against my beloved Astros in their ballpark, then Enron Field) Nobody seemed to question where those guys where getting their power from. Fans were loving it. Owners, I'm sure, were loving it. Heck, even I was amazed. At the time I was sure I was witnessing something of historic proportions. Something I could brag about to my kids when they get older. Since then, names of iconic baseball players have been falling out of a hat, one after the other, accused of using steroids: Bonds, Mcgwire, Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Miguel Tejada, Jason Giambi, Andy Pettite, Roger Clemens. To a lesser extent but still damaging to the psyche were the likes of Eric Gagne, Chuck Knoublauch, Paul LoDuca, David Justice, Kevin Brown, David Segui, Mo Vaughn. All of them and more listed in the Mitchell's report will now be known as the poster child of the Steroid Era.

A lot of memories are now marred by this report, and with a former teammate of Bonds, catcher Bobby Estallela, now posed to testify against Bonds with damaging evidence, who knows? Maybe we can finally find some closure to all this. Wouldn't it be nice NOT to hear about steroids on sports radio for a change? But baseball will always survive. I get excited seeing the next wave of steroid-free superstars that are developing into future hall of famers. Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter, Ryan Howard, Dustin Pedroia, Miguel Cabrera. These are the kind of guys that we need to root for. Players who represent the true grit and spirit of the game of baseball. The new generation of baseball players. The New Era.