The Dennis Mitchell Report

The Dennis Mitchell Report

If there were (steroids) problems, I wanted them revealed," he said. "If there were individuals who engaged in wrongdoing, I wanted those facts to come to light. If there were recommendations that would improve our drug testing programs, I wanted to hear them. Commissioner Bud.

Is it just me or does not Bud Selig look like the guy who played Mr. Wilson on the old Dennis the Menace series? He just seems to get fooled and surprised all the time. It would not be so amazing, if he were not the COMMISSIONER OF FREAKING BASEBALL!

Bud’s comments in light of the findings by Senator George Mitchell were transparent and self-serving. Bud knew, as every owner knew, that players were using clever enhancements to recover faster from injuries, build muscle mass, and perform at otherworldly levels! MLB spent $20 million researching the steroid issue when collectively they all made billions while the players were smoking the HGH huka. Do the math: No victim, no liability and the fans come back to the park, team valuations balloon, it is all good.

Now Bud wants us to believe he was bamboozled. He had no clue that all of this was going on right under his watch. What every true baseball fan in America suspected, that has now been verified, escaped our Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. Mr. Wilson could never figure out that 12 year old kid either. Bud is apparently now outraged by the deception. On another note, Bud Selig was also quite amazed to hear about Neil Armstrong’s efforts on the moon, the development of the personal computer and the war in Iraq. For Balco Industries, this Bud is for you!

If I were Roger Clemens, I would have shut the hell up, waited out the weekend and let this all die down. Sports media consumption is like Chinese food and we all want something new and different 20 minutes later. Roger, you are not going to sue. You are not going to do anything. You did not even make your own statement of outrage. You had your agent do it. Guilty guys always do that. You have been banking $18-20 million a year when guys your age should be doing cell phone commercials with their wives. Did any other pitcher win a Cy Young at 42 years old? Roger deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. He also deserves every bit of the heat he is getting for his alleged use of steroids. Right now, I would not want to be Roger the sports icon, Roger the pillar in the community, and Roger the father who has to face and answer to his friends and family.

Jose Canseco was right! He was eight for eight on the people he said used steroids and ended up on the list. He is still an idiot trying to sell books and pay off ex-wives. The Mitchell Report gave him what he deserved, one sentence.

Baseball did not do this investigation to get the truth. MLB knew the truth. They did this to cut their losses and stop the rest of the story. Admit some culpability, throw a big name or two to the wolves, do some penance, and keep the Feds off your ass.

There were 84 players named in the report. The names came from four sources, a club house nome from the Mets, Roger Clemens personal trainer and two aggressive pharmacies or “aging” centers that got raided with some very pesky paper trails.

I might be as naïve as Bud, but do you think there might be just one other clubhouse guy besides Kirk Radomski who got some juice for the players they idolize? Do you think there was possibly just one other trainer besides Brian McNamee who provided mother’s little helper to the athletes that they trained? Do you maybe think that there were more clinics/pharmacies than two that supplied the stuff but did not get raided?

Senator Mitchell is an attorney. He knew he needed bullet proof data before he named several very well paid plaintiffs represented by well paid attorneys, agents and business managers. So, do you think there might be another 25-50 players who were shrouded in complicity but not enough evidence to put them in the report? With 84 names in the can and a job well done, do we risk a law suit? What if there were maybe four other sources, would there be 168 names, or 276 or more? There are only 800 players in MLB. Do you think Bud wanted this to go much further? Do the math.

The 84 were offered up to the media so they could gnash and chew and the Budster could say he had been courageous and righteous in the face of evil. Were there any current superstars listed there? Roger Clemens is done. Andy Pettite should not have hung out with Roger but he is also pretty well done. Paul LoDuca, Eric Gagne, Paul Byrd, Lenny Dykstra, Todd Hundley?! This was a “Bring out your dead” kind of report. There was not one person mentioned who is an impact player, who has much of a career left or more importantly who is the current face of baseball. What about A-Rod? What about Albert Puljos? I have no evidence that they used HGH but it would seem unlikely that they did not.

Bud Selig is the absolute worst commissioner of any sport in this galaxy and possibly any known galaxy. Despite his ineptitude and malfeasance, is the only victim of this episode the baseball fan? And what are we a victim of? The tarnishing of the records and statistics that we hold so dear? Integrity, truth and realism in sports? WTF. I go the park to see big strong pitchers throw 98 mph heat to a hillbilly circus freak who can go yard on a pitch in the dirt. What do I care if his testicles shrink, he beats his wife, and he dies at age 51? He probably made more money for the five games I got to attend last year than I will earn in 20 years. We all have our own problems. Be pissed, boo Bud but get over it. Please dim the lights, the real show is about to begin….

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The Heisman Issue

The Heisman Issue

When you turn fifty, or so I have heard, you start to reminisce about more innocent times. Going to high school in the 70’s, times were not so innocent although that was my plea on at least one occasion.

The game I wanted to see, West Virginia vs. Missouri, went south, bloated in BCS secret sauce Saturday night. Missouri was playing Big Boy Football against the Sooners in the big 12 Championship game. The Tigers were underdogs and they played like it all night. But how does the Pride of Morgan Town, West Virginia, lose to a 28 point underdog Pittsburgh team with the BCS Title game yours for the taking? Panther Coach, Dave Wannstedt has not coached and won a big game since…EVER! You would have absolutely made the Buckeye defense look silly in the BCS Title Game and won an unprecedented National Championship for the Mountaineers. There is no more waiting, this was next year.

If you think the Sports Illustrated curse is tea leaves and Ouija Boards, think again. Kansas and Missouri went down after being on the SI covers on consecutive weeks. Now, I have created the curse of Tony at the Yard! Heal, let the devil be gone!

The only team who seems to be immune from this scourge is the New England Patriots. They are on the SI cover like once a month. After watching the last moments of the Ravens game Monday night, I am thinking forget about Brady, lies and video tape what deal did Bellicek cut with the red guy sporting a tail and pitch fork?

It would be a great story if Chase Daniels wins the Heisman on Saturday night. He won’t, Tim Tebow is going to become the first sophomore ever to win this coveted award. You can not argue Tebow’s stats but he needs to stay in college and graduate. He will not be able to play quarterback like that on Sundays but against College linebackers, he is tough to stop. He has a 177 passer rating and he set the SEC record for RUSHING touchdowns. Freakish statistics and even more amazing on a team with three losses.

Colt Brennan is an amazing story. He backed up Matt Leinhart in High school. He got kicked off the Colorado Football team freshman year. Colorado football players were out of control and the CU administration decided to make an example of young Colt. Mr. Brennan apparently decided to make a late night visit on a female dorm neighbor after downing a 12 pack. She had a different take on his advances. He ended up at Hawaii and has put up the best numbers in the country for three years. He is articulate, honest and contrite. His game winning drive against the Washington Huskies, last Saturday night was Elway-esque, only better. He was 42 out of 50 passing in that game for 448 yards. This kid is not throwing swing passes or slants either. They move the ball down the field. Georgia better quit whining about not being in the title game. Athens, GA will be no fun on New Year’s when the Bulldogs lose to the Rainbow Warriors with a coach named June.

Darren McFadden will have a bigger impact in the NFL than any of the Heisman Finalists, Reggie Bush, Matt Leinhart or any the Heisman winners still in the NFL. It is amazing what he does with those spindly legs. He reminds me of Eric Dickerson. He is exciting to watch play when he is having one of those games and he has had several. He has another gear in the open field. Additionally, he is another stirring testimonial to the value of an SEC education. I defy you to understand more than three words in any interview he gives.

Chase Daniels is probably not going to play on Sundays. Six foot quarterbacks can win Heismans but they do not usually win too many games in the NFL. He led his high school team to the Texas state championship three straight years and won two of them. I am sure all the Texas High School Football rednecks still talk about the title game they lost to end a 47 game win streak his junior year. It was the only game he lost as the starting QB.

Mr. Daniels was one of the most heavily recruited quarterbacks in the nation coming out of the legendary Lake Carroll Football program. He did not want to back up Vince Young for the Longhorns so he skipped out of Dodge and went to Missouri! This year, he leads Missouri to their first ever Big 12 Title game. Texas, Texas Tech and Texas A&M all got to watch the game from thier homes. He is a bright, articulate kid, with surprising speed and a cannon arm stuffed into a chunky, modest frame. He outweighs me by a bit but he sure carries it better in his six feet of vertical displacement than I can muster. Chase, have fun in New York, enjoy the dinner, let me know who Leinhart is with, and congratulate Tim.

Readers, send me your lock bowl picks before December 15. I am bit underwater this year and baby needs new shoes.

“Well, I guess well done is better than well said.” Tom Brady

It is a bunch of BCS!

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday afternoon @ 1:30 PM lurks. Since age 12, when I drank my first Blue and Gold Kool Aid, I have had many a miserable Saturday afternoon in the late fall at this aging facility. I replaced the Kool Aid with beverages that more effectively numb the senses because winning and Coliseum are some of the scarcest words in a Bruin Football Google Search. I can deal with a 48 point beat down, I just can not stomach getting sucked into a close game, getting my hopes dashed and then having five drunken USC fraternity brothers taunt me all the way back to my car.

It is not all about me, my childhood trauma and the Bruin BBQ on Exposition Boulevard, I want West Virginia and Missouri to make it to the BCS title game. That is the game and the story I want to see written that make college sports memorable and refreshing. It is Chase Daniels at Missouri and Pat White of West Virginia Mountaineers. Teams never ranked this high, this late. Players who followed their dreams a bit further off the interstate and all of the faithful who cheer them and will never forget them. Owen Schmitt of WVA has never lost a yard rushing in his 19 collegiate games. He is 6’3” and 250. He will never run a 4.4 40 but he is smash mouth football. These are incredible stories about kids who are having legendary seasons at non-legendary schools in college football. Both quarterbacks should be in New York when the Heisman Trophy is awarded. And Owen Schmitt can be my wing man any night. That is what makes college athletics refreshing and exciting. Actually that and college coeds but that is another story on a different web site. This year is unique and I embrace it for those teams and these moments. Next year, every tradtional power is ready to re-load and cash the checks they already wrote.

NCAA Division One College Football is the only sport on the entire planet that does not have a play off to determine their champion. The reason is not because these are student athletes and University Presidents do not want to extend the season so they can study. It is not because it would upset the Bowl history. And it is not because I am wasting your moments here lobbying for a playoff. It is all about the Benjamins.

The BCS is controlled by the six biggest conferences in NCAA football. The Pac-10, Big 10, Big 12, and SEC have had two BCS Bowl Teams almost every year. The Big East and the ACC long for that double dip but they are just happy to be included in the Gravy Train. The Average pay out to each school in a BCS Conference is a minimum of $1.4 million and can be $2 million+ this year. This is every school and this is every year just for the BCS games not the Meinke Muffler Blue Bonnet Games. Those Second Tier bowls that UCLA, Oregon State and Boise State are invited to, is money on top of the big dollars. In BCS monopoly money, Stanford is making as much money as USC if USC wins the Rose Bowl. In a non-BCS conference, best case scenario it is $352,000/school if two schools become BCS eligible. That has never happened since the BCS was founded.

Why would BCS conference University Presidents want to open the doors to a play off when they already are printing money and they do not have a payroll cap?

The BCS is the brain child of the commissioner of the SEC not some neutral third party interested in determining a true champion. It is cash distribution system for the elite conferences to increase income and dispense it among their elite members so they can remain elite. It is old school economics for the old schools. It is a January Payday and the usual suspects are already in line. Next year is lining up the same way. It works for my conference but does it work for all? Ask the University of Hawaii on Monday.