11 posts tagged “baseball”
Nothing like the Yankees / Red Sox rivalry to spark interest in the baseball season. Watching the intensity of the fans, players and coaches is a testament to the love that they all have for the game, the willingness they have to compete and the pure enjoyment they get from the experience.
(Go Red Sox!)
Do you believe Roger Clemens?
I am not sure who was coaching him on his words, but there were some interesting answers that he gave in his interview last night on 60 minutes. My opinion is that he is guilty and knows that it is his word against his trainers. There will never be "proof" (unless Steinbrenner had some hidden cameras in the clubhouse or his hotel in Tampa)
1. "I didn't know what Andy (Pettitte) was doing."
He ate, drank, worked out and travelled with this guy all of those years and didn't know that Pettitte used juice a couple of times (which I don't believe). When you are on a team and you spend that much time with people there are much more intimate things you learn (unfortunately...)
2. "If anyone knew how hard I worked, they would no I didn't need to use"
Wrong. Steroids allow you to work out harder, lift more and have more effort in your workouts.
3. Q: "If there is one thing you could say to McNamee"
Bad answer along the lines of "how could you do this to me after I have taken care of you." How about - "why are you lying?" or "you are full of shit."
4. " I should have a third ear coming out of my forehead. I should be pulling tractors with my teeth"
No. You should have a 90+ fastball, not show signs of aging and get super pissed off when things don't go your way, like throwing a bat at someone during a game.
5. Lie detector: "Yeah," he answered. "I don't know if they're good or bad."
How about. Sure. Bring it on.
Don't tell me you are surprised!
I hope not. As many of the baseball players that you have seen over the last 10+ years are now being named for steroid use, this should not be shocking to anyone. News flash to the media! Barry Bonds was not the only superstar taking steriods, so quit making him the poster child.
Over the past 10+ years we have seen:
- all-time home run record broken
- single season home run record broken
- fans blaming the ball (of all things) saying it was "juiced"
- players getting bigger (look at pictures of Sosa when we was a Texas Ranger)
- salaries have skyrocketed (the avg. salary for a Major League
- pharma getting smarter
- more internationalization throughout baseball
- pressure to succeed
- media feeding ego
Athletes are always looking for an edge in the same way that people in Hollywood are looking for the fountain of youth (nutrition, training, yoga, supplements, performance enhancing supplements, caffeine, uppers, other stimulants)
Baseball players quickly lose confidence in their abilities (when you fail 7 out of 10 times and are considered the best in the world, that is tons of failure.)
Steroids have not always been against the rules OR clearly defined; at times the performance enhancing science is more advanced then the knowledge of the people policing this behavio
GNC supplies athletes with some performance enhancements that are closer to bleeding edge and take years to either regulate or ban.
Don't wonder why
A small percentage of players in the big leagues are head and shoulders better then the average player. Bonds or Griffey are guys that could run, hit for average, field, hit for power at an exceptionally high level. What separates the rest? Just getting there you need some luck, friends, high investment in draft choice or scout with a reputation the org wants to protect. Ultimately it can come down to a slight edge. Maybe 25 HR vs 15 HR, 3.7 to first vs 3.9, 95 mph fastball vs 91 mph, 4.5 40 vs. 4.7 40. This is the edge that can be the difference.
Griffey
Griffey has been a guy that has relied on his natural tools to play the game. I have heard stories about his early years with the Mariners where he wouldn't lift, wouldn't stretch, didn't have a great work ethic and could still hit a slider on the outer half of the plate 120mph right at the pitchers head. (Watch your lips!)
Are baseball players motivated by $$$?
The median salary has gone up dramatically as the business side of baseball has learned out to better monetize the sport through large network contracts, cable distribution deals, corporate sky boxes, luxury stadiums, videogames and other merchandising efforts.
In 1988 the median salary for the top team was $500K (Astros)
In 1996 the median salary for the top team was $1,100K (Yankees)
In 2007 the median salary for the top team was $3,591,667
In 19 years it is over 7 times higher.
Who is to blame?
MLB has definitely looked the other way and has not done it's job protecting the integrity of the game that it claims to hold sacred - but let's not make them solely responsible.
Integrity schmegrity...
The integrity of the game is sooooo relative. Frequently ballplayers will say, "if you aren't cheating you aren't trying" as they scuff the balls with sandpaper, load up their gloves with pinetar, yell things at guys running the bases to trick them, charge the mound to start a melee, drill their opponent in the head with a fastball, frame the pitch to deceive the umpire, steal signs from the opposition and relay them from the runner on 2nd base, cork their bats, put superballs in their bats, raise the seams on the ball....
Co dependent behavior
Trainers knew
Owners suspected (and in some cases knew)
GM's knew
Other management knew
MLBPA knew
Fellow players knew
Girlfriends / Wives knew
Media / Beat writers knew
Was Brady Anderson really capable of 50 bombs on his own?
I think Roger Clemens tipped us off during the World Series several years ago when he hurled a broken bat at Mike Piazza. If that wasn't roid rage...
Boston Wins Game 2 and goes ahead 2-0.
Manny being Manny
OK. That was totally money. They walk Big Popi and Manny hits a 98 mph fastball about 400 feet over the Coke bottle above the Green Monster, most likely bouncing off the street into Gillian's. Games like that create so much confidence for the team to fly across the country and show up ready to play in Anaheim. Manny has 21 post season homeruns.
If you didn't have 21 post season bombs, could you stand at home plate for 10 seconds and show up the pitcher that much while the ball sails into left field? Nothing pisses off the other team, especially the pitcher and catcher then the hitter standing at home plate and hot dogging like that. For guys that don't have the respect as a hitter as Manny does, the catcher would start yelling and at some point they would get drilled.
Yankees going 11 innings and losing was pretty sweet as well. Travis Hafner with the game winning knock against Luis Vizcaino. Vizcaino can't keep pitching behind the hitters. On back to back hitters with the winning run on 3rd base, he worked the hitter pitching behind the count so that he had to come with a 2-2 pitch. Great. Get behind 3-2 or bring it to the hitter. Didn't work with Hafner and had to through a full count fastball. Game over. Yankees beat themselves by poor pitching. (Don't forget, the Red Sox relievers allowed zero hits tonight. That is the difference.)
They are up against a wall heading back to New York and won't have the pitching in an old Roger Clemens to make it through the night.
Why is Barry Bonds singled out as the poster child for the "bad people within baseball that do steroids?"
Why is ESPN taking such an anti-baseball stance to convince their audience that Barry Bonds is guilty.
Here are some thoughts on the Bonds/steroids issue:
1. Performance enhancements in sports is nothing new
In baseball and professional sports, athletes are constantly looking for an edge. This has been going on as long as people have competed against each other. Today's athlete has improved sleeping habits, nutrition, workouts (both offseason to build their body and inseason to maintain their body), visualization training, visual training, flexibility training. A regular stop for baseball players on the road is GNC. They have products every few years that are pulled from the shelf for various reasons i.e. ephidrine, too much green tea extract, ma huang extract too much caffeine, androsteinedione (remember Mark McGwire?)
2. What about the pitchers?
In baseball pitchers have done steroids, hitters have done steroids. Why is all the focus on the hitters?
Pitchers can add miles to their fastball as a result of performance enhancement drugs. Does this make them throw more accurately, does this make them hide their fastball vs slider more effectively? Does this make it easier to throw strikes with 40K people screaming at them and the four hole hitter up with the bases juced? It can reduce the reaction time of the hitter and make it much harder to get the head of the bat through the zone on time.
3. Requires a ton of work
For the hitters, steroids do not improve hand eye coordination, hitter discipline at the plate, the fluidity of your swing or any of the things that less then 25 people in the game are exceptional doing. My understanding is that performance enhancement drugs allow your body to recover quicker so that you can train harder, build your strength faster. Rather then just work out a muscle group w/a 48 hour recovery, you can hit the same muscle group sooner.
4. Fences are far
What about the fact that many ballplayers play 1/2 of their games in a bandbox? AT&T is one of the hardest yards to leave and unless the wind is gusting out to left field on a summer night, there are no cheapies. Hank Aaron played in a band box in Atlanta where there were many cheapies. (Think short close fences, the ball carrying etc....) How many home runs would Bonds have if he played in Houston? Boston?
5. Mental Game
As Yogi said, "90% of the game is 1/2 mental." If anything, the so called "roid rage" would make it more difficult to have a focused productive at bat after experiencing the nirvana and rush that you experience after crushing a fastball 4020+ feet and feeling the rush of the stadium as you circle the bases.
6. Sucking up
If Bonds played the PR game better (he has improved tremendously in the last few years) and gave the media what they wanted, simple bs answers to their questions & wasn't so combatative, offensive and annoying to the reporters, he would not be viewed in the same way. This one is his fault. He should have handled this much better. It would have put another 400M in his pocket over the years from endorsements. He could be the Tiger Woods, Jerry Rice...
Nice tribute to the 1987 Giants at AT&T. That team was fun to watch, had a ton of heart and set the stage for a huge organizational turn around. We used to take off from high school and take advantage of all of the day games they put on the schedule that year.
Had fun taking the family to the Giants/Braves game so that we could see Zoe being the "Giants Junior Announcer"
She had a great time, not only perfectly announcing Dave Roberts, Randy Winn and Ray Durham - but during the next inning when she came down to our seats to say hit the surrounding Giants fans cheered for her, gave her hi five's and one lady asked her for her autograph.
Teagan's First Giant's Game
Emily is holding Teagan during her first baseball game.
Deep...deep...deep....out.
Just missed going deep to left. Was great for the country to see how hard it is to hit the ball out of AT&T park.
If Bonds played in one of the other bandbox stadiums, he would easily have another 10-15 bombs a year.
Bonds received a standing ovation from the San Francisco crowd. Was a great moment.
Big win yesterday for the Giants...great game, great atmosphere and nothing like extra-innings to make the team, fans and community celebrate!
(left) Bonds comes up with the bases loaded, a sold out crowd that wants him to hit #750 and a national TV audience from Fox.
(right) A ballpark dog with the fixins.
