The Mets Police

Are you that surprised about the latest round of steroids news?   Maybe this particular player surprised you, but it was slightly less shocking than finding out your mom was on steroids, wasn’t it?   After all, the player in question was a major leaguer in the 21st century.  It’s sort of like finding out your dad smoked in the 50’s. 

Here’s a great quote from Buck Showalter, courtesy of ESPN News by way of Newsday.

If you remember the climate at that time…general managers and managers and coaches were pretty much there to manage and coach the players. I don’t think anybody was naïve.




There.  That’s what I’ve been looking for since 1998.  Someone finally admits that everyone knew.  You knew.  You the guy reading this, I’m talking to you.  You knew.

You knew McGwire was big, bigger than the players you saw first hand in the 70s and 80s, and you knew he had something in his locker.  It didn’t matter, it was time to round of Joe Buck and Fox and salute the summer of ’98.  Mike Lupica even wrote a book about how great it was.  You knew.  Buck doesn’t think anyone was naiive.    Buck should know a few things about this, a guy named Rafael Palmeiro was also on that Rangers team.

What now, and what long term for A-Rod?   We know this will be a rough spring….fans on the road were well loaded for bear with “A-Fraud” and now they have “A-Roids.”   We knew A-Rod would never be Jeter.  The question now is will he even be Winfield?   Is A-Rod destined to be a guy that plays 15 years in New York but is never quite loved or accepted?   Does time heal all wounds, or as New Yorkers have we decided we just don’t like the guy?

SI article author Selena Roberts spoke to CBS (below) about the A-Rod story and her discussion with Alex at the gym.

She’s dead on about baseball losing The Chosen One.   If you want the home run record to be clean, you will be waiting a long long time

Of active players, Ken Griffey is 151 short at age 38, Jim Thome won’t make it….do you think Manny Ramirez has another 240 homers in him?  Heading down the list – Carlos Delgado?  I don’t see it.   Could Vlad Guerrero (392 and age 32) be the King?  Albert Pujols (319 at age 28).  It’s just my opinion based upon my own eyes but I think Albert works out an awful lot, you know?

The smart money, and the local newspaper columnists like Lupica feel A-Rod should come clean.  Today.  It worked for Pettitte.   Sometimes you just have to man up.  Today is one of those days.

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Baseball writers (including Bill Madden of the News) are already talking about keeping A-Rod out of the Hall of Fame.

This Hall is going to have quite a problem when I take my son there in 2020.

Among the people who it seems won’t be in the Hall will be Barry Bonds (you know, baseball’s home run leader both season and career) and Roger Clemens (he only won 354 games and struck out 4600 batters).

Mark McGwire, who the country cheered in 1998.  Not in.

Sammy Sosa, the guy New York City had a ticker-tape parade for – yes, you can look it up, New York had a parade for a Chicago Cub.  He won’t be in.

Rafael Palmeiro with his 3,000 hits and 569 homers.  Not in.

The all-time hit king, Pete Rose, he won’t be in.

A-Rod and his three MVP’s – no chance they award him another one – he won’t be in.

It’s kind of hard to have a Hall of Fame when all the top stat accumulators are not in.

In this 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, Bud Selig needs to take a page from Abe.

The only way to move on is to leave the past in the past.   Declare amnesty for all past sins.  The numbers shall hold, those whose numbers deserve the Hall should make it in.   You can’t undo the last 15 years.  All you can do is fix the future.

Move forward with a really tough drug police, one that the players union should be shamed into accepting.  It’s time to move on.

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Here is video of the new apple at New Shea Field.  It’s nice to write about the Mets and something non-negative.

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From 60 Minutes.

They may have taken the video above down, the transcript is below and the video will work on this page.

“For the record, have you ever used steroids, human growth hormone or any other performance-enhancing substance?” Couric asked.

“No,” Rodriguez replied.

Asked if he had ever been tempted to use any of those things, Rodriguez told Couric, “No.”

“You never felt like, ‘This guy’s doing it, maybe I should look into this, too? He’s getting better numbers, playing better ball,'” Couric asked.

“I’ve never felt overmatched on the baseball field. I’ve always been a very strong, dominant position. And I felt that if I did my work as I’ve done since I was, you know, a rookie back in Seattle, I didn’t have a problem competing at any level. So, no,” he replied.

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It always seems to come back to Derek Jeter.

Baseball for the last 15 years is a mess.   All the way back to the canceled season, McGwire, Sosa, Bonds….all ruined.  

Now A-Rod and 103 mystery others.

We should all hope Jeter isn’t on this list.

Jeter’s been the golden child.  He has rings.  He’s clutch.  There’s been little to no dirt or gossip or controversy around him.   He’s been DiMaggio for a modern age.

You look at Jeter and he looks as skinny as ever.  He hits 12 home runs not 74.

He might be the last pure great baseball player.   Let’s all hope that nothing ever comes out about him.  Let’s hope that there is nothing that could come out.  Let’s all hope that he’s really truly who he seems to be.   Just one time let’s have a baseball hero not let us down.

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Good job out of the MLB network.  As I write this a few minutes before noon on Saturday, MLB network is in live-mode and covering the story instead of ducking for cover.  That’s a good sign for this network.

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