There's been a titanic shift in the way MLB and the players are attacking the stain that has attached itself to the game of baseball since Jose Canseco outed the massive use of performance enhancing drugs that permeated Baseball since the late 1980s. And since the outing came, the MLB has not been sure how to respond to the public at large. I mean, we all know players cheated in the end to get massive paydays from the owners in the end and be the best they could be, right? Jason Giambi came out in 2005 and said he was sorry to the fans, but he really didn't say what he was sorry for.

Giambi could have been a child finally summoning the courage to tell the truth to his father. But he kept his composure, and continued. "I accept full responsibility for that, and I'm sorry," he said. What he did not fully say, however, was what he was sorry for.

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Still, he did not directly admit to steroid use. "I know the fans might want more," Giambi said. "But because of all the legal matters, I can't get into specifics. Someday, hopefully, I will be able to."

ARod's presser was almost a complete disaster, and his admission was bizarre, but at least he didn't say that steroids had nothing to do with his performance. With a ton of names out there still waiting to be leaked to the media identifying players who have tested positive for PED's, something had to be done. Enter the ex-Bush communications man Ari Fleischer. He stood in front of the White House press corps and answered questions day in and day out for the troubled Bush administration. Recently he joined forces with the powerful IMG

Here's a little about Ari's new venture:

IMG, the world's premier sports, entertainment and media company, and Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary and leading sports industry communicator, today announced the formation of a new joint venture: Ari Fleischer Sports Communications.

The New York-based consultancy company will offer management advisory services, including media training and interview preparation, image management, crisis management and media relations to a wide range of athletes, coaches and high-profile sports industry executives. Fleischer will serve as the company's President. Sandy Montag, Senior Corporate Vice President of IMG Sports & Entertainment, will serve as COO of the company.

It's not a coincidence that IMG has Major League Baseball as a client and why McGwire went on the MLB Network to break his story. I first saw a new approach taken by the players with David Ortiz. After it was leaked to the press that Big Papi failed MLB's drug testing in 2003, Oriz used a different method to try and protect his legacy. What Ortiz did differently is question what substance he actually was busted for taking and since that information was not available to the press and possibly to the leaker it gave him some room to try and deny that he was a serious user.

In a statement, Ortiz insisted he only learned of his 2003 positive test on Thursday - and claims he does not know what the substance was.

Instead of denying that he took PED's, he questioned the substances that might make a player test positive. It's a joke to believe that an elite athlete has no idea what he or she put in their body as it relates to any form of drug or vitamin because they make their living off of it, but that's the line he was able to use to draw some sympathy from the sports media. And to an extent it did work, but now a new stage of the game is being orchestrated by Ari. McGwire, while admitting that he took steroids for a decade played the victim card and said he wished he never played during the steroid era (poor him) and then went on to say that it didn't help his performance at all.

It was brought to my attention that it was going to help me heal faster, make my body feel back to normal."

Asked repeatedly by Costas if he believed that his statistics and records were legitimate in light of the disclosure, McGwire did not budge.

"Absolutely," he said. "I truly believe so. I was given this gift by the man upstairs. My track record as far as hitting home runs ... my first at-bat in the league was a home run. They still talk about the home runs I hit in high school. They still talk about the home runs I hit in [American] Legion. They still talk about the home runs I hit in college [USC] -- I led the nation in home runs. They still talk about the home runs I hit in the Minor Leagues.

Is he serious? No, I'd say delusional. Many baseball players and writers backed up Big Mac after he came "clean" (so to speak) and some people even think McGwire should still go into the Hall of Fame. If you had the chance to see ESPN's Baseball Tonight on Mac's big day or MLB's Hot Stove, you would have been shocked by the reaction of the players and pundits who were so happy for him that he finally got the monkey off his back.

But now we are seeing a new narrative come forward: That players were already so talented and gifted by the man upstairs that steroids really had no impact on their careers or their statistics. Barry Bonds was an excellent player before he took 'roids so why would you think he couldn't have hit 73 f*&king HR's without them? Any player that tells you PED's didn't help their performance should be laughed out of sight. It makes you stronger, faster, bigger and heal quicker after injury. Take a look at the stats of Sosa, Palmiero, Bonds and McGire and see what they look like after steroids kicked in.

Ari Fleischer's plan has just started to take form. It's the players who are the victims of their times, and their talent is the only thing that counts no matter what your own eyes tell you. If McGwire thinks steroids didn't help him perform, then why did he apologize to the Maris family for breaking the single-season HR record?

Goose Gossage is a lone wolf out there saying what all baseball players and pundits should be saying. Gossage wants dopers barred from Hall of Fame:

Baseball Hall of Fame reliever Goose Gossage says there should be no place in the hall for Mark McGwire or any other player who used performance-enhancing drugs.

“I definitely think that they cheated,” Gossage said on Tuesday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “And what does the Hall of Fame consist of? Integrity. Cheating is not part of integrity.”

Gossage was reaction to McGwire’s admission on Monday that he used steroids in the 1990s to break the single season home run record in Major League Baseball.

For Gossage, Hank Aaron still holds the career record of 755 home runs and Roger Maris owns the season record of 61. The Goose tosses out the fantastic figures posted by Barry Bonds(notes), McGwire, Sammy Sosa(notes) as part of a “cheating era.” He equated them with Pete Rose, barred from the Hall ballot because of his lifetime ban for betting on Cincinnati while managing the team. “The integrity of the Hall of Fame and the numbers and the history are all in jeopardy,” said Gossage, inducted two years ago. “I don’t think they should be recognized. Here’s a guy Aaron, we’re talking about the greatest record of all records. And he did it on a level playing field. He did it with God-given talent. And the same with Maris, absolutely. These are sacred records and they’ve been shattered by cheaters

It's real simple. If you get caught cheating with steroids you cannot be voted into the HOF. It's that easy. Forget the numbers and who else cheated.

I hope America isn't fooled by Ari's PR campaign to salvage these cheaters. McGwire came forward now because he wanted to get back into baseball and the statute of limitations ran out so that he can't be prosecuted in a court of law. The Cardinals had a major investment in Mark and want to be able to recoup what they can, and any player who has cheated wants to find a get-of-jail-free card as the years move forward.

Fleischer has helped dupe the American people into much worse situations than this while being part of the Bush White House. (You may remember the Iraq war.) I only hope that the American people and the sports media won't get duped again.

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I know this story isn't political, but it does have ramification on a media level. And when the sports media tries to whitewash an event it only hurts the public at large. And we cover media extensively on C&L.

Mark McGwire finally admitted to what most baseball fans already knew: He used steroids throughout his career and during the magnificent 1998 HR chase to break Roger Maris' single-season record of sixty-one home runs.

Mark McGwire finally came clean, admitting he used steroids when he broke baseball's home run record in 1998.

McGwire said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday that he used steroids on and off for nearly a decade.

"It's very emotional, it's telling family members, friends and coaches, you know, it's former teammates to try to get a hold of, you know, that I'm coming clean and being honest," he said during a 20-minute telephone interview, his voice repeatedly cracking. "It's the first time they've ever heard me, you know, talk about this. I hid it from everybody."

"I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids," McGwire said. "I had good years when I didn't take any, and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids, and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry."

He wants a new job in Baseball so he finally tells the truth with a well oiled PR staff behind him. ESPN came on in the afternoon and did a 30 minute infomercial in support of McGwire which was sickening. They didn't have on anybody who thought Mark was a cheater. And after I watched some of his interview with Bob Costas on the MLB Network I almost threw up and felt compelled to write this post. He has the nerve to say steroids didn't help him hit HR's and he uses his earlier background as proof of that to Costas.

Listen Mark, there were plenty of high school and college level superstars that never panned out in the majors. Steve Balboni was a marvel in AAA but couldn't make it in the bigs. How many players didn't have a career in the Majors because they didn't juice up? According to him 'roids didn't help him at all. Costas pressed him on it, but he would not budge. As I said, it was a disgraceful performance. The Cardinals have to be behind this 100%.

This is a complete sham and his half hearted apology is ridiculous. How do you think the Maris family feels now after being party to the scam back in 1998 when he hit home run number 62 and they stood there watching him? ESPN's Baseball Tonight acted like part of the PR campaign designed by the Cardinals to ease him back into the spotlight. And McGwire is only being hired to be the damn hitting coach.

Here's the type of articles that was written when the magnificent 1998 HR chase to break Roger Maris' single-season record of sixty-one home runs happened.

Mark McGwire completed an amazing and wonderful journey into baseball history tonight, finishing a mission that has captivated a nation, revived a sport and constructed a legend. With one more mighty swing, he became the first man in history to hit 62 home runs in a season, surpassing the previous – and once seemingly untouchable – record of 61 by Roger Maris in 1961.

"Absolutely incredible," an emotional McGwire said later. "What can I say? I'm almost speechless. It's been awesome. The last week and a half my stomach has been turning and my heart beating a million miles a minute. What a feat." Play was stopped for 11 minutes as McGwire and 49,987 fans at Busch Stadium soaked up the moment. After McGwire's St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Cubs, 6-3, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig conducted an on-field ceremony.

The media drooled all over him. I watched that chase at the time between McGwire and Sosa and the fans were really into it. Baseball had recently come off the strike year in 1994 and they needed a shot in the arm. Maybe it was a shot in the ass, as it turns out.

In a room filled with humbled heroes, Mark McGwire hemmed and hawed the most.

His voice choked with emotion, his eyes nearly filled with tears, time after time he refused to answer the question everyone wanted to know: Did he take illegal steroids when he hit a then-record 70 home runs in 1998 — or at any other time? Asked by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., whether he was asserting his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, McGwire said: "I'm not here to talk about the past. I'm here to be positive about this subject."

Asked whether use of steroids was cheating, McGuire said: "That's not for me to determine." To a couple of other questions, all he would say is: "I'm retired."

It's disgusting watching the baseball pundits try to justify his actions. ESPN sends on Bobby Knight in the middle of BT after their stable of analysts all stay on the same " I'm so happy for him" script. It's finally over for him. Bobby Knight, a friend of McGwire's called Mark a first ballot HOFer who only got some bad legal advice. I was expecting McGwire's family to go on next.

I'm writing about this because it looks to me like the media is part of the McGwire Resurrection Project. It's interesting the the Giants aren't trying to do the same for Barry Bonds. This is a well orchestrated event by the Cardinals and some of the sports media seems to be a willing participant. Tony Clark is a new member of the Baseball Tonight team, and he looked like he was reading a script from the teleprompter as he whispered sweet nothings into the ear of McGwire.

Nice try, Tony LaRussa. Nice try, ESPN. Nice try, Cardinals.

Red Sox partner says CIA chartered his jet

By Gordon Edes

Phillip Morse, a minority partner of the Boston Red Sox, said Sunday that his private jet has been chartered to the CIA and confirmed that it had been flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where more than 500 terrorism suspects are held, as well as other overseas destinations.

But Morse said he was "stunned" by a report in Sunday's Chicago Tribune suggesting that the plane might have been used for "renditions," the controversial practice in which terrorism suspects arrested abroad have been forcibly returned to their native countries for interrogation...read on

It was rather sickening to listen to the high-and-mighty posturing of our 'representatives' browbeat ball players on the steroids matter while we are at war, the treasury is being bankrupted and unprecedented government corruption is happening right before their eyes. Listening to them sanctimoniously lecture baseball about its ethics and practices is especially ironic when one considers that their own ethics process has been de-fanged by the Tom Delay-led GOP.

Mark McGwire's faux apology is backfiring on him as many sports reporters and fans are outraged now more than they were before he came out of the closet to rehabilitate his name. He has the audacity to say that steroids didn't help his power numbers and he still would have hit 70 HRs in a single season without being juiced. Right.

ESPN immediately did a thirty-minute infomercial in support of Big Mac, and the most egregious performance was carried out by former chokemeister Bobby Knight.

Knight began by announcing that he has "a different approach to performance-enhancing drugs." He continued:

Who decides what can be used and what can't be used, and on what basis is that decision made?

Fair enough. But then Knight pivoted to his first example, surely bewildering many viewers in the process. "Gatorade is a performance-enhancing substance," Knight said. Because the sports beverage replaces electrolytes, Knight says he has "always had a real skeptical approach to all of this performance enhancing stuff."

He's a great basketball mind who has a bad temper, so I had to ask myself: Self, why is a former college basketball coach going on Baseball Tonight to talk about Mark McGwire? WTF is he doing on a baseball show? Oh, because he wants to help clear Big Mac's name. Next up will be McGwire's family pets and then some of his aunts and uncles. ESPN is trying to track down his best friend from elementary school as we speak.

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Wow, Neil Cavuto will not be getting a Christmas card this year from the teabagger brigade at the rest of FOX News. He called out Sarah Palin's insane Facebook rant:

...government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

This was too much even for him. He had on a Dr. Leigh Vinocur, who seems to be there to argue for Palin's point of view but ends up saying that what the Zombie Plumber Queen is saying is nuts.

Cavuto: Dr. Leigh Vinocur says she's not that far off. Ahhh, doctor, that's a little extreme, don't you think?

Vinocur: Yes, I do think it's a little extreme and it's because right now Obama is looking at end of life care, and I think the majority of out healthy care costs are in our last twelve years of life so it makes sense....

Cavuto: To call this a death panel and evil, that's that's a little much, don't you think?

Vinocur: Well I do, but I think her point is that she doesn't want administrators making the call...so I've dealt with those issues and doctors tell you, look, these are the options. You have to change peoples expectations in America. What do you say to somebody..

Cavuto: We have that going on in our health system now. We have rationed care in our health system now and I know the fears are that it would be on steroids a national type program and maybe those fears are legitimate, but to then start saying things like "death panel" and "evil" destructs the debate, does it not?

...

Cavuto: She's going further than that. She's mentioning her Down Syndrome baby and more or less implying that in such a system that we're envisioning that baby is tough out of luck.

We already have administrators making the call. They are called the freaking health insurance companies... Cavuto will never support the public option or most of what progressives want in the health care bill, but even he can't handle the Beckerwocky that the teabaggers are speaking.

(graphic via ESPN)

For all you baseball fans. You probably know that Manny Ramirez was suspended for fifty games because he got caught taking a "banned substance." Sports reporting is very similar to political reporting. They have their own Village, their own Beltway mentality and their own wankers. And people like Peter Gammons (who at times is a very good reporter and is beloved by his Village elders) fill the David Broder role for them quite well. The medication Manny is believed to have taken is called HCG:

One report on the wire suggests that Ramirez took a drug called HCG, used to stimulate female fertility as well as testosterone production in men, and to treat delayed puberty in boys.

As the NY Times writes:

H.C.G., which has been banned since 2008, is similar to the drug Clomid, which has a history of being used in conjunction with steroids. According to medical experts, doctors prescribe H.C.G. to men who are having fertility problems or who have low levels of testosterone, both of which can be side effects of steroid use.

Jose Canseco was busted for illegally bringing HCG into the country:

HCG most recently made news when former major leaguer and admitted steroid user Jose Canseco was caught attempting to smuggle it into the U.S. from Mexico.

The Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement stated that Canseco admitted to bringing it across the border because “he is currently on a hormone therapy plan because his testosterone levels are extremely low due to his past steroid use.” HCG and LH were added to the banned drug list by MLB a year ago. They have been banned for male athletes by the World Anti-Doping Agency since 1987.

So while Manny says he needed it for medical reasons, there isn't much doubt why he needed it, is there?

Back to Gammons. He's a big-time ESPN hall of fame pundit and Boston apologist. This is what he had to say about Manny and the drug use from ESPN2 that I transcribed:

Gammons: He had a medical issue, went to a doctor in Miami, he got a prescription, the doctor told him it was perfectly alright, it would not violate drug policy, it turns out it does, and the drug did violate baseball's drug policy which is very strict and, ummm this is not, to my understanding it's not steroids, it's not a performance enhancing drug, but guys have been suspended before for drugs that were not on the list. I mean we had J.C. Romero got suspended for sixty days for something he bought at a normal store so, ummm, it's unfortunately doctor's and players don't always know what is banned and what isn't banned. I am told that he is absolutely devastated by it and I can tell you something else.

I, there was a rumor floating around about an hour and a half ago, I contacted one of the people in the Red Sox front office and he said he did not believe it for a second. So, it's not like there was a history there from a team that he doesn't have exactly good relations with. That team didn't believe for a second that he cheated.

Gammons sucks up the propaganda from the Red Sox organization like a man stranded in a desert without any water. Can you think of one reason why the Red Sox would deny that he was a juicer? Oh, wait, maybe it would tarnish their two World Series wins. You know, how that ended the curse of Babe Ruth. And the "medication" that Manny took was called HCG which steroid users use when they come off a steroid cycle to help them produce testosterone again.

Hey Peter. It wasn't a steroid, but it's for steroid users...What a wanker that Gammons is. Now back to politics.

So what else is new? Wall Street Journal, emphasis added:

So on the day that the Mitchell report on steroid use was being released, reporters again were asking why Bush — an owner of the Texas Rangers in the early 1990s — didn’t notice the epidemic of performance-enhancing drugs that was then taking hold of the game?

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino was ready, pointing to an ESPN interview Bush did recently, in which he said that he’s thought long and hard about it, but doesn’t recall ever seeing or hearing evidence of a steroid problem. ...read more

Bush says that steroids "sullied" the sport...Ironic from the man that sullied not only the office of the President, but the global reputation of this country as well.

...And Jose Canseco claims "that Bush smirked his way through his ownership tenure, as syringes were passed around the locker room like a Christmas at Courtney Love's house."

graphic by Zen Comix for The Aristocrats (click image for larger)

NY Daily News: (h/t Josh Marshall)

The government of George Bush, which will leak the name of a CIA operative named Valerie Plame when it suits its purposes, now wants Fainaru-Wada and Williams in jail because they won't reveal the names of the person or persons the government says leaked them grand jury testimony. It is always worth pointing out that if you ran the country the way Bush and his people do, you wouldn't want to encourage whistleblowers, either.. Once George Bush told baseball to get rid of steroids in a State of the Union address. Fainaru-Wada and Williams, through their reporting and later their book "Game of Shadows," did their part. They took the President at his word, obviously unaware that this President will say anything in a State of the Union, about weapons of mass destruction or anything else

So now the reporters are the bad guys, not the ballplayers who used drugs and then, most likely, lied about that in front of the grand jury. Get the reporters, not them. It's a variation of starting a war against somebody who didn't blow up two of your buildings and kill 3000 of your people.

As Josh notes: It takes a sports writer to speak the truth.

o, or those lying eyes?

via TCBP: " Rafael Palmeiro is a friend. He testified in public and I believe him," Bush said, referring to Palmeiro's denials under oath to a congressional committee on March 17. "He's the kind of person that's going to stand up in front of the klieg lights and say he didn't use steroids, and I believe him. Still do."

Arthur makes it clear in many of his posts that Bush doesn't represent a political party, but a gang, a loyalist group that serves each others interests first and foremost. Well this latest piece of news further supports that theory.

The NY Daily News has this: "But two officials familiar with baseball's steroid testing program said the substance identified in Palmeiro's urine was a "potent" drug, and not consistent with the kind of steroid sometimes found in over-the-counter supplements. The officials would not say what was discovered, and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Under baseball's testing agreement, neither side is permitted to reveal that information and Palmeiro, a former pitchman for Viagra, refused as well. MLB officials did not return calls for comment."

Raffy is a friend of the President and Bush's belief in loyalty far outweighs anything else it seems when he makes his decisions for appointments, awarding medals, and any other post he deems necessary like for instance the Amnbassador to the UN. Of course the President will back Palmeiro. The evidence is meaningless as far as that goes.

Approximately Perfect

So why the fuck does Congress spring into action when Rafael Palmeiro fails a drug test, but when the president lies to get a war, eh, not so much with the caring and the questions??

Congress to get Palmeiro's results, investigate perjury

Seriously, what the fucking hell is going on in this country? Remember Bush's steroid State of the Union speech?

How the shit has this issue been elevated to such a level that the federal government can't keep its paws off it?

MDS had a great catch the other day on the Palmeiro issue. Bush -- gasp -- tried to protect one of his political benefactors and allies:

Keep reading and you see that the president -- who in the past has insisted that steroid users must be banished from sports -- now says that Rafael Palmeiro should be believed when he said he never used steroids, despite a positive steroid test to the contrary:
Approximately Perfect

So why the fuck does Congress spring into action when Rafael Palmeiro fails a drug test, but when the president lies to get a war, eh, not so much with the caring and the questions??

Congress to get Palmeiro's results, investigate perjury

Seriously, what the fucking hell is going on in this country? Remember Bush's steroid State of the Union speech?

How the shit has this issue been elevated to such a level that the federal government can't keep its paws off it?

MDS had a great catch the other day on the Palmeiro issue. Bush -- gasp -- tried to protect one of his political benefactors and allies:

Keep reading and you see that the president -- who in the past has insisted that steroid users must be banished from sports -- now says that Rafael Palmeiro should be believed when he said he never used steroids, despite a positive steroid test to the contrary:
"Rafael Palmeiro is a friend. He testified in public and I believe him," Bush said, referring to Palmeiro's denials under oath to a congressional committee on March 17. "He's the kind of person that's going to stand up in front of the klieg lights and say he didn't use steroids, and I believe him. Still do."

And here's what infuriates me about the mainstream media. I've read and heard Bush's quote a dozen times already, but no one has bothered to point out that Palmeiro and his homemaker wife donated $8,000 to Bush's 2004 campaign. That's a very important part of the story: Why aren't reporters asking him whether he's going to send back the eight grand? It was given to him by a steroid-fueled player. Doesn't that taint the donation?

In short:

Steroids = HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WE CAN'T HAVE BASEBALL PLAYERS ON STEROIDS!@!!!!
Illegal war = Huh? What about the steroids in baseball???

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"Rafael Palmeiro is a friend. He testified in public and I believe him," Bush said, referring to Palmeiro's denials under oath to a congressional committee on March 17. "He's the kind of person that's going to stand up in front of the klieg lights and say he didn't use steroids, and I believe him. Still do."

And here's what infuriates me about the mainstream media. I've read and heard Bush's quote a dozen times already, but no one has bothered to point out that Palmeiro and his homemaker wife donated $8,000 to Bush's 2004 campaign. That's a very important part of the story: Why aren't reporters asking him whether he's going to send back the eight grand? It was given to him by a steroid-fueled player. Doesn't that taint the donation?

In short:

Steroids = HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WE CAN'T HAVE BASEBALL PLAYERS ON STEROIDS!@!!!!
Illegal war = Huh? What about the steroids in baseball???