The Mitchell Report
December 27, 2007 – 11:35 am Posted by bryan in » Christianity, MLB
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Though I know none of you were out there with baited breath waiting for my 2 cents on the Mitchell Report, I still feel like I should offer something up. The problem is, I don’t have much of an opinion on it. 86 players cheated in different ways and for different reasons. A few of them were outspoken Christians; namely Andy Pettite, Paul Byrd, and Brian Roberts.
Am i surprised that these Christian men were on the report? Not at all. Most Christians I know have cheated at something before. Maybe it was the foot wedge they used on the golf course, a shortcut they took at work to avoid tedious paperwork, going over the speed limit for a good (or bad) reason, or peering over at somebody else’s cards while playing poker.
Am i saying that cheating is okay because we’ve all done it? Of course not. I’m just saying that I wasn’t surprised. I’m guessing you weren’t either.
Kudos to Byrd, Pettitte, and Roberts for addressing the issue right away instead of waiting. Whatever their reasons for using the stuff they used, whether they were legitimate, illegal, or otherwise, I hope they learned something from it all. I guess I can say that about the whole league, not just about these guys. Sadly, I think the only thing that most players learned was that if you are going to do this stuff, don’t pay with a personal check and leave the clubhouse attendant out of the transaction.
Here’s 3 other things I thought about the Mitchell Report and its subsequent fallout:
1. Personally, I don’t believe Clemens for a second now that he is denying the claims. I just don’t. Does anyone? Why would McNamee lie about injecting Clemens over the course of many years? And now that Pettite has admitted that what McNamee said was true, we can take this question further: Wy would McNamee tell the truth about Pettitte, but lie about Clemens? Makes no sense.
2. I liked Bill Simmons’ point about the Clemens-Piazza bat throwing incident from the 2000 World Series. We never understood why he did that until now: Roid Rage.
3. Considering this document was constructed with only a handful of sources, I gotta believe that there were hundreds more players who tried this stuff at one time or another. Not only that, but it was both pitchers and hitters, stars and scrubs, young and old who were using it. When you think about it in those terms, maybe the steroid numbers (aside from HRs) aren’t nearly as inflated as we thought.
I won’t bore you any more with thoughts on this 409-page borefest (yes, i did skim through most of it). If you want to read some other interesting takes on it, try Tim Ellsworth’s take on things at the BP Press, Jordan Green’s humorous angle over at Burnside, or Bill Simmons’ thoughts in the first few paragraphs of this mailbag piece on ESPN.com.
Hope your holidays were, and continue to be, a smashing success.
Tags: Andy Pettitte, HGH, Mitchell Report, Steroids
2 Responses to “The Mitchell Report”
By danny on Dec 27, 2007 | Reply
i am with you on pettite and the others coming out and admitting it. i wasn’t surprised they had tried it. i wish pettite’s apology would have been a little more direct, but i can understand why it wasn’t since hgh wasn’t illegal at the time.
i think one of the most powerful witnesses a believer has is to repent. i was happy to see these guy admit their wrong.
By brenton on Dec 27, 2007 | Reply
the whole morals of the discussion appeal to me, in the sense that there is a very definite divide of right and wrong, in a large segment of the baseball fan’s mind. (there is an outspoken minority of folks who say they don’t care about PEDs in baseball, but most baseball fans that i know really care a lot.)
so, it stands to reason that the guys who stepped up and admitted they were wrong, instead of hiding behind either semantics (or their lawyers, for that matter). in the end, they’re going to come out ok, i think.