As a Red Sox fan, I couldn't be more appreciative of the way that Curt Schilling has played over the past four seasons. His skill, grit, and leadership abilities have been instrumental in helping the Red Sox win two World Series, and I appreciate the fact that he was willing to take less money in order to re-sign with the Red Sox. He has all of the on-the-field intangibles that you could ever want from a starting pitcher, and he has a colorful personality to boot. I really do appreciate everything that he has brought to the Red Sox. But, sometimes I wish that he would keep his mouth shut.
Last week, in a post on his blog, Schilling stated that Roger Clemens should be stripped of his final four Cy Young Awards (1997, 1998, 2001, and 2004) and have his numbers from 1997 on erased if he is not able to prove that he is innocent of the accusations brought against him in the Mitchell Report. Curt is certainly entitled to his opinion. However, I have to take issue with much of what he said. First of all, how in the world would Schilling like Clemens to prove his innocence? This has been the single greatest question I have for all of the reporters out there who have called for the players claiming their innocence to "prove it." I understand the sentiment, but I just don't see how they are supposed to do it. I hate to harp on this point, but there are no drug tests from these years. So, unless Roger has had somebody videotaping him 24 hours a day for the past ten years, I really don't see how he can prove his innocence. In fact, if anybody out there has a feasible way that Roger Clemens can prove to all of us that he is innocent, please let us know. I'd be very interested. So, first off, I take issue with the fact that Curt is suggesting that Clemens be stripped of all of his accomplishments of the past ten years (even though we have no real proof of his guilt) unless he is able to do the impossible.
Kevin Garnett just hit one of the sickest turn around jumpers that I have ever seen. I'm a little worried about the fact that we are tied with the Sonics right now.
Secondly (and again, I feel like a broken record here, because I've covered a lot of this before), Schilling is suggesting that Clemens be punished in a way that would be totally unprecedented under the current league drug policy. Under today's league drug testing policies, a player who is found to be guilty of using PEDs is suspended. They are not stripped of all previous accomplishments. It is totally outrageous to suggest that Clemens, for whom we have no failed drug tests, should be stripped of his accomplishments. The idea that we have enough here to definitively say that Roger's accomplishments are not legitimate is ludicrous.
Only up by one at half against Seattle. What the hell is going on here. And Delonte gave KG a hard foul from behind. I don't like this at all. It's hard for me to be upset at Delonte.
Thirdly, I have a hard time supporting any action against the names listed in the Mitchell Report for several reasons. The first is that the evidence is inconclusive in all cases. The second is that the Mitchell Report is based on very few sources, and yet it produced a great deal of names. This suggests that if we were somehow to gather a full battery of information from everyone in baseball, we would find that this was a problem that ran so rampant that it is impossible to punish individuals. I have a hard time accepting any form of punishment that focuses on the players rather than the powers that be in baseball. Perhaps I'm an apologist, but in my mind this problem falls squarely on the shoulders of Major League Baseball, not its players. Imagine that you spent your whole life working hard to fulfill your dream of becoming a professional baseball player. Imagine that you knew steroids would allow you to excel as a pro, become a superstar, and become a multi-millionaire. Imagine that you knew Major League Baseball did not have a testing policy and tons of other guys were doing the same thing, so you were really at a disadvantage by staying clean. Wouldn't you do it? Of course you would. Everybody would. That's why these leagues need to police themselves. Baseball had its first hints that players might be taking steroids in the late 80's, and yet it chose not to act. It is baseball that deserves to be punished, and they are. Their punishment is coming in the form of unanswered questions and unsatisfied fans. It is not fair to the fans, nor is it fair to the players who were clean. However, there is no way for baseball to go back in time and fix this problem.
BIG THREE FROM PIERCE, UP 6!
I hope that this is the last time I'll feel compelled to write about these issues, because frankly I'm tired of hearing about them. In ending this post, I would like to state that I sincerely hope that we will now see an end to the involvement of Congress in the issues of Major League Baseball. It just doesn't seem right to me. I highly doubt that Congress would step in to stop corporations like Wal-Mart, Starbucks, or Burger King from mishandling their affairs and driving themselves into the ground. Why should baseball be any different? Baseball doesn't deserve the help of Congress. The lack of regard that they have shown for their fans over the past 20 years is inexcusable (I can't say that it's worse than what we've seen from the NHL lately, but I can't definitively say that it's not worse). It didn't feel right when Congress forced baseball to come up with a drug testing and punishment policy. It didn't feel right when current and ex-Major Leaguers were dragged before Congress in 2005 to discuss the issue of steroids. It didn't feel right when an ex-senator was spending a great deal of time and money investigating the past use of steroids, and it certainly doesn't feel right now when I hear people discussing further investigation into the accusations of the Mitchell Report. Baseball fucked this up, and it should be their responsibility to fix it without any help from Congress. Hundreds of plant workers in the Boston area alone were laid off from their jobs this holiday season. Companies all over the country are losing money. Thousands of city dwellers have been evicted from their homes this winter. Thousands of families celebrated the holidays wishing that their children were home instead of marching around the Middle East wearing about 70 pounds of protective Kevlar. Thousands more of those same children are being seriously wounded and coming home to receive sub-par heath care. I'm not trying to make any type of political statement, and I certainly don't know the solutions to any of these problems. However, I do believe that Congress has more important issues to spend their time and money on than baseball.
