Daily Roundup- Tuesday, February 10th

First off, for those of you who have not had a chance to see the A-Rod interview that Peter Gammons conducted, I suggest you run to your computer, type in espn.com and click on the big play button on the center of the screen.

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about A-Rod but, I have my own and I’ll explore those thoughts on a column that I’m working on. As for the interview, I thought it was done with smart, but not good intent on A-Rod’s part. It was wise for him to get ahead of this story which has so many other parts that putting A-Rod on an island about it is completely disingenuous and not fair to A-Rod. Wait, did I just advocate for the fairness of A-Rod. Excuse me while I go bang my head on my desk a few times.

Buster Olney linked a story that John Harper of the Daily News wrote on Sunday and I’m going to link that as well. According to Mr. Harper, now that more and more details are coming out, its time that Donald Fehr and Gene Orza got the boot for this complete miscalculation and mishandling.

Just looking at Donald Fehr’s eyes are creepy. The thing about it is, these guys tried, for the betterment of the Union no matter how you feel, to screw with the numbers so that testing would not be prevalent in baseball. Creating this illusion that steroids was NOT such a huge problem in baseball back when they were testing to see if they needed testing, was dicey considering that at that time, the subject was picking up tread among journalists and they were beginning to align themselves with all the people who were against Performance Enhancing Drugs. It wasn’t until the Congressional hearings and Jose Canseco’s book did the whole steroid thing become a huge situation that got national attention, and by then, they were already on their way to testing in baseball.
Fact is, these results were to remain secret and it was not. That HAS to fall upon Donald Fehr and Gene Orza. Oh and Mr. Orza, warning players about testing is also a big no-no and if it is found to be true, either willingly or forcefully, he must be removed from any position within the player’s union. You can’t do that, not when your sport is having the fight of its life with trying to regain any kind of credibility.


According to a USA Today report, the only reason those positive tests exist is because of a subpoena by the BALCO investigators that made Donald Fehr and the Union halt the destruction of those materials. Six days after the results were finalized, the tests were supposed to be destroyed but since they were ordered to be handed over by the government, Donald Fehr “concluded that it would be improper to proceed with the destruction of the materials."

Fine, they were supposed to be destroyed and weren’t because court orders forced them to hand over the tests. But if allegations are true, that Gene Orza the Union’s number 2, was tipping players off about the random testing (how random could it be if he was telling them before hand that they would be testing?) isn’t it within the government’s right to question whether the Union would fairly assess that there was more than 5% of the players testing positive for banned substances which of course was the number that had to be reached for testing to become regular in baseball to begin with? I mean, aren’t we within our rights to now not believe a single word of what these Union heads are doing? Can the case even be made that the government now has to have an oversight committee over the world of baseball, and don’t you think that it should be lead by Willie Mays and Hank Aaron?


A-Rod wants you to cordon off the three year period that he admitted to using steroids from 2001-2003. However, says Joel Sherman of the New York Post, if anything is ever found with a date prior to 2001 or after 2003, then this image rehab will be done.

Couldn’t agree more Mr. Sherman. A-Rod has made it clear when he was using and if you want to believe him, and that’s totally up to you, then anything prior to or after irreparably damages what was once a sure fire hall of fame career. I think at this point as a baseball fan you have to hope that A-Rod is telling the truth about this because over time this will all disappear. At some point, there will be no more reports from this era and no more lists that were seized by BALCO investigators that can be leaked which means that we will know it all. When that happens, A-Rod may be retired or on his last leg as a baseball player. Time can heal all wounds and by then baseball will have found a way to justify that era and put it in perspective for everyone to see and understand. At some point, baseball will have to acknowledge their past, whether good or bad, in Cooperstown.
But if what A-Rod said is true, then wipe out the 156 homers and let him begin his chase from 397.

Filip Bondy writes a really great article about the loser in all this A-Rod talk that nobody’s suggesting until he did in this morning’s column, Derek Jeter. He may be the last great superhero unblemished in this era. The last great Yankee who had no major flaw that we can see just from looking at his career.

He’s like the last great action hero. As a Met fan I will never forget feeling an inordinate sense of pride when we won game 3 of the World Series back at Shea after the roided up pitchers Clemens and Pettite had won their first two games. Then Jeter took the air out of it all by hitting the first pitch he saw in Game 4 of the World Series over the centerfield fence. For a guy who never hit more than 24 home runs, he sure knew when to turn on the (I was going to say juice but let me not with Jeter) the power. Fact is, he’s the last great player that we can trust and depend upon. Its too bad that he’s had to defend his championship winning teams and his less than honest teammates. Even having to defend his old coach who seemed to be a great guy until he decided to throw everyone under the bus, was probably something Jeter never expected but again, being the good guy in all this has to be consuming. When Jeter hangs it up, it will be a sad day for the Yankees. He played clean in an era that wasn’t. He made plays that hold up when statistics these days are floating around without any place to go since who can trust anything that these players did? He has won the hearts of the New York faithful and even made fans of the Met faithful who understand a great baseball player when they see one (the real ones folks, not the drunk fools that exist in every fan base).


Not all sportswriters are believers of A-Rod’s apology. Anthony Rieber of New York Newsday writes what he believes A-Rod was really saying in his “my-bad” to the sport of baseball.

Hilarious article and truly does come to signify the kind of question marks he’ll face for quite some time. While I do believe that the nature of sports is to forgive and forget as time goes on, the immediate impact of all this will be fresh and the wounds of all this is still being felt so A-Roid will just have to deal.

Meanwhile on the left coast, another high profile player is trying to leave to go to Europe. David Beckham will be sold to AC Milan soon, but no one really cares in LA about soccer because no one in America REALLY cares about soccer in America to begin with.

David Beckham coming to the Galaxy last year was such a PR move that everyone with half a brain could see that. The scam was that he was supposed to be this great player. No, he was idolized in a movie by some Indian girl because he could hit a soccer ball pretty well. He is famous off of one play. He’s literally the definition of one trick pony and ok fine, he’s a good looking guy. His entire celebrity is from his looks more so than any playing ability which was further showcased when for about $250 million (what the deal was rumored to be) the Galaxy realized they got a role player.

Gil LeBreton brings awareness to the changing look of each Winter Olympics host site. Like MLB likes its baseball players, IOC likes its host cities bigger!

Having been around for that long, you can see the difference between Winter Olympics of years ago and today. Fact is, the Winter Olympics are like the step brother of the Summer Olympics because no one really cares for the Winter Olympics. I was surprised to read that women drive the demographic of the Winter Olympics. Interesting.

Ben Roethlisberger yesterday admitted to playing with broken ribs in the Super Bowl to Peter King. This the result of an MRI which he took last week which further hypes up the legacy of that last drive.

(Sarcastically clapping)

Finally, in the LA Times, Greg Johnson writes a story that you will surely remember next time you go to pay for a seat at your team’s brand new stadium and its significantly more expensive than it was before.

While the stadiums being build are more like palaces, the added emphasis has been profit maximizing. Every stadium is outfitted with its own particular drawing point which for fans of visiting stadiums make it fun but for taxpayers can be more of a burden. Every stadium has its own bell and whistle that separates itself from other stadiums but considering this economy is it really worth it to be spending money on these stadiums when the employment rate is hitting almost 8% in this country?