Kuzul

For those of you who haven’t heard, Jose Bautista blasted his 51st and 52nd home runs today. There have only been 26 players in the history of baseball to ever hit 50 home runs is a single season; it’s really a remarkable accomplishment. But for some reason, Jose Bautista hasn’t been getting any pub for what he has done this year.

In fact, instead of receiving congratulations for his accomplishment, he was questioned by the media about steroid use the day after he hit his 50th. That’s really sad. In this day and age, any time a guy puts up huge power numbers people are going to ask themselves, “Are these legitimate numbers, or is this guy on the juice?” Bautista himself said he understood why people would question his numbers this season.

There was once a time when a guy hit 50 jacks and he was what Sportscenter would lead in with, but that is not the case with Jose Bautista. I’ve noticed in the last couple of days that Bautista is basically a side note; at the end of Sportscenter they’ll be like “Oh yeah, and by the way Jose Bautista hit his 50th home run of the season today.”

I’ve never even seen an interview with Bautista. I have no idea what he even sounds like, and I watch a lot of baseball.

Is it Bautista‘s fault that people that he’s gone under the radar? No. It’s guys like A-Rod, Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and so on. It doesn’t help that Bautista came out of nowhere this year. He’s got to the most unlikely guy to hit 50 dingers in a year since Brady Anderson did it in 1996. 

Prior to this year, the most homers Bautista hit in a season was 16 back in 2006, and had a total of 56 career home runs coming into this season. So like Bautista said himself, it is very easy to see why people would be skeptical of his season.

The question I raise is; how long are baseball fans going to be skeptical of the power numbers that guys put up? Major League Baseball has been testing for performance enhancing drugs since 2004. It’s been six years and we still raise steroid questions any time someone puts up a monster season.

Will there ever be a day when we can look at player and say, “Man, Jose Bautista is having a great year,” and just leave it at that?

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The article recently by Damien Cox on the “questionable” hitting success of Jose Bautista this season enraged me intensely. I generally like Damien Cox’s articles, but this article was written purely to generate talking points for the FAN590. It was such a terribly written piece that the writer needs to be taken to task.

Firstly, this article’s main point was to suggest that Bautista’s success potentially could be due to drug use. Recent history has suggested that those players that had become home run leaders attributed their success to steroids. Cox makes this point but does designate any foundations on this, outside of exhibit A (Mark McGwire) and exhibit B (Barry Bonds).

The article makes no attempt to defend or point out any mechanical, psychological, or physical improvements to Bautista’s game or highlight the attributes that make a successful baseball hitter. 

Merely pointing out that there exists a correlation to success in hitting and steroids, and that it maybe present in this situation, without investigating any other argument is journalistic dishonesty.

Unfortunately, Cox has either through laziness, mental inability or restrictions via his blog space was unable to fulfill the journalistic requirements to support his statement.

I personally cannot say that Bautista is taking or not taking steroids, and I am no expert to highlight the physical and mental attributes that make an excellent MLB hitter. However, just “putting it out there” type of articles in journalism as Christopher Hitchens would say “a sinister exercise in moral frivolity.”

Articles of this nature only serve to slur and create controversy, and sell newspapers.

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I won’t link you to the article which is the basis for this article, but I will give you a brief summary:

A hockey writer and self proclaimed pot stirrer, decided to take his turn writing about baseball—after all, hockey season is just around the corner and he wouldn’t want his readers to forget he exists. Short story even shorter, the writer asks if Jose Bautista is juiced.

Well, that’s unfair. He never directly asked the question, simply alluded to the possibility of bringing up said question.

There is so much to cover here, I’m having a difficult time figuring out where to start.

First, the allegation.

I’m not going to speculate whether the Toronto Blue Jays’ slugger is juiced. All we can go on is that he hasn’t failed a test, so as far as the public knows, Bautista is clean.

Is there a chance he is doing something that isn’t being detected? Sure.

But asking a question for which we we already have an answer isn’t really journalism, is it?

That is, over a decade ago, the question was asked if players were using something to aid their performance. The question was answered, and as such, baseball was slagged with this imaginary line denoting when players began using “something to aid their performance.”

That leads to my second point. Damian Cox writes,

For the following unpopular question, blame Major League baseball and all the nonsense it has spewed over the past decade.

Don’t blame me.

No, I’m going to blame you. I’m going to blame you for a lack of journalistic integrity. I’m going to blame you for being a lazy journalist. I’m going to blame you for simply being you, a “pot stirrer.”

I wouldn’t expect Cox to know of a statistic such as isolated power (ISO), which gives a legitimate understanding of a player’s power. Similarly, I wouldn’t expect Cox to know about Park Factors.

However, if one is going to “ask a question,” shouldn’t they at least know what they are talking about?

Let’s do the hard work for Cox.

Yes, Bautista’s ISO has increased. In fact, it has doubled. Okay, case closed. Evidence in the bag. No, no, Cox, wait a minute, maybe there is more.

Park Factors. These are … well, let’s have ESPN explain them.

Park Factor compares the rate of stats at home vs. the rate of stats on the road. A rate higher than 1.000 favors the hitter. Below 1.000 favors the pitcher. Teams with home games in multiple stadiums list aggregate Park Factors.

In other words, a park factor can tell us if a park helps or hurts a hitter. Pretty simple. I’m sure even a hockey writer could figure this out.

In 2010, the SkyDome is playing to a park factor of 1.369 for home runs. In other words, the SkyDome is increasing home runs by 37 percent over the average ballpark.

PNC Park has a park factor of 0.757 for home runs, or it decreases home runs by 24 percent over the average ballpark.

That’s a fairly large difference. One that hasn’t existed since the opening of PNC, but on average, SkyDome has favored hitters and PNC has deflated them.

Here we possibly have the beginning of an explanation, something to look further into before proclaiming Bautista a ‘roid user.

Admittedly, I don’t feel like going all the way into it, but briefly we can see that Bautista’s career at SkyDome has produced a .312 ISO (close to his current season rate) with his PNC ISO sitting at .153 (close to his previous career average).

This doesn’t completely open and close the case that Bautista’s improvements have been a result of playing half of his games at the SkyDome. In fact, Bautista has provided an ISO higher than his career average on the road this year.

So yes, Cox, you are right to ask a question. You are wrong, however to ask your current question.

What a journalist with any sort of integrity would be doing, is asking, “What is up with Bautista?” and then digging deep. Don’t take the easy way out and slap him with the steroid tag.

Do some research.

Make a real story.

Give some information that people can use and learn from.

What Cox did isn’t baseball writing. It isn’t journalism. It’s the same garbage we see on FOX News. It’s a reporter with a bias directing his bias onto a subject with which he has little information. It’s like asking a child who will win the World Series in spring, of course the child will answer that his/her favorite team will win.

But, at least it started a conversation and provides us with a jumping-off point. That is, “Is Damion Cox a worthless writer?”

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Roger Clemens is on the hot seat, again.

The former Yankee was indicted Thursday on perjury charges for allegedly lying to Congress about using performance-enhancing drugs.

Steroids and baseball were a match made in heaven, until science and drug testing got the better of them. Now PEDs are the bane of baseball’s existence, challenging the integrity of the sport for at least the last decade and a half.

This mess of a situation, that is, the allegation that Clemens used steroids during his lengthy career, arose again this week after what seemed like years of dormancy.

Major League Baseball has come down relatively hard on players caught using PEDs, administering a plethora of suspensions to major and minor leaguers. The Rocket should be given no latitude on the matter.

Steroids are steroids. If it is perjury, it is perjury.

There has been little rebuttal on the punishments dished out by the MLB, and it seems some fans and players are almost beginning to appreciate the “cleansing” that the sport is going through.

It is not about statistics or the World Series. It is setting the league straight after who knows how many years, or decades, of usage clouding the honor of baseball. It is making the right example for the young players of the future and playing the right way with respect to the game and all of its elements.

Many want it to go away, but this is the road that must be taken.

There can be no red carpet treatment for the superstars of the sport, and the 2007 Mitchell Report confirmed that. With that document close to three years removed from publication, the mark left on baseball from the Steroid Era is starting to wash away, though some smudges remain.

But Clemens’ still unsolved case, along with Barry Bonds’, are what many consider to be the remaining blemishes on a stained period of time in baseball.

To think that the Rocket’s treatment on this matter is persecution is to ignore the growth of one of the greatest games the world has come to play.

Forget the vanity of one man’s contribution to the game and consider the benefaction of a positive generation’s worth of players to baseball.

Countless former and current players have gone down the slippery and wretched slope that is coming clean to the fans, baseball, and its players, although not many of them are pitchers.

Most pitchers convey a distinct and resilient persona when on the mound, one of almost arrogance and tenacity, akin to what Clemens’ is portraying and has been expressing during the span of his entire investigation.

It is not unlike him to waver, but his steadfastness will keep the pressure on very tightly as well as continue to build some people’s rationalization for persecution.

Baseball moved on from the years of PEDs, and budding stars like Buster Posey, Jason Heyward and Stephen Strasburg are the new age. They have demonstrated dominance and an incredible amount of talent for their youth, and the bad blood of steroid usage seems to have vanished from the minds of the players of the future.

The pieces appear to be stacked against Clemens. Though thousands of fans would love for his name to be rinsed clean of these allegations, the Rocket could fall very hard and very fast.

In fact, his seemingly never-ending case will only stack higher the longer it persists. Baseball moved forward from names like Miguel Tejada, Jason Giambi and Clemens’ teammate and good friend Andy Pettitte.

Would it be too much to expect the public to do the same with Clemens?

For the love of baseball, for the sake of moving forward to drool at the superstar talent in the coming years, to put the fans at ease to enjoy the game, judge, bang your gavel.

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With the 2010 class recently inducted, we can look forward to the 2011 class. 

There are really only two surefire locks to be inducted in 2011, and one tossup first ballot.

Here is a list of candidates who will appear on the ballot and whether or not they will get inducted in 2011. 

This is not indicative of whether or not they’ll get in at all, JUST in 2011.

Begin Slideshow

This so-called “steroid era” in baseball has put more than a dark cloud over what used to be America’s Pastime. 

This dark steroid cloud came to a head this past weekend as another Hall of Fame class was inducted into Cooperstown.  As Andre Dawson entered the Hall of Fame, his speech was dissected down to one little piece:

“Individuals have chosen the wrong road and have chosen that as their legacy. Others still have a chance to choose theirs. Do not be moved to the dark side. It’s a stain on the game, a stain gradually being removed”

After I watched his 23-minute speech on TV, and the ESPN special that followed, I couldn’t help but wonder, myself, if we have seen the last legitimate inductee class. 

HOF voters have time and again said they would never vote in a player with connections to steroids.  With those connections becoming more evident as years pass, the superstars of the last decade may never be enshrined in gold. 

I turned off the television, discouraged that the players I grew up watching would probably never make it to Cooperstown. 

Then I saw something else.

Last night Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Matt Garza threw a no-hitter. 

It was astoundingly the fifth no hitter of 2010.  Add another counting Armando Galarraga’s one-hit perfect game and that’s six.  Not to mention the countless other close calls this season.  Which leads me to my one and only major point of this article:

STEROID TESTING IN BASEBALL IS WORKING!

Yes, I will be the one who finally says it.  Those who continually dog baseball and the MLB for letting the steroid era happen can now take a back seat to the realization that in 2010 the game we all knew and loved is finally coming back.

Being a true fan of the game, I am happy to see this happen.  I will be the first to admit that baseball, to the casual fan, no longer possesses the same “sexy-ness” as before. 

Home runs are down, scoring is down, batting average is down, RBI, hits, slugging percentage, and the list goes on and on. 

However, the ERA is better, strikeouts are climbing, WHIP—for all you fantasy players—is better then it’s ever been.  The game is changing, and once again a player’s brain is outshining the opponent’s brawn. 

Boring, yes to some, but to others this is a beautiful thing.

The other side. 

Barry Bonds.  I feel like only in an article such as this can a name be considered a sentence and yet say so much. 

I will not bore you with my theories on the man with the exception of saying that while I do not agree with what he did or did not do in baseball, he still has to go down as one of the best (not the best mind you) home run hitters of all time. 

It does say something, though, that those who denied and denied steroid use (i.e. Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds) are no longer playing, while those who admitted (i.e. Alex Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte) usage have calmly moved on playing the game. 

And while I tend to try to not listen to the banter that players say when talking about steroids, after watching Garza’s no-hit performance yesterday, one particular quote from Bonds stuck in my mind. 

“I don’t know if steroids are going to help you in baseball. I just don’t believe it.  I don’t believe steroids can help eye-hand coordination [and] technically hit a baseball.”

Barry Bonds stated those words in a 2005 interview.  I now wonder what he thinks today. 

In 2010, as pitching numbers skyrocket, more then just batting averages and ERAs are dropping. So are suspensions. 

This season only one player has been suspended for performance enhancing drugs.  Compare this to 12 in 2005 after Bonds made his infamous quote.  The writing is on the wall.  Steroids in the MLB are all but gone and the near half dozen no hitters this season prove it. 

Home runs are a dime a dozen .  I agree they are flashy and entertaining to fans. However, I would much rather watch history be made with nine innings of perfection.

Yes, we may never again see home run records broken, but watching a game that’s real and fair is a small price to pay for the simple pleasure that is regaining America’s Pastime. 

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For any person involved in professional sports there is often a discussion of what their legacy will be after they leave the sport.  Even players who were never all-stars can leave a legacy as a hard worker, great teammate, or role player.

Some peoples’ legacy can be defined by a single event, such as a great win or a heartbreaking loss.

When it comes to most players, their legacy is defined by their actions from their first game as a rookie to the day they retire.  In most cases this is a relatively short time frame in which to leave a legacy.

On the other hand there is one person in any league that is often given the opportunity to have an impact on multiple generations, and in some cases, change the game—for better or worse—forever.

That person is the commissioner of the league.  One commissioner in particular has added to his legacy in recent days:

Bud Selig.

Selig’s handling of Jim Joyce’s blown call that cost Armando Galarraga his perfect game opened my eyes to exactly what Selig’s legacy will be.

I will forever see Selig as the man who does nothing. 

To prove my point, I will start with present events and work backwards through his time as commissioner.

Selig has pretty much pretended the whole perfect game dispute never happened. He refused to overturn the call and award Galarraga the perfect game he earned because he supposedly doesn’t want to set a precedent.

There is not a single person in the world that thinks Galarraga didn’t pitch a perfect game. Joyce himself feels terrible that he blew the call so badly. 

It is true that the call did not affect the outcome of the game, but righting this terrible wrong would not affect it either. It would simply give a young pitcher the credit he is due. 

He deserves to have his name on the list of perfect game winners, and Selig could fix that, but he didn’t.

Instant replay could have easily righted this wrong as well, but Selig refuses to use that tool to its full extent. 

Even after the plethora of terrible calls in the 2009 postseason, he is still unwilling to let technology aid in the proper calling of games.  He did institute replay for disputed home runs in 2008, which is a step in the right direction, but not a big enough one.

Human error is a part of baseball, and replay would never eliminate that part of the game, nor do I think most close plays should even be reviewed, but these plays that are not even close could easily be righted and no one would complain.

In what will most likely be the single biggest chapter in the Bud Selig era, I will remember how he refused to take action until Congress forced him to.

I am of course referring to the use of performance enhancing drugs in baseball.

It was not until after the 2005 Congressional hearings that Selig helped form the new league policy on PEDs.  This is totally ridiculous as a big chunk of the steroid era started in the ’80s and ’90s.  Not to mention the use of amphetamines in the ’70s, which were also outlawed at this time.

I realize Selig did not become acting commissioner until 1992, and commissioner in 1998, but he was an owner before that time and had to be aware of what was going on in the game. He very easily could have come in and helped to fix the problem before it got totally out of hand.

I realize he had to work with other groups, namely the player’s association, to get stuff like this done, but it would not have been difficult to get the aid of the media, and in turn, the public, had he actually wanted to make something happen.

But he did nothing.

Selig did reinstate George Steinbrenner from his lifetime ban from baseball though he refuses to reinstate Pete Rose, who I feel has paid his debt and belongs in the Hall, but that is a different argument all together.

In comparing other commissioners to Selig I can’t help but keep thinking about Roger Goodell of the NFL.  He has come in and taken action on what can be very controversial subjects.

He has brought the NFL into an era of dominance in the American sports world.  He has disciplined severely, but fairly, while always maintaining the league’s best interests.

He is accepting of new technologies that will further the game, and is willing to make tough decisions when they need to be made, and stands firmly by them when he gets criticized.

There is much more involved with the success of a league than just the commissioner, but while the NFL continues to increase in popularity, Major League Baseball has remained mostly stagnant, if not somewhat worse off after the steroids fallout.

Who knows if Selig will actually retire when his contract is up in 2012, since he didn’t in 2009 contrary to his previous announcement that he would.  All I know is that I hope whenever he does get replaced, his heir will be more willing to take a stand on issues, and really try and make the game better.

Money is often the driving force in these decisions, but it wasn’t money that kept Selig from awarding Galarraga the perfect game that he had earned, it was simply his inability to do anything, even when the decision is an obvious one.

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It seems that nary a week goes by without another player being indicted on, or at least suspected of, charges of using PEDs. While the juicers’, and their suppliers’ house of cards, fell in the MLB, PED investigations and suspensions have now proliferated to the NFL, professional cycling, and other sports.

One thing is clear: These substances, the people who use them, and the people who distribute them are not going away.

Every conviction represents just a drop out of the vast ocean purists believe professional sports are sinking in.

There may only be one solution: Legalize performance enhancing drugs.

It may not be a perfect fix. But, it would end the tiresome finger pointing, rumor generating, asterisk affixing, and 1940’s style blacklisting that has been running rampant in professional sports today.

The argument to legalize, and regulate, these performance enhancing drugs is similar to the argument for the legalization of controlled substances, such as marijuana:

1) There is no stopping it completely. Sure, the War On (Performance Enhancing) Drugs has garnered a few victories, but those are few and far between compared to the holes in the system that allow PEDs to enter our prized athletes’ bloodstreams.

Athletes, in general, are adored by their fans. They are idolized by young children. The truth, however, is that just because they are rich and talented, does not mean that these are inherently “good” people.

In fact, their fame and fortunes often lead many athletes to become drug and alcohol users, female and spousal abusers, adulterers, conceited, selfish, jaded, narcissistic, or all of the above.

Take your pick.

Reading the newspapers or watching ESPN, it seems that there are very few athletes who can even qualify as decent, much less heroic, figures.

Maybe the athletes are changing. Or maybe, like how the brightest of lights bring out flaws in even the smoothest skin, the media evolution allows us just too close of a look for us to retain the puppy-saving ideal citizen image we have of our favorite sports figures.

2) Regulating performance enhancing drugs would even the playing field. Teams already have their own nutritionists, weight trainers, medical staff, and high tech facilities that allow their players to achieve physical results far beyond the normal Joe six-pack is capable of. Performance Enhancing Drugs merely widen the gap between the mortal and the superhuman.

In the MLB’s Mitchell Report, over 87 players were specifically named as relating to steroids, and steroid based offenses. Superstars like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and Rafael Palmeiro were mentioned on this list. No-names like Todd Pratt and Hal Morris also appeared in the report. 

This is evidence that steroids alone cannot turn an average player into a star.

More recently, NFL players have been caught up in the PED storm.

Brian Cushing, the Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2009, was recently suspended four games for his involvement with PEDs. However, upon a re-vote, Cushing was still awarded Rookie of the Year honors.

This is a sign that not only are PEDs widespread in the NFL, but people know it. They are even beginning to accept it.

In one NFL player’s opinion, PED use is as low as 15 percent amongst players. In another current players estimate, it is as high as 30 percent.

If this is the case, and who would know better than the athletes themselves, then why have only a few players been charged?

Major league organizations know they are selling a spectacle. They can’t make the players donate to charity, give autographs, or even acknowledge a fan’s presence.

But, they can provide an awe-inspiring show of athletic ability, strength, and power.

3) While it may be a cynical and jaded outlook on sports, sooner or later, this performance enhancing drug situation will be hit head-on. If PEDs were regulated, at least fans wouldn’t have to wonder if their favorite players were secretly juicing.

Their wouldn’t be a cloud of doubt over what the players were doing.

Then, more focus could be spent on keeping PEDs out of players’ bodies at the collegiate and high school levels, where the love of the game and the purity of the sport, outweighs the love of money and marvel.

This may even heighten the popularity of amateur sports, as purists would still get a thrill out of watching games fueled solely by sweat and determination.

Regulating steroids would also make the players who voluntarily refuse to take PEDs look like heroes, as opposed to the media singling out a few villains.

Just my two cents. Hate away. I know you want to.  

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

It seems that nary a week goes by without another player being indicted on charges of using PEDs. While the juicers’, and their suppliers, house of cards fell in the MLB, PED investigations and suspensions have now proliferated to the NFL, professional cycling, and other sports.

One thing is clear. These substances, the people who use them, and the people who distribute them, are not going away.

Every conviction is only a drop in the vast ocean that the purists believe professional sports are sinking in.

There may be only one solution: Legalize performance enhancing drugs.

It may not be a perfect fix, but it would end the tiresome finger pointing, rumor generating, asterisk affixing, 1940’s style blacklisting that has been running rampant in professional sports today.

The argument for the legalization and regulation of these performance enhancing drugs is similar to the argument for the legalization of controlled substances such a marijuana.

There is no stopping it completely. Sure, the War On (Performance Enhancing) Drugs has garnered a few victories, but those are few and far between compared to the holes in the system that allow these PEDs to enter the bloodstreams of our prized athletes.

Athletes in general are adored by their fans, and are idolized by young children. The truth, however, is that just because they are rich and talented, does not mean that they are inherently “good” people. In fact, it is often because of their fame and fortunes that many athletes become drug and alcohol users, female and spousal abusers, adulterers, conceited, selfish, jaded, narcissistic, or all of the above. Take your pick.

Reading the newspapers or watching ESPN, it seems that there are very few athletes who can even qualify as decent, much less heroic, figures. Maybe the athletes are changing, or maybe, like how the brightest of lights brings out flaws in even the smoothest skin, the media evolution allows us just too close of a look for us to retain the puppy-saving ideal citizen image we have of our favorite sports figures.

Regulating performance enhancing drugs would even the playing field. Teams already have their own nutritionists, weight trainers, medical staff, and high tech facilities that allow their players to achieve physical results far beyond the normal Joe six-pack is capable of. Performance Enhancing Drugs merely widen the gap between the mortal and the superhuman.

In the MLB’s Mitchell Report, over 87 players were specifically named as relating to steroid and steroid based offenses. On this list were superstars like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, and Rafael Palmeiro. Also on this list were no-names like Todd Pratt and Hal Morris. This is evidence that steroids alone cannot turn an average player into a star.

More recently, NFL players have been getting caught up in the PED storm.

Brian Cushing, the Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2009, was recently suspended four games for his involvement with PEDs. However, upon a re-vote, Cushing was still awarded Rookie of the Year honors. This is a sign that not only are PEDs widespread in the NFL, but people know it and are even beginning to accept it.

In the opinion of one NFL player, PED use is as low as 15 percent amongst players. In another current players estimate, it is as high as 30 percent. If this is the case, and who would know better than guys who work out with, spend time in the locker room with, and more importantly, are, NFL players, then why have only a few players been charged?

Major league sports organizations know that they are selling a spectacle. They can’t make the players donate to charity, give autographs, or even acknowledge a fan’s presence. What they can do is provide an awe-inspiring show of athletic ability, strength, and power of the human form.

While it may be cynical and jaded outlook on sports, sooner or later this performance enhancing drug situation is going to have to be hit head-on. Were PEDs to be regulated, at the very least fans wouldn’t have to wonder if they’re favorite players were secretly juicing. They would know that they were, and they would know that they were only doing it so that they could compete in a league where everybody else is doing it.

Then, more focus could be spent on keeping PEDs out of player’s bodies at the collegiate and high school levels, where the love of the game and the purity of the sport outweighs the love of money and marvel.

It will also make the players who voluntarily refuse to take PEDs look like heroes, as opposed to singling out a few villains in a league where every player could be harboring the same dark secret.

Just my two cents, hate away. I know you want to.  

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com