Sports Blog

When news about another steroid and PED user in baseball comes out I am no longer surprised.  How can I be now?  With name after name being associated with steroid and PED (Performance Enhancing Drug) use.  Another name can be added to the list as Sammy Sosa was apparently also on that same list of positive testers that Alex Rodriguez was on in 2003.  The list had all the players that tested positive in 2003 in the MLB, 104 players in all.  The list was supposed to never come out to the public.   Baseball just wanted to take an anonymous survey to see if they needed testing in baseball.  It was kept out of the public spotlight until earlier this year when A-Rod’s name was leaked as the big fish on the list. 

Since then, there has been a debate on whether the rest of the names should be made public or not.  I personally am on the side of just getting all the names out in the public.  Just get it over with now as a big group so people can have their reactions and move on.  People will be angry and surprised for a while and then just deal with it.  Letting the names be leaked a little at a time just prolongs the story that baseball wants to get rid of.  People will always question and suspect anyone and everyone till all the names are out.  Though it wont solve all the questions about steroids and PED’s, it will be one less of a story.

As more and more names of steroid and PED users come out, which seems like all the great players of that time, I think fans are starting to think that just about everyone was using them at that time.  You can’t really trust anyone these days.  Not the MLB, not the players.  All we get from them is denial after denial.  That is, until they get caught red handed.  Then, they try to come out and apologize to everyone like they are doing the honorable thing.  It’s not that honorable when all the evidence is out and there is no other option but to apologize for being caught.  I mean, Sammy Sosa, just a few weeks ago, stated when he announced his retirement, “I will calmly wait for my induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Don’t I have the numbers to be inducted?”  That was before anyone could directly link him steroids or PED’s and the only thing that people could pin on him was being caught with that corked bat in that same 2003.  But now that this is out, he can most likely just kiss that good bye.  I guess we’ll just have to see how the public and hall of fame voters react.  My advice to baseball is to just release all the names and get this thing over with.  I’ll be waiting for the next 102 till then.

Image Source:  Reuters Pictures

And so another one bites the dust.

In case you have been living under a rock for the last 24 hours and/or haven’t had any human contact, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez has tested positive for human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, a female fertility drug and banned substance of Major League Baseball.

Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games and will lose more than $7 million dollars in salary after deciding to drop his appeal of the ruling.

Sadly, for those who root for the Dodgers, the savior of their team has joined the likes of other home run hitting heroes who have fallen under the dark cloud of the steroids era.  While Ramirez hasn’t tested positive for steroids — he said he has passed about 15 drug tests over the last five seasons — the tarnish to his image may be too much for even him to overcome.

hCG is, after all, a drug commonly used by steroid users to get their bodies to naturally reproduce testosterone after a steroids cycle.  At best he is guilty of gross negligence when it comes to monitoring drugs he puts into his body.  At worst he is a cheater a la Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, etc., etc.

We aren’t supposed to be surprised any more when a new name pops up on the list of substance (ab)users, but regardless of whether or not you are a fan of Ramirez it is likely you were at least a bit shocked when you heard the news.  Manny is a lot of things, but until yesterday a cheater wasn’t thought to be one of them.  Ugly exit from Boston aside, Ramirez has been the goofy, eccentric, fan-friendly player that Bonds never was.  For all his shortcomings, Ramirez was the carefree-to-a-fault, clean power hitter baseball desperately needed.

Or so we all thought.

Manny being Manny used to be a nice way of saying Ramirez is a bit of knucklehead.   Now it just feels like the butt of a bad late night joke, the easy way of saying Ramirez’s deception can only be described as Ramirez-like.

McGwire taught us all that chicks dig the long ball, but nobody told him and the players that followed that drug induced potency didn’t count.  Now Ramirez has taught us all a lesson we hopefully won’t soon forget.

Looks can be deceiving. Just because a player doesn’t show the typical signs of steroid use (Bond’s enormous head) doesn’t mean he is above suspicion.  Just because a player is engaging and charismatic doesn’t mean he is beyond doubt.  Just because a man can lift a city doesn’t mean he can evade punishment.

And, apparently, just because you aren’t supposed to be surprised any more doesn’t mean you can’t be.

Image Source: Wbz.com

There was one question on everybody’s mind after the first round of the home run derby – from people who don’t follow baseball to those who only do so casually – just who in the world is Josh Hamilton?

After all, the talk leading up to the home run derby was primarily about the players who chose not to participate in the fan favorite event. New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez was too busy playing prima donna to hit a few home runs on his home field. All-time home run leader Barry Bonds can’t even find a major league team to take him at the veteran’s minimum.

Then, as magically as his dream foretold, Hamilton put on a show that baseball fans will be talking about for a very long time. In the house that Ruth built, in the last year Yankee Stadium will exist in its current form, Hamilton laid the foundation for the post-steroids era.

Let’s face it; this year’s all-star game was supposed to be a game that the casual baseball fan didn’t care about. Baseball was at a crossroads between the stars of the steroids-era-past and the young, talented players that had yet to breach mainstream stardom.

Or so we all thought. Hamilton blasted 28 home runs in the first round of the home run derby, surpassing the Bobby Abreu mark of 24 set back in 2005. The average length of each of his home runs was an astounding 445 feet, with three landing beyond 500 feet.

Hamilton would eventually lose in the finals to Justin Morneau, but as Hamilton would probably agree, sometimes the beauty is in the process. You see, a few years ago Hamilton was banned from Major League Baseball for substance abuse and was an admitted drug addict. The 1999 first overall pick was walking down a dangerous path and slowly wasting away, quite literally at points.

Eventually, however, he would get his life back together. After a vivid dream in which he says Jesus helped him fight off the devil, Hamilton started to get clean. The MLB would eventually reinstate him, and in 2007 the Cincinnati Reds drafted him.

Which brought us to Monday night, when a 27-year-old who two years earlier had a dream of being interviewed at a home run derby at Yankee Stadium, stepped to the plate and had all of us asking just who the heck Josh Hamilton is? He didn’t have the name recognition of previous home run derby notables like Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa or Mark McGwire, but he left with one of the most remarkable stories you’ll ever hear in sports: the story of a troubled man who struggled in his life and managed to defy the odds.

A man who overcame addiction and literally lived his dream, in the process helping rebuild the tarnished image of baseball in the aftermath of the Barry Bonds’ and Jose Canseco’s of the past. Maybe this year’s all-star festivities weren’t what we expected them to be, but they were better than any of us, with the exception of Hamilton, could have ever dreamt they would be.

Photo Source.

It was a night full of nostalgia for Sammy Sosa. 

The perennial slugger finally reached No. 600 last night when belted a home run to centerfield off Jason Marquis, becoming only the sixth player in history to join the elite club.

The ironic twist was that he did it against his former team, the Chicago Cubs, while playing on the Rangers who originally drafted him in 1989. 

Sosa played on the Cubs from 1992-2004 where he enjoyed a remarkable career, hitting 545 home runs, an MVP award and seven All-Star selections.

But after one corked bat and some steroid hoopla later, the Cubs felt it was time to let him go.

Sosa was signed to a minor league contract this year, but wasn’t guaranteed a major league roster spot. He made the team after a strong spring training and is hitting .242 with 12 home runs and 53 RBI, thus far.

Source: CBS Sportsline