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Baseball
Topic Started: Oct 19 2005, 10:30 AM (343 Views)
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Pujols launches another break Sox' way

October 18, 2005

BY JAY MARIOTTI SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

So, who had the Brad Lidge voodoo doll? I'm guessing Ozzie Guillen was holding it on his night off, stabbing it just long enough for Albert Pujols to blast a three-run homer and give the White Sox yet another break in their October of love, faith, hope and champagne. Had Lidge retired the great Pujols with two outs in the ninth inning, the Houston Astros would have arrived this weekend with a rested Roger Clemens and a rested Roy Oswalt as their opening starting pitchers.



Instead, the Sox will avoid Oswalt this weekend because he must pitch Wednesday night in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, forced when Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals pulled off a stunning 5-4 victory. Another opponent has been extended, meaning another notch rises on the belief meter.

"This has been a great season. But it can still be an unbelievable season,'' said A.J. Pierzynski, referring to a World Series that will begin Saturday against someone.

Blown save aside, you don't want the Astros. You don't want a mirror image of the Sox, honky tonk and chicken fried. You don't want Clemens stalking a championship in his hometown, followed by OOOOOOOOswalt and Andy Pettitte. You don't want Lidge, usually lights-out. You don't want Jeff Bagwell returning as a designated hitter. You don't want downtown Houston, where I once saw a tumbleweed, or Minute Maid Park, where the home team is 57-29 and an annoying train in left field will have Guillen speaking in tongues.

You want the Cardinals. You want to face beatable starting pitchers and a vulnerable bullpen. You want a banged-up lineup. You want a four-hour drive down Interstate 55 in your minivan. You want to take over the Landing, hang a Sox banner on the Arch. You want tradition, the Midwest. Pujols, you don't want, but his at-bats against Jose Contreras, Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland and Freddy Garcia -- why aren't their silhouettes adorning skyscrapers at night? -- would be priceless.

To even be debating a favored NL opponent, here in the third week of October, is surreal. Like the girl you never thought you'd get, the concept of a World Series in Chicago has a numbing, we're-not-worthy effect. For now, the city streets are dotted with out-of-town media trying to capture the sociological meaning of it all. There I was Monday, at the mercy of my mouth, standing with an ESPN reporter who fired up a question more loaded than a Sox fan at last call. Why, he asked, isn't the civic buzz as palpable for the Sox as it was for the Cubs two autumns ago? I hadn't thought about it much, hoping rather foolishly that fans of both teams might unite as one during this apocalyptic moment in a Chicago lifetime.

Come together?



But, of course, the man is accurate. There was more anticipation surrounding a Cubs team playing for a National League pennant than a Sox team that has won an American League pennant and will be favored to win the World Series. The reasons are simple: If the Cubs were a fairy tale, an American baseball romance that borders on a sickness, the Sox are a gritty story from a back alley. If I tried to describe their success as a fairy tale, their fans would attempt to Ligue me from the blind side. Sox breakthrough aside, there still are many more Cubs fans in Chicago and beyond than Sox fans, and most Cubs fans are bitter as hell about these shocking developments.

The funniest thing I heard Monday? Someone quipping that the Sox must stay away from hotels frequented by gamblers. The second-funniest? Someone wondering which Sox outfielder is most likely to have a beer dumped over his head, recalling Al Smith's drenching during the 1959 World Series. It should surprise no one that both cracks were made in Wrigleyville, where it is rumored the Cubs once won a Series, though no one is sure. The other day, Guillen actually urged Cubs fans to become "Chicago fans'' and root for the Sox. This is the same guy who trashes Wrigley Field and exacerbates the crosstown rivalry. Is he serious?

"I hope White Sox fans don't take it the wrong way like they always take me. But on our chest, in the beautiful city of Chicago, it says 'White Sox.' And when we play on the road, we represent Chicago, the city,'' Guillen said. "I think we've got something that's going on here that's nice for the city. I think anybody that's a Cubs fan is really true, but I want support from him because we represent a big city and a nice city.''

Seems the Blizzard of Oz will have a better chance receiving Christmas mailings from Buck Showalter and Magglio Ordonez. When fans are required at birth to declare their allegiance before they are slapped on the butt by the doctor, it's unrealistic to think crossovers would occur because one team finally reaches a World Series. If anything, the Sox' uprising has caused more bitterness among Cubs fans who saw their chance foiled two autumns ago and have since seen a window of opportunity shut down like Kerry Wood's right arm. I've always found Cubs fans to be more sensible than Sox fans, many of whom come from some neanderthal mold that causes excessive grunting, e-mail sending and voice-mail stalking. But for every Michael Wilbon, the South Side native and Washington Post sports columnist who is thrilled about the Sox despite his Cubbie ties, there are swarms of Cubs fans who cringe every time they are taunted and tormented by Soxheads.

How interesting to see owner Jerry Reinsdorf in the clubhouse mob scene, asking aloud what a Cubs fan would do if the rival Sox played the rival Cardinals. Most likely, Cubdom would root for the Cards. The rationale: St. Louis always beats up on the Cubs and has won recent championships; if the Sox win it all, the Cubs never will live it down. If nothing else, at least there is hope on the North Side that the South Side success will prompt Tribune Co. to spend more money and make better decisions in an attempt to keep up with the Reinsdorfs. It could be the Cubs always will have more fans, higher TV ratings and bigger gate receipts. But if the Sox win the Series, they will have pulled off the ultimate trump. Just arriving here represents, by Chicago standards, a holy grail.

Black over blue



"It finally puts us above the Cubs,'' said bench coach Harold Baines, usually the quietest guy in the joint. "They've been getting all the credit.''

"This is a Sox town now,'' proclaimed Frank Thomas, who seems genuinely thrilled to be on the clubhouse party train despite an injury that popped his dreams.

Ken Williams, who carried out the dramatic roster overhaul that Guillen suggested, keeps voicing the most touching comments. "Generations of people have not seen us get to this level, and I personally carry that weight on my shoulders all the time to the degree it's not healthy sometimes,'' said the general manager. "I understand people have come and gone and not seen their teams in the World Series. So my thought right now is I hope they are celebrating like we are now. I'm happy for all of them.''

It's wrong to say the entire town is jazzed by the Sox. Cubdom, a large constituency, isn't interested in the least. This bitterness should delight the Sox and their fans to no end because, after all, winning the Series is only half the battle.
Ticking off All Things Cubbie is the real goal. They're succeeding.





“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”
Frederic Bastiat
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Yesterday was a sad day for me. One of my all-time favorite baseball players died from complications brought on by a stroke. He was truly one of the greats and had a batting average of .318 through his carreer. Won two national titles, was a 10 time All-Star, 6 time Gold Glove winner, and one hell of a team player. He also produced one of the all-time great clips with his game winning home run in game 6 in the 11th inning of the 1991 World Series, which they went on to win in game 7. Kirby Puckett was the second youngest player to die after being inducted in the Hall Of Fame. More players should be like Kirby.



Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett Dies at 45


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Mar 7, 7:24 AM (ET)

By DAVE CAMPBELL

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Kirby Puckett didn't need much time to make a big impact. Those who felt it, near and far, can only wish he had stayed around longer.

The bubbly Hall of Famer with the boyish enthusiasm for baseball, who led the Minnesota Twins to two World Series titles before his career was cut short by glaucoma, died Monday after a stroke. He was 45.

"He was revered throughout the country and will be remembered wherever the game is played," commissioner Bud Selig said. "Kirby was taken from us much too soon - and too quickly."

Indeed, Puckett was the second-youngest person to die having already been enshrined at Cooperstown, Hall of Fame spokesman Jeff Idelson said. Only Lou Gehrig, at 37, was younger.

Stricken early Sunday at his Arizona home, Puckett died at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, where friends and family had gathered. Puckett, who was divorced, is survived by his children, Catherine and Kirby Jr. He was engaged to be married to Jodi Olson this summer.

Funeral arrangements were pending.

Puckett's post-retirement weight gain over the past decade concerned friends and family, who were saddened but not shocked by his stroke.

"It's a tough thing to see a guy go through something like that and come to this extent," former teammate Kent Hrbek said.

Puckett led the Twins to championships in 1987 and 1991 after breaking into the majors in 1984. With a career batting average of .318, six Gold Gloves and 10 All-Star game appearances, Puckett woke up one morning during spring training in 1996 and never played again because of blindness in his right eye.

"That's what really hurt him bad, when he was forced out of the game," Hrbek said. "I don't know if he ever recovered from it."

A makeshift memorial began to form Monday night outside the Metrodome, with a handful of bouquets, caps and candles laid on the sidewalk. "I grew up in centerfield yelling down on him. It's just not right," said fan Daniel Boche, who knelt down to pay his respects. "He was my idol growing up."

"It's tough to take," Twins general manager Terry Ryan said from the team's spring training camp in Fort Myers, Fla. "He had some faults, we knew that, but when all was said and done he would treat you as well as he would anyone else, no matter who you were."

Though he steadfastly refused to speak pessimistically about the premature end to his career, Puckett's personal life began to deteriorate after that.

Shortly after his induction to Cooperstown, then-wife Tonya accused him of threatening to kill her during an argument - he denied it - and described to police a history of violence and infidelity. In 2003, he was cleared of all charges from an alleged sexual assault of a woman at a suburban Twin Cities restaurant and kept a low profile after the trial, eventually moving to Arizona. He stopped coming to spring training as a special instructor in 2002.

Puckett was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first try in 2001, and his plaque praised his "ever-present smile and infectious exuberance."

He spent his entire career with Minnesota.

"I wore one uniform in my career and I'm proud to say that," Puckett once said. "As a kid growing up in Chicago, people thought I'd never do anything. I've always tried to play the game the right way. I thought I did pretty good with the talent that I have."

Puckett's signature performance came in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series against Atlanta. After claiming he would lead the Twins to victory that night at the Metrodome, he made a leaping catch against the fence and then hit a game-ending homer in the 11th inning to force a seventh game.

The next night, Minnesota's Jack Morris went all 10 innings to outlast John Smoltz for a 1-0 win, Minnesota's second championship in five years.

"If we had to lose and if one person basically was the reason - you never want to lose - but you didn't mind it being Kirby Puckett. When he made the catch and when he hit the home run you could tell the whole thing had turned," Smoltz said.

"His name just seemed to be synonymous with being a superstar," the Braves pitcher added. "It's not supposed to happen like this."

Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk echoed Smoltz's sentiment.

"There was no player I enjoyed playing against more than Kirby. He brought such joy to the game. He elevated the play of everyone around him," Fisk said in a statement to the Hall.

Puckett's birth date was frequently listed as March 14, 1961, but recent research by the Hall of Fame indicated he was born a year earlier.

The youngest of nine children born into poverty in a Chicago housing project, Puckett was drafted by the Twins in 1982 and became a regular just two years later. He got four hits in his first major league start and finished with 2,304 in only 12 seasons.

Though his power numbers, 207 home runs and 1,085 RBIs, weren't exceptional, Puckett won an AL batting title in 1989 and was considered one of the best all-around players of his era. His esteem and enthusiasm for the game factored into his Hall of Fame election as much as his statistics and championship rings.

He made his mark on baseball's biggest stage, leading heavy underdog Minnesota to a seven-game victory over St. Louis in 1987 and then doing the same against Atlanta in one of the most thrilling Series in history.

"There are a lot of great players in this game, but only one Kirby," pitcher Rick Aguilera said when Puckett announced his retirement. "It was his character that meant more to his teammates. He brought a great feeling to the clubhouse, the plane, everywhere."
“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”
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Bonds exposed
Shadows details superstar slugger's steroid use

NEW YORK (SI.com) -- Beginning in 1998 with injections in his buttocks of Winstrol, a powerful steroid, Barry Bonds took a wide array of performance-enhancing drugs over at least five seasons in a massive doping regimen that grew more sophisticated as the years went on, according to Game of Shadows, a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters at the forefront of reporting on the BALCO steroid distribution scandal.

(An excerpt of Game of Shadows that details Bonds' steroid use appears exclusively in the March 13 issue of Sports Illustrated, which is available on newsstands beginning on Wednesday. The book's publication date is March 27.)

The authors, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, describe in sometimes day-to-day, drug-by-drug detail how often and how deeply Bonds engaged in the persistent doping. For instance, the authors write that by 2001, when Bonds broke Mark McGwire's single-season home-run record (70) by belting 73, Bonds was using two designer steroids referred to as the Cream and the Clear, as well as insulin, human growth hormone, testosterone decanoate (a fast-acting steroid known as Mexican beans) and trenbolone, a steroid created to improve the muscle quality of cattle.

BALCO tracked Bonds' usage with doping calendars and folders -- detailing drugs, quantities, intervals and Bonds' testosterone levels -- that wound up in the hands of federal agents upon their Sept. 3, 2003 raid of the Burlingame, Calif., business.

Depending on the substance, Bonds used the drugs in virtually every conceivable form: injecting himself with a syringe or being injected by his trainer, Greg Anderson, swallowing pills, placing drops of liquid under his tongue, and, in the case of BALCO's notorious testosterone-based cream, applying it topically.

According to the book, Bonds gulped as many as 20 pills at a time and was so deeply reliant on his regimen that he ordered Anderson to start "cycles" -- a prescribed period of steroid use lasting about three weeks -- even when he was not due to begin one. Steroid users typically stop usage for a week or two periodically to allow the body to continue to produce natural testosterone; otherwise, such production diminishes or ceases with the continued introduction of synthetic forms of the muscle-building hormone.

Bonds called for the re-starting of cycles when he felt his energy and power start to drop. If Anderson told Bonds he was not due for another cycle, the authors write, Bonds would tell him, "F--- off, I'll do it myself.''

When informed of the book this morning and asked if he was concerned about it, Bonds told a group of reporters gathered around his locker, "Nope. I won't even look at it [the book]. For what? I won't even look at it. There's no need to." He then walked away.
The authors compiled the information over a two-year investigation that included, but was not limited to, court documents, affidavits filed by BALCO investigators, confidential memoranda of federal agents (including statements made to them by athletes and trainers), grand jury testimony, audiotapes and interviews with more than 200 sources. Some of the information previously was reported by the authors in the Chronicle. Some of the information is new. For instance, in an extensive note on sourcing, the authors said memos detailing statements by BALCO owner Victor Conte, vice president James Valente and Anderson to IRS special agent Jeff Novitzky were sealed when they first consulted them, but have been unsealed since.
The preponderance of evidence is by far the most detailed and damning condemnation that Bonds, formerly a sleek five-tool player, built himself into a hulking, record-setting home run hitter at an advanced baseball age with a cornucopia of elaborate, illegally-administered chemicals. Through 1998, for instance, when he turned 34, Bonds averaged one home run every 16.1 at bats. Since then -- what the authors identify as the start of his doping regimen -- Bonds has hit home runs nearly twice as frequently (one every 8.5 at bats).

The authors describe how Bonds turned to steroids after the 1998 season because he was jealous of McGwire. Bonds hit 37 home runs in '98 -- a nice total and the fourth most of his career at that point -- but he was ignored by fans and the media who were captivated by McGwire's 70 home runs and his duel for the record with Sammy Sosa, who hit 66 that year.

According to the book, Bonds, in comments to his mistress, Kimberly Bell, often dismissed McGwire with racially-charged remarks such as, "They're just letting him do it because he's a white boy." But Bonds looked at McGwire and his hulking physique and decided he needed to dramatically increase his muscle mass to compete with him.
It was immediately after that 1998 season, the book said, that Bonds hooked up with Anderson, a gym rat known to obtain steroids and growth hormone from AIDS patients in San Francisco who were legally prescribed the drugs but sold them to make money. The authors write that the San Francisco Giants, Bonds' employer, would later discover through a background check that Anderson was connected to a gym that was known as a place to score steroids and that he was rumored to be a dealer. Yet the Giants -- who didn't want to upset their superstar -- continued to allow Anderson free reign about their ballpark and inside their clubhouse.

The authors write that Anderson started Bonds on Winstrol, also known as stanozolol, the longtime favorite steroid of bodybuilders, disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson and baseball player Rafael Palmeiro. In 100 days, Bonds packed on 15 pounds of muscle, and at age 35 hit home runs at the best rate of his career, once every 10.4 at bats. But he also grew too big, too fast. He tore his triceps tendon, telling Bell that the steroids "makes me grow faster, but if you're not careful, you can blow it out."

The book said Anderson and Bonds subsequently tweaked the program, adding such drugs as the steroid Deca-Durabolin and growth hormone, which allowed Bonds to retain his energy and physique without rigorous training. Not only did the growth hormone keep him fresh, but after complaining in 1999 about difficulty tracking pitches, he noticed it improved his eyesight as well.

Bonds added more drugs after the 2000 season, when Anderson hooked up Bonds with BALCO and its founder, Conte, according to the authors. In addition to the Cream and the Clear, the steroids designed to be undetectable, Bonds took such drugs as Clomid, a women's infertility drug thought to help a steroid user recover his natural testosterone production, and Modafinil, a narcolepsy drug used as a powerful stimulant.

Whereas Anderson's drug acumen had been forged in the gym culture, Conte and his chemists brought Bonds to another level of sophistication, by prescribing him elaborate cocktails of drugs designed to be even more effective and undetectable. For instance, the authors write that in 2002, when Bonds won his fifth MVP Award and had a .700 on-base percentage in the World Series, he was fueled by meticulous three-week cycles in which he injected growth hormone every other day, took the Cream and the Clear in the days in between, and capped the cycle with Clomid. The cycle was followed by one week off. The authors write that Anderson usually administered the drugs to Bonds at Bonds' home, using a needle to inject the growth hormone and a syringe without a needle to squirt the Clear under his tongue.

In addition to detailing the drug usage, the excerpt portrays Bonds as a menacing boor, a tax cheat and an adulterer given to (probably because of the rampant steroid use) sexual dysfunction, hair loss and wild mood swings that included periods of rage. The authors report that Bonds gave Bell, with whom he continued his affair after his second marriage in January 1998, $80,000 in cash in 2001 from memorabilia income not reported to the IRS. Theirs was a volatile relationship. Bell retained answering machine recordings of him after he threatened to kill her, remarking that if she disappeared no one would be able to prove he even knew her.

In 2003, as their relationship completely unraveled, Bell angered Bonds by showing up late for a hotel rendezvous. According to the excerpt, Bonds put his hand around her throat, pressed her against a wall and whispered, "If you ever f-----' pull some s--- like that again I'll kill you, do you understand me?"

A few weeks later, the authors write, Bonds told Bell, "You need to disappear."

In secret grand jury testimony obtained by the authors, Bonds testified that he did not know what the substances were that Anderson gave him and he put in his body, saying at one point, "It's like, 'Whatever, dude.'" Bonds testified under a grant of immunity, though he was told the immunity did not extend to perjury.

Bonds begins this season with 708 home runs, seven short of passing Babe Ruth for second on the all-time list and 48 from surpassing Hank Aaron as the all-time leader. Three knee surgeries limited Bonds to 14 games last season, have reduced his mobility and left in question his fitness for regular duty this year.
In October, Conte was sentenced to four months in prison and four months of home confinement as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. Anderson pled guilty to money laundering and a steroid distribution charge. He was sentenced to three months in prison and three months of home confinement. Valente pled guilty to reduced charges of steroid distribution and was sentenced to probation.
“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”
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If Barry Bonds passes Ruth on the home run list, he is a sham.
If Barry Bonds passes Aaron on the home run list, he is a sham.

Much like Sosa, Canseco, McGuire, Palmiero, et. all if they get elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame when they are eligible, I'll secrete juices that make the alien from "Alien" look humble.

These are frauds and phonies. They smurfing cheated!!!!!
"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."

-John Kenneth Galbraith
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JoshFormerRoomie
Mar 8 2006, 11:16 AM
If Barry Bonds passes Ruth on the home run list, he is a sham.
If Barry Bonds passes Aaron on the home run list, he is a sham.

Much like Sosa, Canseco, McGuire, Palmiero, et. all if they get elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame when they are eligible, I'll secrete juices that make the alien from "Alien" look humble.

These are frauds and phonies. They smurfing cheated!!!!!

Anyone caught using illiegal steroids should be barred from any pro sport for life and restricted from entering into any Hall Of Fame. Pete Rose can't get in for gambling but Barry Bonds can the hold the all time home run record?! Barry is a fake. A fraud. A phony.
“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”
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And the Twinkies are off to a 2-0 start!!!!! Nice work boys. Gotta love that Santana!!!!
“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”
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3-0 now. Let's see what happens when they travel to the SouthSide tomorrow with the bottom portion of the rotation poised to pitch against an angry Sox line up. (Carlos Silva is the subject of much discussion in these parts.)

Although Joe Nathan had a kid last night. There was much rejoycing here in the Twin Cities.

And you don't mention the Brewers. Ben Sheets throws a two hitter on Opening Day and it doesn't even merit a sniff? For shame.
:)
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Ignorance has its privileges
Apr 27th, 2007 by Curt Schilling

Take Gary Thorne, John, Jack Joe or whatever his first name is, Heyman, Karen Vescey, Woody Paige, CHB, Jay Marriotti, Bill Plaschke, and a host of other people that litter the media landscape, and put them all on an island somewhere.

Does anyone stop reading their newspapers? Watching the shows they appear on? The answer to that is no. Instead of using the forums they participate in to do something truly different, change lives, inspire people, you have an entire subset of media whose sole purpose in life is to actually be the news, instead of report it. They have little to no talent at what they do and other than a mastery of the English language their skill sets are non-existent.

Watching Woody Paige or the plastered made up face of Jay Marriotti spew absolutely nothing of merit on sports, day after day, makes it easy to understand how Gary Thorne could say something as stupid, ignorant, and uninformed as he did the other night.

Before last night I’d only known who Gary Thorne was due to becoming a hockey fan and enjoying his calls of the NHL playoffs. I’ve always thought he was an awesome hockey announcer. Can’t say I’ve ever met him though so we certainly don’t know each other.

It was blood. You can choose to believe whatever you need to, but facts are facts. The 25 guys that were in that locker room, the coaches, they all know it. In the end nothing else really matters. The people that need to believe otherwise are people with their own insecurities and issues.

The only problem I have is this. If you look back, from the day of game six in the ALCS, through today, you won’t find a newspaper article, radio or TV interview in which I offered the blood, the sock, the game, any of it, as a topic. I haven’t talked about it since the post game interview room that night.

People have asked and I have answered, but the mileage the media got from the incident is all of their own making. When I walked into the room for the post game interviews and offered up my first response to the questions about the game I basically said that the night was a revelation for me. That my faith in God that evening showed me things I’d never believed.

As I uttered those words I could see pretty much every person in that room roll their eyes and smirk. That’s not what any of them wanted to hear, truth or not. That was not good copy. They needed more and what I didn’t give them, they got themselves.

I won’t belittle the night or the event because on a personal and a team level it was an incredible experience. I never took sole credit nor deserved it for us winning that game, or the series. Without Marks home run or Bronson and Keith doing what they did out of the pen we don’t win that game. Without Derek dealing in game seven, Johnny going deep twice, David’s home run and a host of other people we don’t win the series. What came out of that series from a public perception standpoint was not how we all felt. Was I proud of what I did? Absolutely, but I also never thought for a second that was the sole reason we won.

What I experienced in NY and again in game two of the world series was a deeply religious and deeply personal thing. I’ve never been one to hide how I feel and sharing what I went through was not something I had a problem with. I’ve forsaken my relationship with the Lord far too many times and wasted far too many opportunities to glorify him and what he’s done for me in my life. I also knew the media would have a field day with the comments. Obviously I didn’t care.

That somewhat changed yesterday. My only real problem is not that Gary Thorne said something stupid and ignorant, which he did, but that without a word being uttered by anyone in our clubhouse this somehow became a major news story.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, working in the media is a pretty nice gig. Barring outright plagiarism or committing a crime, you don’t have to be accountable if you don’t want to. You can say what you want when you want and you don’t really have to answer to anyone. You can always tell the bigger culprits by the fact you never see their faces in the clubhouse. Most of them are afraid to show themselves to the subjects they rail on everyday.

So Gary Thorne says that Doug told him the blood was fake. Which even when he’s called out he can’t admit he lied. Doug never told Gary Thorne anything. Gary Thorne overheard something and then misreported what he overheard. Not only did he misreport it, he misinterpreted what he misreported.

Doug is a good friend of mine and I knew the second I saw him that he felt horrible. He didn’t have to. I knew the second I was told what had happened that he didn’t say it. I felt horrible for him feeling bad and told him to forget about it. I also knew that being the friends we are, he wouldn’t. But even after they spoke Gary Thorne still covered his ass by lying about the conversation and twisting it in a way that absolved him from blame. Tito got phone calls all day, I did as well, and some other guys did too. It’s 2007 and this team has got a great thing going. The last thing we need is an idiotic distraction that shouldn’t even exist.

So now you have the actual Doctor that performed the surgery both times, my teammates and coaches all admitting it was real (as they did two years ago), yet people still want to think otherwise. The sock from game two of the world series has been in the hall of fame for 2 years now, anyone at anytime could have tested it if they truly wanted to know. However if they do that, and realize that the blood is real, what happens to the story? I’m still convinced that the sock from game 6 of the ALCS is in someone that works in the Yankee clubhouses home.

Remember this, the surgery was voluntary. If you have the nuts, or the guts, grab an orthopedic surgeon, have them suture your ankle skin down to the tissue covering the bone in your ankle joint, then walk around for 4 hours. After that go find a mound, throw a hundred or so pitches, run over, cover first a few times. When you’re done check that ankle and see if it bleeds. It will. There was less visible blood in game two because we recognized the amount of bleeding from the first game and Doctor Morgan put extra covering to stop the blood from running to the bottom of my shoe as it did the first game.

The other great part of this is knowing that anyone that wrote anything about a ‘conspiracy’ or a ‘plot’ is someone that is so far removed from understanding how physically and mentally challenging it is to play this game at this level you can almost laugh off their stupidity. Not to mention they obviously have shortcomings, bitterness and jealousy in their own lives that should probably get taken care of.

So for one of the first times this blog serves one of the purposes I’d hoped it would if the need arose. The media hacked and spewed their way to a day or two of stories that had zero basis in truth. A story fabricated by the media, for the media. The best part was that instead of having to sit through a litany of interviews to ‘defend’ myself, or my teammates, I got to do that here. As I said earlier, believe what you need to, whatever makes you sleep better at night is probably your best bet.

The saddest part in all of this is the following. Yesterday, as I was warming up for the game, I got to see a young kid, could not have been more than 20, who had served in Iraq. He was being honored by the Orioles and threw out the first pitch. He was a double amputee who’d lost the lower portion of both of his legs serving his country. He refused to use his cane and getting to see him do that was incredible.

Instead of finding this kid and writing a story that truly matters, something that would and could truly inspire people, the media chose to focus on a story that was over two years old and a completely fabricated lie. What a job.

Someone gave me a great idea to end this once and for all. No one will ever need to bring it up again. I’ll wager 1 million dollars to the charity of anyones choice, versus the same amount to ALS. If the blood on the sock is fake, I’ll donate a million dollars to that persons charity, if not they donate that amount to ALS.

Any takers?
“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”
Frederic Bastiat
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JoshFormerRoomie
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Wow. Curt Schilling feigning artificial outrage. Unique.

(a little inside baseball FYI):

Schilling despised baseball media long before this non-story. Yet he blogs......

The sock is in Cooperstown Curt. Just friggin' pitch.
"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."

-John Kenneth Galbraith
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