YFSF

What A Hot, Wet Mess

Please start the season, because personal lives of past and non-athletes leading the sports pages is so often tragic. The Boyd story is nothing compared to Cashman's twist. Oh Brian, what did you get yourself into? Bob Lorenz is in trouble.

At least people hate ARod less. Best of all, Derek Jeter, Dave Robertson, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ivan Nova have started working out.

Bonds Sentenced

Mark Fainaru-Wada recently tweeted the Bonds results: "Judge: 2 years probation, 30 days location monitoring/home confinement; 250 hrs community service."

Bonds lives in a mansion on two acres in Beverly Hills.

And I just think I read that the sentenced is stayed while Bonds appeals. I am certainly glad that all the time, money and noise guarantees nobody will ever cheat at baseball again.

Manny has left the building

Manny Ramirez, one of the best hitters in baseball history, is retiring because he wants to see his children more. And what I mean by "wants to see his children more" is that he failed another drug test. Presumably, this makes it less likely that he gets into the Hall of Fame, and more likely that baseball writers will be penning less-than-flattering pieces about the flakey former Red Sock for years to come.

The Queue At The Hall

Sean Forman writes in The New York Times about the forthcoming logjam of Hall of Fame candidates.

What is Old is New

Spring. The splendor of the grass. The crack of the bat. And a whiff of cow's blood.

Commence with the circus. Ugh.

Not Good for the Goose

Gossage lays into the dopers.

Juicers

More tarnished athletes. Have they no shame?

In his apartment outside Philadelphia, Frank Levine pulled a list of prescription medications from his refrigerator, his hands shaking slightly. There was metformin HCl and glipizide for his diabetes; lisinopril for his blood pressure; and Viagra.

“I need it,” he said recently.

Mr. Levine, who is 95 and has had operations on both knees, in June set the American record in the 400-meter dash for men ages 95 to 99, only to see it broken at the U.S.A. Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships a few weeks later. “Nothing counts unless you’re first,” he said.

 

Fuzzy Reporting

As the steroid story continues, it seems we're losing track of important details. Could it be all the shoddy reporting? One of my favorites, Can't Stop The Bleeding, takes a critical look at Michael S. Schmidt's recent coverage of the David Ortiz revelations:

Did Ortiz juice hardcore, needles and all, a la Mrs. Roger Clemens?  These days it wouldn’t surprise me if he did.  Still, I can’t say “yes” based on anything Michael S. Schmidt wrote – nor can Schmidt.  Since it appeared in the Times, however, Ortiz has been vilified over Schmidt’s inconclusive half-story.  Boston’s Ortiz had the guts to hold his press conference in Yankee Stadium.  I hope Schmidt has the nerve to hold his at Fenway.

Worth the read.

Ortiz: I was 'careless' but 'never used steroids'

Believe it or not:

David Ortiz kicked off his press conference this afternoon by stating definitively that he “never used steroids” or bought them, but acknowledged that he was “careless” when he was “buying supplements and vitamins over the counter.”

He said he did not know, however, if one of those vitamins or supplements -- which he said were legal -- resulted in his inclusion on a list of 104 major leaguers to have failed a 2003 survey test for performance-enhancing drugs.

MLB players association incoming head Michael Weiner indicated that there would be no way for Ortiz to know anything about his test results: "David does not know anything about his test results ... there would be no way to assess if something he took" resulted in a positive test result.

Ortiz said that he was never told by the union that he tested positive for steroids, a statement that was backed up by Weiner ... .

Curioser and Curioser

An incredibly frank interview with Bronson Arroyo in this morning's Herald:

Bronson Arroyo, a 2003 Red Sox teammate of Favid Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, said yesterday he would not be shocked to discover his name on the list of 104 major league ballplayers who tested positive in the spring of 2003 for using performance-enhancing drugs.

His reason may shed light on what may have happened to Ortiz in 2003, as well.

Back then, Arroyo said via phone from Cincinnati, he was using both androstenedione, which was not banned until the 2004 season, and amphetamines, which were not banned until 2006.

The only reason Arroyo stopped using andro was because he heard through the grapevine that, because of lax production standards, some andro was laced with known steroids, such as Winstrol. ...

“Before 2004, none of us paid any attention to anything we took,” said the Reds starter. “Now they don’t want us to take anything unless it’s approved. But back then, who knows what was in stuff? The FDA wasn’t regulating stuff, not unless it was killing people or people were dying from it.”

Arroyo, who pitched for the Red Sox from 2003-05, said he began taking andro after 1998, when he finished his Double-A season with the Pirates. He loved the effect.