A non-hockey post!

December is a great time for baseball news, isn't it? The Mitchell report was released today and some very big names were mentioned as either having used illegally obtained steroids or human growth hormone. The 409 page report cast blame on the entire Major League establishment, including the league and the player's association, for being complicit in the seemingly enormous use of performance enhancing drugs. I say seemingly because George Mitchell, the former U.S. Senator, was able to acquire enough evidence to confidently announce names like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Troy Glause, Gregg Zaun (?) and others with no subpoena power, no cooperation from the players' association and no players coming forward. If he was able to get information like credit card receipts and personal trainer admissions with no real legal muscle, imagine what he could get with it and by extension, how much deeper the problem goes.

My guess is that Bud Selig will do nothing about this, won't suspend anyone and won't allow U.S. Congress another crack. He'll talk about what a dark day it is for baseball and because everyone was part of the problem the players won't bear the brunt of the punishment. The players will suffer in two places, the court of public opinion, which they probably won't care about, and the Hall of Fame. That's where the arguments will be at their most fevered since Clemens and Bonds are first-ballot Hall of Famers and arguably the best pitcher and position player ever. Around 1997-1998 both players allegedly began taking performance enhancing drugs so the obvious question is whether they were Hall of Famers before then. Let's say they didn't take anything. They'd put up slightly lesser stats and play few games over fewer seasons. Who knows exactly how many more runners allowed or homeruns would have been hit, but considering their pre-steroid performance they'd probably get in. The debate will be a lot more complex than that but that's the rationale I'd use if I was voting, though probably putting in a little more time at Baseball-Reference.com.

The conclusion from the Mitchell report is that baseball has a serious steroid problem and it's the fault of everyone in the game. No records will be scrapped because there were no rules against steroids at the time and it's possible the Hall of Fame votes won't be affected since of the players named, only Clemens and Bonds were heading in anyways. At the end of the day all that'll happen is the league implements tougher and more frequent tests and the players hire smarter chemists. Just like the Olympics! If we're lucky, maybe Josh Beckett will be suspended for using cough syrup. I hate that guy.