And one more thing that struck me…we’re supposed to believe he only took the stuff because of the immense pressure and guilt of his contract in Texas, but suddenly stopped when he came to the pressure cooker of New York? Seems odd.

I think he took the right path in admitting his use. Those commenters here who say he is probably still using don’t know anything about the MLB testing program. I find it hard to believe that he could have been using for the last five years and not fail a single test in all that time. I believe he’s been clean since he joined the Yankees. I believe he’s clean now. And I believe that if he can get his head straight, he can have another MVP season.

That said, I think it would be nice if you responded to a few other comments in this thread. It’s been a pretty lively one, filled with a wide range of thoughtful points from all sides of the spectrum. I think those comments deserve a response to, not just the mean spirited ones.

Second, and I can’t believe I am saying this, but Jose Canseco is absolutely right. The absolute real story here is Selig, the other MLB leadersip, the Owners, and the Player’s Association. 104 players tested positive in this single test. Does anyone here believe that those 104 players were the only ones who used PED’s during the era? Most importantly, does anyone believe that the MLB leadership was completely clueless about this?

It feels like the big name users are like shiny little objects that have distracted the media like as if they were dim-witted kittens. Not just the media, but also the Congress. What did we get from the Mitchell Report? Roger Clemens and….? I try to remain even keeled in these things, but are you kidding me????? How in the name of all that is right and good did that report not focus on the powers that be in baseball rather than scandal-monegeing? Why is the media doing the exact same thing again?????

104, One hundred and four,…let me say that again for emphasis…104 players failed ONE test for PED’s. How is that not the HUGEST of HUGE stories? How is the focus NOT on the people who were charged with being the stewards of the game and allowed this to happen on their watch?

Yes A-Roid (I got love for him, am glad he admitted it, but if the shoe fits…), Raging Roger, and Balco Barry all let us down. Let their reps take the deserved hits.

BUT let’s hold the hottest fire under the feet of the people who deserve it the most: Selig, the Player’s Union heads, and the rest of the Powers that Be.

Let’s prove that we’re at least a little bit harder to distract than a domesticated pet.

How is the view from that high horse, Pete?

s.o.s.-

some hitter’s have very low back swings and you can slowly move your mitt in closer and closer while he’s hitting until you just barley touch the bat with the glove. i got pretty good at it.

you had better be ready for a fight when you do it though. i have a strange sense of humor sometimes and i would do it when someone was wound a little too tight or a little too full of themselves.

the funny part is acting like you don’t know what the irate hitter is yelling at the umpire about. playing dumb is an essential part of this skill

Do all the indignant here have the same sense of indignance about Game Of Shadows and Barry Bonds, which was also heavily based on leaked sealed information?

The fact is Roberts may not have a supposed “list” of names along with A-Rod. Her leak may have been very specific. And the fact is many of the names on the “list” might be of little interest – as were many of those in the Mitchell Report. It’s the big names that get the play.

What strikes me as particularly odd in all this was that there are names at all.

MLB and the Players Union agreed to confidential testing to measure the depth of the problem, with the proviso that if testing showed usage exceeding 5% of players, formal testing and penelaties would follow. Why were any names collected then? There was no need for names, just numbers.

Frankly, I’m thinking the leak is coming from MLB. They had access to the test info, and have seemed to want to keep the pressure on the players on this issue, and not just for some “purity of the game” point. It seems to me to be about the hearts and minds of the fan, the salary structure of the game, and the next round of the CBA, where the owners seem to be spoiling for gains. It may sound conspiratorial, but let’s remember we’ve had multiple recent cases of settled collusion complaints, and a business with an antitrust exemption that allows them to play a bit more fast and loose.

Either that or Bud is doing everything in his power to keep his buddy Hank Aaron – no discredit to Hank – at the top of the non-asterisk pyramid. Okay, that was a joke.

———————————————————-

“SAN FRANCISCO – The judge in the Barry Bonds perjury case could find BALCO prosecutors, investigators or officials in contempt if evidence connects them to the leak of formerly anonymous 2003 Major League baseball drug tests that resulted in allegations that Alex Rodriguez took steroids.

A source familiar with the proceedings between the government and MLB players union said, “It is not possible this was leaked without there being a violation of the law.”

Two former prosecutors said it was likely that Judge Susan Illston, who is presiding over the Bonds case, would order contempt hearings. The Rodriguez disclosure is especially serious because Illston and other federal judges had ruled that this was “information [the government] wasn’t entitled to,” said Charles La Bella, a former U.S. Attorney who practices criminal defense in San Diego. “It’s unfair to tarnish an individual based on that illegally seized information.””

“Government and defense leaks have defined the BALCO case. The longest prison sentence in the seven-year steroids investigation has not been for athletes lying to Novitzky or to a grand jury about banned substances but for violating an Illston order.

Illston referred the December 2004 leaks of BALCO grand jury transcripts for prosecution. A grand jury was convened in Los Angeles. FBI agents investigated prosecutors and investigators, as well as reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle, defense attorneys and BALCO mastermind Victor Conte. On Feb. 14, 2007, Conte’s former attorney Troy Ellerman pleaded guilty to disclosing the transcripts and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison.

Because nearly a hundred other MLB players remain at risk of having their test results illegally leaked, experts said Illston or other judges involved in the case would probably act swiftly.

Incarceration is not out of the question.

“She can order that the matter be referred for prosecution,” said La Bella. “And when a judge refers something, the government better take a look.”

Since the San Francisco’s U.S. attorney’s office prosecutors, staff and investigators could be potential targets of an investigation, another agency would be enlisted to conduct a probe. As in the BALCO leak investigation, a grand jury would be convened.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/ne.....;type=lgns

Illston is not a happy camper.

maine yankee-

aging does kind of suck at times, but the alternative is way worse.