Was the Mitchell report as damaging as it could have been?
Absolutely.
The owners were not criticized as much as they could have, and for the most part the blame was put solely on the players. There weren’t many names on the report, and the only new big name was Roger Clemens.
If anyone has read about baseball the last few years, his name should not be a surprise. He was heading “toward the twilight of his career” during his last year in Boston and to a point former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette wasright about the now uncertain future Hall of Famer. I read differing viewpoints about Clemens during those last years in Boston and his two years in Toronto. One said he was tinkering and mastering with his famous split-finger fastball. The other said he was possibly using.
Maybe both were right.
I don’t have time to mention all of my thoughts on the subject, but I’ll gloss over it with this one point…
Everyone in baseball deserves blame for the position baseball is in right now with performance enhancing drugs and human growth hormone. The writers, the owners, the executives, the fans, and to a certain degree I place the highest and the lowest blame on the players. For the players I’ll use a metaphor: If a child breaks a window and the parent never tells him not to do it again, should the parent or the child get the blame for the child breaking the window again?
It’s a lame metaphor but you see the idea.
More thoughts in a bit.
Oh yeah, to not leave baseball on a sour note. This is a story of how great baseball really can be. The San Francisco Giants could have won it all that year.
Less than a week before Christmas and this happens. I hope Anna is alright.
The Consumerist is a great blog for noting all the crap that business try on the unsuspecting consumer. People out there, be smart and stay informed.
Here are a couple of recent stories:
1. Hawaiian Airlines is charing a death fee for refunding a ticket meant for a parent who died. It should be nnoted that Hilton and Delta did not hesitate to refund the full amount. Is Hawaiian at fault for charging a processing fee for the refund? No, but it looks terribly bad.
2. Debt collectors can’t be racist.
At last a solution to those mini CDs and DVDs. Apple is coming to the rescue.
Happy holidays.