Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Great story about Ichiro.
  

    
<alden>! Nice to see your pseud.
  

    
Likewise, ohmy. I'm having myself a great season as an A's fan.
  

    


OK, that is one of the greatest baseball stories I have ever heard,
and entirely consistent with what I've heard about Ichiro from the
people who know him.

One question perhaps a little bit out of left field, Howard:

As you may have been reading, Mark Cuban has recently expressed an
interest in someday buying an MLB franchise, specifically the
Pittsburgh Pirates.

What do you think are the odds he would win the vote to be accepted as
a baseball owner?

And if he were, what kind of carnage would ensue?
  

    
I know you're wrapping up, and vard righfully gets the last question, but as
a Barry Bonds fan (my god! that swing!) I wanted to ask if you have any
thoughts about the long rehab. My pals and I speculate that he decided he
needed the whole season off and decided that a while ago.  That could be 
due to whatever psychological demons were eating at him, since the 
announced injury is normally nearly trivial surgery.  Was it bad luck 
and infection?  A coverup of a steriod-related knee deterioration?  
A metal breakdown compounded by the brain changes from steroids?
I'm worried.  I know nobody knows, and with the Giants (and their whole
division, interestingly) in the toilet it may not matter this year, but 
do you have a take on what's going on?   Only if you feel like
speculating, since vard has a real question!
  

    


(Also, why hasn't Eddie Murray caught on somewhere as a hitting
instructor?)
  

    
 I don't have a question, but I would like to comment that I was
watching some baseball highlights the other day from the 1988 World
Series, and of course the famous Kirk Gibson home run was shown.  I
remember thinking of Kirk Gibson as being absolutely massive at the
time -- a football player among baseball players.  When I watched that
highlight, he looked like a twig.  And then they showed Ray Knight
scoring the winning run in Game 6 of the 1986 WS, and he looked to me
like a super skinny guy like Astros' short stop Adam Everett.  I was a
bit stunned.
  

    
Of course, there was very little weightlifting period at that point in
baseball, supplemented or not.
  

    
 No dispute there.
  

    


Howard! Sports Business Daily is reporting that our mutual pal Mike
Port is going to MLB (with Joe Garagiola) to succeed Sandy Alderson. 
What do you think this means?
  

    
Our next interview has moved from on-deck to at-bat, so I'd like
to take this opportunity thank Howard and Vard for a great two 
weeks.  Even a non-baseball fan like me really enjoyed it.

(Baseball: 20 minutes of action jam-packed into a 3 hour game!)

This doesn't mark the end of the discussion here, however.  Please
feel free to continue.  Comments from the outside world are always
welcome too.

Thanks much to both of you!!
  

    
Hey everyone! Thanks for making this the usual, spirited Well talk
I've enjoyed for more than a decade. Great stuff.

<vard>, you broke news to me. I'm at Fenway right now watching Torii
Hunter get taken away on a stretcher (torn ligaments in the ankle after
leaping against the wall in the triangle after a David Ortiz drive),
hearing the latest blockbuster involving Manny Ramirez (Ramirez to the
Mets, Mike Cameron and Aubrey Huff to the Red Sox, prospects to the
Devil Rays. The deal has fallen through because Sox owner John Henry
will not pay any of Ramirez's salary and Theo Epstein will not part
with Hanley Ramirez), and indeed, <vard> strikes again. Details to
come. I gotta make deadline on this. 
  

    

I'm hoping that Howard will rejoin us in a day or two to talk a little bit 
about the heartbreaking events of the past couple of days (for an Orioles 
fan like me, anyway), involving the positive test of Rafael Palmeiro.

Sorry, Raffy. If you took that stuff, and it sure looks like you did, then 
you're done. No Hall of Fame talk around YOUR hot stove anymore.

DAMMIT. DAMMIT. DAMMIT.
  

    

I asked a few WELLbeings and others at a Giants game last night if they were
surprised that Bonds isn't coming back this season, a bit of news that was
eclipsed by Raffy's unfolding tragedy.

Before reading "Juicing the Game" I doubted he'd be back simply because I
couldn't imagine the scene at Fresno rehabbing with the AAA Grizzleys.
Bonds?  Working out with minor leaguers?  But once I read it I became
worried whether he'll ever be back.  Depression. Joint deterioration. Even
with performance-enhancing substances that are not technically steroids,
even setting aside issues of what's cheating, I now worry about Barry 
coming back anywhere.
  

    
Since I believe he's been using and probably feels his career depends on it,
I doubt if he'll be back.   The sweetness of being on top has got to have
been ruined by the suspicions and revelations.
  

    
As are the revelations that he was using stanozolol, which is
virtually impossible to take by accident. That stuff doesn't land in a
protein powder by mistake. Once again, the lies are worse than the
crime. The finger-wagging, the denials, the whole deal. 

One of the points of the book was to attempt to discuss steroids and
where they fit in this era of offense, and a lot of non-believers
concerning their potency. If you consider that a steroid cycle lasts
roughly 75 to 90 days, consider that Rafael Palmeiro was hitting .246
on May 29. Since then, with the steroids still in his system, he went
on a tear. People use them, because they help. A lot. 

I personally think Bonds will be back and he will play at least two
more seasons. Maybe I don't understand the severity of his injury but
he's too close to the record. If he has to hit 5 homers a year for the
next 10 and half years, I believe that's what he'll do to get it. He
also is too proud a man to leave under these circumstances. 
  

    
"Maybe I don't understand the severity of his injury but
 he's too close to the record."

The record is over.   The closer he got to it, the more you'd be hearing
about the asterisk in the press.   Like I said, the sweetness has drained
out of all this.   He doesn't need the money, the sniping isn't going away,
and he'd have to play on the natch.   What's in it for him?
  

    
"Since then, with the steroids still in his system, he went
 on a tear. People use them, because they help. A lot. "

So what was he taking through May 29?
  

    
I don't think I follow that one. Maybe he wasn't taking anything, and
realized he was a .245 hitter with no power. Or maybe he was in a cycle
that began to produce an effect when he tested positive. It doesn't
seem plausible that he would begin a cycle too early into the spring
because it wouldn't do him any good (since spring stats don't count). 

I think we really need to hear from Palmeiro. What we can honestly
say, right now, is that his steroid use was no accident. You don't take
winstrol by accident. What we need to know is the why. 

The more I think about it, the less sorry I feel for Palmeiro, for he
exibited the same flippant attitude about this as Bonds, without the
prolonged aggression. When the invitations to appear March 17 were
first announced by Congress, it was Palmeiro who was the most cavalier,
as if he were above the law. "March 17 is my wife's birthday, so you
know where I'll be," was his first response to this. A rep from Henry
Waxman's office told me that Palmeiro's sarcasm was one of the reasons
the Committee chose to subpoena, to get MLB to "get the message."  

Then, after treating it like a joke, he sticks his finger at congress
to make his point, either a) knowing full well he had used steroids, or
b) weeks away from deciding to. 

He's in a box, and other than telling the truth and taking his lumps,
I don't see much of a way out.
  

    
" I don't think I follow that one. Maybe he wasn't taking anything, and
 realized he was a .245 hitter with no power. Or maybe he was in a cycle
 that began to produce an effect when he tested positive. It doesn't
 seem plausible that he would begin a cycle too early into the spring
 because it wouldn't do him any good (since spring stats don't count). "

What seems even less plausible is that a guy who is a supposed career
steroid user would throw away 1/3 of his season by not timing his cycles
properly.

But since early season slumps followed by sudden upticks in production are
now supposed to be read as a sign of new steroid cycles starting, I guess we
have to finger Jason Giambi, Eric Chavez, Tino Martinez, and numerous other
players. (And whatever Martinez was on during his brief flurry of HR
production in May sure didn't work for very long).

And remind me again what the period was when Ryan Franklin started mowing
down the opposition thanks to his newfound steroid-fueled vigor?
  

    
Well, if you're going to diminish the discussion with that post, i
guess I can't respond. 

Those guys didn't test positive for using a steroid, Palmeiro did. I
cannot say I understand your opposition to this entire topic or, if
your opposition is so strong, your continued participation in it. 

I never said, either on these posts or in my book, that steroids were
the reason why good hitters hit well. What I said was that we need to
hear from Palmeiro as to why he did what he did. These are merely my
thoughts as to a potential motivation. 

Your posts give the impression that I've chosen to single out Palmeiro
and explain why he went from cold to hot. Had he not been using
winstrol, we wouldn't be having this conversation. He would have been
allowed, like Tino and the rest, to spike as they did. But he created
question by his own actions. He took a substance, one that is proven to
improve performance, and while that substance was in his system, went
on a tear. Why is that reason to ridicule this discussion? 

I cannot answer why Palmeiro did what he did. All I can say is that he
used steroids and that throws into question his performance. If these
drugs don't help, why take them? You seem to be coming at this
discussion from an odd angle, that players use these drugs _ which is a
fact _ but yet dubious as to why, since you don't seem to think they
affect the outcome of performance. Why then, do you think players use
steroids? 


And maybe steroids don't help Ryan Franklin because nothing will.
Maybe he's not that good.
  

    


I think that for a lot of us there is a tendency to view steroids in 
sports, and/or other performance related substances, as a proxy for our 
larger views on the War On (Some) Drugs, and I am not certain that 
they truly are a suitable proxy for that.

Is that part of what's animating you, (hotwired)?
  

    
Well, this just in: A source tells me that MLB is sitting on a dozen
positive tests, which explains when I was in the dugout at Fenway Park
yesterday, my old guy Matt Stairs comes over to me and says, "I'm sick
of looking at your fucking shiny dome every time I turn on the
TV....you hear somebody else big tested positive?" 

My question is: if these things are supposed to be so confidential,
how does everyone know this stuff?

Also, how political is this whole thing if MLB is actually staggering
the announcements of tests? Talk about opening themselves up to
corruption charges. 

And get this: Juan Rincon, who was suspended more than two months ago
is having his appeal heard *now.* He was told if his appeal was upheld,
he would have his service time restored. 

but what about his name? 



  
  

    
And another thing: Jose Canseco is writing *another* book, this one
called "Vindicated." Here is the transcript of an interview he gave
ESPN, which will run sometime next week on ESPN's new station (ugh)
ESPN Hollywood, no ifs ands or buts about it:



JOSE CANSECO – ESPN HOLLYWOOD (love that bug) INTERVIEW 

21 HR 

3840 Q: So Jose – what’s your take on the Rafael Palmeiro suspension? 

3848 Canseco: I feel really bad for him because I know that he’s been
completely set up by major league baseball. When a player goes before
Congress and starts saying, “I did not take steroids,” when obviously
he knows I injected him, I taught him how to use the steroids. I’ve got
to figure out there’s something else going on. (3910) To me, major
league baseball probably told Palmeiro listen, “We need to discredit
Jose Canseco as much as possible. We need someone preferably another
Latino, who’s got superstar credentials, to dismiss his allegations of
what he’s saying.” So, who better than Rafael Palmeiro? (3929) What
Rafael doesn’t realize, he was a pawn. He was a puppet. He was used  by
major league baseball and the player’s association.

3935 Q: So you do believe there’s possible truth to the fact that
major league baseball and the player’s association was involved in some
sort of conspiracy?

3944 Canseco: No ifs and buts about it. And eventually it will all
come out. Now Palmeiro – um, all of a sudden, how strange, he
drug-tested about three or four months ago. (Right.) All of a sudden,
let’s look at the time-table here –

3957 Q: (interrupting) Because it was May, correct, he drug-tested
around May? 

4000 Canseco: So now, he does his 500 home runs, he has 3,000 base
hits, and all of a sudden, Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for
steroids. Gee, do you really believe that’s a coincidence? No. Bottom
line is, Rafael Palmeiro was, at the point in time it seems to me, when
he testified before Congress, using some type of steroid. (4026) Major
league baseball knew it. Player’s association knew it. But they told
him, we’re going to cover your back. We’re going to watch out for you.
We’re not going to let this information out. (4037) But you know what?
He just got set up like all the other players are being set up. (4039)

4040 Q: And why do you think that’s the case? 

4041 Canseco: Um, from the very beginning he probably tested positive
(loud sniff) but they needed someone to discredit me. Someone with
number one, being another  Latino –

4052 Q: (interrupting) And you keep mentioning that, do you find it
just a coincidence that the first six out of the seven players that
have tested positive for steroids have been Latino? What’s your take on
it?

4102 Canseco: Well I, I don’t really know about that. But I do, I can
only talk about what I know to be a fact – that Rafael Palmeiro was set
up strategically against me to dismiss my allegations towards major
league baseball, no ifs, ands, buts about it. (4118) Now Palmeiro says,
“Wait to hear my side of the story. Wait to hear the truth.” Palmeiro,
if smart, will take my side and go against major league baseball now
because they left him out there in the wind to dry. (4131)

4132 Q: Really. 

4133 Canseco: No ifs, ands, buts about it. The truth will come out
eventually. 

4136 Q: So, going back to the first six out of seven being Latino –
you don’t believe in the theory that the language barrier could have
been a significant factor or is that in fact still a possibility?

4147 Canseco: What I believe more is that these individuals are from,
let’s say, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, they’re not regulated,
meaning there are certain substances or more or less steroids over
there that are legal in their country. (4200) That they can use when
they go back – off the baseball season – that there’s no problem. But
once they come back to United States, (it) stays in their system, so
there could be a language barrier. They’re saying, y/k, “I live in
Dominican Republic. Steroids are just chemicals, they’re legal, there’s
no restrictions. I can use them there. Then I stop using them. I go to
spring training. I test positive.” (Hmm.) That’s how it really works.
People don’t understand. (4226)

4227 Q: In the book Jose you say you shot Rafael personally, (Correct)
and you also mention other people of course. But is there anything
else in the book that we should know, that maybe people don’t?

4238 Canseco: There are a lot of other things that will come out in my
second book called “Vindicated,” about major league baseball, how
mafia-oriented they really are, how they really run their business, how
they ruin athletes’ lives, how they manipulate the system. (4253) Um,
how they set up athletes to make themselves look better or to cover up
for their own mistakes. And I will dissect and internalize exactly what
has happened the last 10-15 years in major league baseball. (4307)

4308 Q: Going back to the first book, you also mentioned in the book
“Juiced” that President Bush being a former owner of the Texas Rangers
of course had to have known that his players were on steroids. And yet
recently he still publicly supports Palmeiro. What’s your take on that?

4323 Canseco: (chuckling) It’s a laugher. I, I gotta laugh at it and I
think the public has to laugh at it when, from the very beginning, a
newspaper columnist wrote an article saying that Bush obviously knew
that I was a steroid-user and that I uh, started the steroid revolution
in baseball. And they still traded for me. (4347) Nonetheless, again,
Palmeiro tests positive for steroid – a steroid called Winstra with is
stanozolol, which there’s no way this steroid can be digested
(Accidentally?) accidentally by any other way shape or form instead of
y/k steroid way. (Right.) No supplements carry that stanozolol in it,
and President Bush says, “I believe Rafael Palmeiro – he’s a friend of
mine.” (shakes head) I gotta laugh. I don’t understand it. It’s
ridiculous. Explain it to me if you can, please. (4422)

4423 Q: Ridiculous and political to the highest form? 

4425 Canseco: Well, we know that this world is basically run on
strictly politics and it’s y/k, who you know, no ifs and buts about it.
(4435)

4436 Q: So, who’s still taking steroids in baseball today? 

4438 Canseco: I really don’t believe players are using steroids right
now. (4442) What I do believe, and I stated this before, there’s a
major problem with a thing called a metabolite in the system. There are
no investigations, especially long-term use of steroids, especially in
a human being, that says, okay, after 10, 15, 20 years, a metabolite
of this steroid disappears. (4503) Metabolite of a steroid basically is
an imprint, a fingerprint of what used to be there. And what major
league baseball’s going to run into more often than not, is a
metabolite of a steroid sometimes is strong enough to mimic a steroid,
and that’s where they’re going to come into major problems. (4519) And
it’s not fair for these players who are abiding by the rules, and, and,
y/k, don’t want to use a steroid or have stopped using steroids, and
all of a sudden they’re being penalized for something. It’s ridiculous.
(4530) The, I mean, the system is just, it’s got too many loopholes on
it. (4534)

4535 Q: Okay, two more quick questions on the subject. With all this
that’s been said and done now about Rafael Palmeiro, how do you feel
about him possibly still going or not going to the Hall of Fame?

4548 Canseco: I think he should. I think he is an incredible player,
has incredible numbers. I think it’s sad that um, that these players
when I mention them in my book – my attack was never towards the
players. My attack was against major league baseball and the player’s
association. (4604) What I needed was one of these players to be by my
side and say, “You know, what Jose Canseco is saying is the absolute
truth.” (4610) Everything about this book is the truth. We do have a
problem. Young kids are being damaged because of steroid use, and if we
hide from it, we continue it, somebody could eventually die because of
it – a young child – which I think a few have already. And they just
hide from it like nothing. (4627) Perfect example of how dominating,
how much of a juggernaut, and how militant and how powerful major
league baseball can be? They talked to these players and said,
“Listen,” they probably said, they know what would happen to them –
same thing that would happen to me – they ruined my career, they
blackballed me, they got me completely out of baseball 38 home runs
short of 500 because of this issue. (4655) These players knew that if
they stood against major league baseball, especially Palmeiro, who is
the closest to, only eight players in history, 3,000 base hits, 500
home runs. (4705) Now imagine if Palmeiro would have come out in
Congress and said, “What Jose is saying is right.” He won’t have a job.
(4710) Nobody would take him.

4711 Q: (interrupting) He wouldn’t get the 3,000 hits? 

4714 Canseco: No way, he wouldn’t get 3,000 hits, 500 home runs. But
look how funny – he testified on behalf of major league baseball. They
allowed him to get 3000 base hits, 500 home runs. They what do they do?
They left him to dry in the wind. (4727) Okay Palmeiro, we gave you
what you wanted. Now we’re going to get rid of you. (4731)

4732 Q: So with that said Jose, how do you feel this latest suspension
affects your own credibility now? 

4738 Canseco: I don’t think it’s about my credibility. I think it’s
just, it’s about telling a story about my life in general. (4746)
People touch upon the steroid issue. It’s only like one or two chapters
of my book and there’s like 23 chapters. And it’s just ah, a baseball
player’s life growing up, being a minority, coming from Cuba, my
parents struggling it there, making it here in the United States, and
being able to change baseball twice, and it’s fascinating. (4810)

        
  

    
Howard, I don't know why you're getting angry with my posts when you're the
one who strongly implied that Palmeiro's improvement at the plate after May
29 was directly attributable to his steroid use.

"Since then, with the steroids still in his system, he went
  on a tear. People use them, because they help. A lot."

To answer <vard>'s question, I have never been particularly exercised about
the WOSD. In general, though, I'm a pretty strong civil libertarian, which
is only reinforced, I supposed, by my experiences as a journalist.

And as a journalist who is not reporting on this subject everyday but who is
trying to understand it, I have been incredibly frustrated by the utter lack
of reliable information when it comes to understanding exactly what steroids
do for baseball players, or why I should care.

I mean, take the Canseco comments about metabolites: I take it the Crusader
crowd has already dismissed his remarks, although in very Ron Ziegler-esque
language. "Rhetorical nonsense," is Gary Wadler's response, according to
ESPN tonight. But can Gary Wadler or anyone point me to the study that shows
what the testing results are for long-time steroid users years after they've
cycled off the drugs?

As Howard himself said tonight to Bob Ley, "this whole thing is a wreck
right now." The confidentiality of the testing process has been utterly
violated, both openly and through the rumor mill Howard describes in his
Matt Stair's anecdote. The witch hunt impulse of the media, already at a
fever pitch, has gone off the charts. Congress pursuing a perjury charge
just cements the odor of McCarthyism in the whole thing.

I love a good illustrative anecdote, both as a writer and as a reader. The
problem is that, as the cliche has it, the plural of anecdote is not data.
I know from reading Howard's book, and from his comments again tonight on
ESPN, that he believes that the "steroid era" is really about a host of
other factors. The conversation should really be about that, and about
whether the past ten years of Selig baseball is really that different,
culturally or ethically, from the previous 120 years of MLB play.

But it's not right now.