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At least Joba wasn’t used.
The ugliness began with Mike Mussina and spread through the Yankees pitching staff in a debacle of a loss.
Angels leftfielder Garret Anderson feasted on Yankee pitching by putting up 10 RBIs in an 18-9 Angels win over the Yankees in front of 44,264 fans in Anaheim. The loss looked even more lopsided before the Yankees scored four runs in the top of the ninth.
“It was just, it was awful; that’s simply what it was,” Mussina said.
Mussina had his worst outing all season. In fact, he rated it among the worst games of his entire career. The right-hander gave up seven earned runs in just 1 2/3 innings, his shortest start since lasting 1 2/3 innings on Sept. 27, 2005 against the Orioles.
“It’s tough to take,” Mussina said. “That goes in the top five worst games of my career right there.”
The problems began with Mussina. But Ron Villone, Edwar Ramirez and Sean Henn all failed to stem the tide. Anderson had a phenomenal week’s worth of stats in a single night. He knocked in an Angels franchise record 10 runs, earning him a giddy curtain call from the Angel Stadium crowd. He belted a pair of home runs, including a grand slam, and also hit two doubles.
All those gaudy statistics came at the Yankees’ expense. The loss dropped them six games behind the Red Sox in the American League East, the biggest gap since Aug. 9th, and 2 1/2 games behind the Mariners in the wild-card chase.
“I’d be very shoocked if these two games would leave us feeling we’re not a good club,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said.
Continued here.
Barry Bond’s attorney has gone after everything about the book Game of Shadows except for the facts laid out in the book. Now Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada have their book in paperback with a new afterword.
But as the book is released this week in a paperback edition with a new afterword, the most important constant in the 12-month wake of Shadows is this: Bonds has not challenged a single fact in the book. It stands as an encyclopedia of this doping era in general and of Bonds’ massive doping regimen in specifics.
But by far my favorite part of this afterword, that lays out in a simple terms (that can be made into a table) information that makes you go, “That just can’t be natural.”
Measurement
Jersey Size
Hat Size
Shoe Size |
1993 Giants - Age 29
42
7 1/8 (w/ hair)
10 1/2 |
2006 Giants - Age 42
52
7 1/4 (bald)
13 |
And as the authors write:
“The changes in his foot and head size,” they write, “were of special interest: medical experts said overuse of human growth hormone could cause an adult’s extremities to begin growing, aping the symptoms of the glandular disorder acromegaly**.”
The book (if true) leaves one believing Bonds is the biggest doper in the game and a idiot with the flaxseed oil story. I wonder if Bonds wanted to defend his good name why he wouldn’t sue the pants off the authors, much like Lance Armstrong did successful with every accusation of doping against him. Maybe Bonds doesn’t because they are right.
**Acromegaly is a rare disease that causes giantisam and facial distortions, eventually leading to death if untreated. Andre the Giant died from it in 1993.
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Cooper | Friday, January 12, 2007 |
The Florida Marlins are back, baby. And baby is the operative word. Weak, but bear with me. Heading into Spring Training the Marlins have the one of the youngest potential starting rotations in baseball. How young? Born January 12, 1982 Dontrelle Willis celebrates his 25th birthday today. Celebrating with D-Train today is Scott Olson, who turns 23 and may be the second oldest starter in the Marlins regular season rotation.
Josh Johnson and Anibal Sanchez are all but guaranteed spots. Johnson, 12-7 133 stikeouts 3.10 era in 2006, will not turn 23 until Jan 31. A product of the Marlins system, he was drafted by the Marlins in the 4th round of the 2002 draft. After three seasons in the minors he made his debut in September 2005. Johnson made 24 starts and pitched 157 innings in 2006 and was considered a Rookie of the Year candidate for most of the season.
Anibal Sanchez, who’s undeniable highlight of the season was his No Hitter Sept 6th vs. Arizona, started 17 games in 2006. He pitched 114.1 innings, striking out 72 and posting 2.83 era/1.19 WHIp. While the No-No was the highlight - his July 14th start at home to Houston was the start that set the tone for the season. After surrendering 11 earned runs in his two previous starts (vs. Bos and Was), Sanchez rattled off 21 solid innings against the Astros (7 IP 2 hits), Nationals (7 IP 1 hit) and Braves (7 IP 7 hits 1 run) earning 3 straight wins. Anibal turns 23 on February 27th.
The final spot in the rotation is anyone’s for the taking, but it will likely belong to Ricky Nolasco. Nolasco started 22 games for the Marlins in 2006 earning plaudits for solid work and an ability to transition to the starting role from the bullpen. In 140 innings he struck out 99 and walked 41, posting an 11-11 record and a 4.82 era. He may not have had a season like some, and in the Year of the Rookie Pitcher Ricky Nolasco managed to slip under most people’s radar. He just turned 24 in December.
Young hurler Yumeiro Petit is competing for work coming out of the bullpen. Appearing in 15 games last season for the Marlins he struggled. Pitching only 26.1 innings, Petit gave up 46 hits and 28 earned runs. While he did strike out 20, the fantastic potential he showed in the Mets farm system prior to the trade last offseason has not been evident in his short stint in the Majors.
While the Marlins did not make much noise at the end of the season, their record was far better than most expected. With a young core of pitchers already on the 40 man roster, and a solid talent base in the minor leagues, this staff looks to be set for next season and building towards an impressive future. Petit is the youngest of the current bunch. He will not turn 23 until after the 2007 World Series and has many hoping he lives up to early hype and becomes solid starter in 2008.
On the horizon:
Harvey Garcia (22) recorded 21 saves last season for Jupiter; he struckout 83 in 64.2 innings.
Thanks to thebaseballcube.com
I have never been to a live bowl game before. Although I always wanted to go, it just never came up and I never had the time or anyone to go with me. Living in the Northeast, it makes it kind of difficult to just up and get in a car and drive to the game and drive back after it’s done.
Well, 47 years later, I finally get my opportunity to attend a bowl game, firsthand. It was the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl in beautiful and historic Nashville, Tennessee. If you’ve never been to Nashville, you must make a point of it, whether you like honky tonk music or not. It is truly a delightful place to go and the people are actually very accomodating (touristy places) and it’s a very clean city. Not to mention, that LP Field, home of the Tennessee Titans is a 10-minute walk from downtown Nashville.
The University of Kentucky Wilcats played the Clemson University Tigers, in a classic ACC-SEC battle. Both schools got to the game in different ways. Clemson was supposed to vie for the national title, or at least an ACC crown, beating Wake Forest and then losing 3 out of their last 4 games to go 8-4. Kentucky was making it’s first bowl appearance since 1999, and had been on probation the last few years. This team went 7-5 and had an impressive win against Georgia and took Tennessee down to the wire, losing 17-12 at UT. At any rate, it was a great matchup of two potentially powerful offenses and suspect defenses at best.
Clemson was the favorite by 10 points and quite frankly, Kentucky seemed happy to be going to a bowl at all. They had not won one in 24 years and the fans were obviously ecstatic about going to Nashville, a short trip from the Bluegrass state by car. The bowl, which had done well in previous years, was a sellout on the first day and had a record crowd of 68,000 screaming blue and white and orange fans. The place was 60% or more Kentucky fans, but the Clemson faithful were to be recognized.
What’s better than attending college events where the pep band plays in your hotel lobby, a battle of the marching bands in the middle of Nashville’s busy club district and a pre-game breakfast at one of the town’s most historic restaurants? How about a 70 degree sunny day at the end of December? How about a great performance by an underdog Kentucky team? I must admit that my wife is an alum of UK and we did our best to wear as much blue and white as possible, sitting 15 rows from the field on the 30-yard line with the other UK fans.
It was, by far, the most exciting college football I have ever attended live. In fact, it was so memorable, I am hoping that UK makes it back to another bowl next year, no matter where it might be. Maybe Florida, New Orleans or who knows, a national championship? Oh well, wishful thinking, but the moral of the story is —- find out where you favorite team is playing (since there are so many bowls), get your buddies or your best guy or gal and hop on in a car, plane, train or whatever floats your boat and enjoy the many days of festivities. It’ll knock your socks off!
The latest trend in sports arenas are LCD ribbons that blast fans with even more bright lights and more ways to shoot advertisements onto fans’ retinas. Imagine if a kaleidoscope of media were projected from the athletes themselves. That may be the way of the future with this Australian invention as the start:
Basketball vests (singlets) with electroluminescent displays that show a player’s score, and number of fouls, are being trialled in Australia.
The vests can also display more general information, like the amount of time left in a game. This gives players greater confidence in their team’s tactics, say the researchers involved.
The simple, coloured display panels are attached to each vest and connected to a small computer, about the size of an iPod, strapped to each player’s body. These computers communicate wirelessly with a central control system, installed at the side of the court, which keeps track of all relevant statistics as the game goes on.
I envision LCD-like fabrics with the ability to put NASCAR-marketing to shame.
[via Engadget]
San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams have written a book saying Barry Bonds started using steroids after the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa chase.
Barry Bonds began using steroids after the 1998 baseball season and came to rely on a wide variety of performance-enhancing drugs over the next several years, according to a book written by two Chronicle reporters and excerpted in this week’s Sports Illustrated. The excerpt offers the most comprehensive account of Bonds’ experience with steroids, tracing his involvement to the off-season following the historic home-run race featuring Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Bonds decided to use performance-enhancing substances after watching McGwire — whom the excerpt says he suspected was “a juicer” — gain national acclaim for eclipsing Roger Maris’ storied single-season record.
Bonds has denied using performance-enhancing drugs.
The excerpt paints a sweeping picture of Bonds’ thoughts about using steroids; the role of his weight trainer, Greg Anderson, in introducing him to specific drugs; how his choice of substances changed after he struggled with injuries and met Victor Conte, owner of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative; and Bonds’ reaction as his once-supple body turned thick and muscle-bound.
[...]
“Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports,” co-authored by Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, is scheduled for publication March 27 by Gotham Books. The excerpt says Fainaru-Wada and Williams based their narrative “on more than a thousand pages of documents and interviews with more than 200 people, many of whom we spoke to repeatedly.”
From 2003 through 2005, Fainaru-Wada and Williams wrote nearly 100 stories for The Chronicle, lifting the BALCO investigation into an international story and eventually leading to congressional pressure that forced Major League Baseball to twice toughen its steroids policy.
The excerpt suggests Bonds was not truthful during his testimony before a federal grand jury in San Francisco on Dec. 4, 2003. Bonds testified that he used a clear substance and a cream supplied by BALCO, but he said he thought they were flaxseed oil and a rubbing balm for arthritis, The Chronicle previously reported. Bonds also flatly stated he never injected himself with drugs, according to a transcript of his testimony reviewed by the newspaper.
But the book excerpt in Sports Illustrated describes the way Bonds knowingly and meticulously used steroids — including “the clear” and “the cream” provided by BALCO — and even took control of his drug regimen when he disagreed with Anderson. The excerpt also says Bonds “learned how to inject himself” and describes one conversation with Anderson in which Bonds says of starting another drug cycle, “I’ll do it myself.”
[...]
The excerpt spells out in vivid detail what attracted Bonds to performance-enhancing drugs: his intense jealousy of McGwire’s 70-home run season and the national hero worship it created.
Bonds repeatedly made racially tinged remarks about McGwire to Bell, according to the excerpt, at one point saying of McGwire’s chase of Maris, “They’re just letting him do it because he’s a white boy.”
McGwire’s historic season drove Bonds to wander into territory he had previously avoided, according to the excerpt. “To Bonds it was a joke,” one passage reads. “He had been around enough gyms to recognize that McGwire was a juicer. Bonds himself had never used anything more performance enhancing than a protein shake from the health-food store. But as the 1998 season unfolded, and as he watched Mark McGwire take over the game — his game — Barry Bonds decided that he, too, would begin using what he called ‘the s — .’ “
The exerpt in question is supposed to be at SI’s website but what appears instead is a promotional section, “Bonds exposed Shadows details superstar slugger’s steroid use,” which notes “An excerpt of Game of Shadows that details Bonds’ steroid use appears exclusively in the March 13 issue of Sports Illustrated, which is available on newsstands beginning on Wednesday.” There are links to interviews with the authors, assessments by SI writers as to what it all means, a collection of Bonds quotes on steroids, and a photo gallery.
Not surprisingly, this is the cover story.
SI’s recap of the summary is longish, however, including details like this:
 The authors, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, describe in sometimes day-to-day, drug-by-drug detail how often and how deeply Bonds engaged in the persistent doping. For instance, the authors write that by 2001, when Bonds broke Mark McGwire’s single-season home-run record (70) by belting 73, Bonds was using two designer steroids referred to as the Cream and the Clear, as well as insulin, human growth hormone, testosterone decanoate (a fast-acting steroid known as Mexican beans) and trenbolone, a steroid created to improve the muscle quality of cattle.
BALCO tracked Bonds’ usage with doping calendars and folders — detailing drugs, quantities, intervals and Bonds’ testosterone levels — that wound up in the hands of federal agents upon their Sept. 3, 2003 raid of the Burlingame, Calif., business.
Depending on the substance, Bonds used the drugs in virtually every conceivable form: injecting himself with a syringe or being injected by his trainer, Greg Anderson, swallowing pills, placing drops of liquid under his tongue, and, in the case of BALCO’s notorious testosterone-based cream, applying it topically.
According to the book, Bonds gulped as many as 20 pills at a time and was so deeply reliant on his regimen that he ordered Anderson to start “cycles” — a prescribed period of steroid use lasting about three weeks — even when he was not due to begin one. Steroid users typically stop usage for a week or two periodically to allow the body to continue to produce natural testosterone; otherwise, such production diminishes or ceases with the continued introduction of synthetic forms of the muscle-building hormone.
One wonders how MLB will respond to all this.
Update: ESPN weighs in with some other information gleaned from the SI excerpt:
• Bonds was motivated to take performance-enhancing drugs by the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa chase of the single-season home run record in 1998 and he had never taken any before 1998.
• Through research, Bonds developed a deep knowledge of performance enhancers. He even talked, through third parties, to medical authorities who advised him not to use steroids.
• He began with Winstrol after the 1998 season. He also worked out extensively, sometimes spending 12 hours a day at the gym where he met the Weight Guru, who turned out to be Greg Anderson.
• He also took Deca-Durabolin. By 2001, the authors allege, he was using two designer steroids referred to as the Cream and the Clear, as well as insulin, human growth hormone, testosterone decanoate (a fast-acting steroid known as Mexican beans) and trenbolone, a steroid created to improve the muscle quality of cattle. That’s the same year Bonds broke Mark McGwire’s single-season home-run record (70) by belting 73.
• He got the substances from Anderson, his personal trainer who became a San Francisco Giants employee. Anderson got them from BALCO labs, headed by Victor Conte. Anderson’s employment by the Giants irked the team’s training staff, according to the excerpt. The Giants also did a background check, discovering that “World Gym was known as a place to score steroids and that Anderson himself was rumored to be a dealer. But the club decided it didn’t want to alienate Bonds on this issue, either. The trainers stayed.”
• Despite seeing a big change in Bonds’ physical appearance, Giants officials did not challenge their star for fear of upsetting him. “The Giants, from owner Peter Magowan to manager Dusty Baker, had no interest in learning whether Bonds was using steroids, either,” the excerpt contends. “Although it was illegal to use the drugs without a prescription, baseball had never banned steroids. Besides, by pursuing the issue, the Giants ran the risk of poisoning their relationship with their touchy superstar — or, worse, of precipitating a drug scandal the year before the opening of their new ballpark, where Bonds was supposed to be the main gate attraction.”
• Anderson kept meticulous records on Bonds’ program, many of them on a computer. At times, Bonds gulped as many as 20 pills at a time. He also learned to inject himself.
• Bonds had a relationship with Kimberly Bell, a woman he met in the Candlestick Park parking lot in 1994 while he was married. Bonds even put a downpayment on a house for Bell in Arizona from monies he made from card-show appearances (and didn’t report as income). She claims he later threatened to kill her.
• According to the excerpt, Anderson told an acquaintance who was wearing a wire in 2003 that: “The whole thing is, everything I’ve been doing, it’s all undetectable. The stuff I have, we created it. You can’t buy it anywhere else; you can’t get it anywhere else. You can take [it] the day of [a drug test], pee, and it comes up clear.
“See, like Marion Jones and them — it’s the same stuff they went to the Olympics with and they test them every f—— week. So that’s why I know it works, so that’s why I know we’re not in trouble. So that’s cool.”
• Bonds had immunity in grand jury testimony from everything but perjury. He claimed in testimony that he didn’t know what Anderson was giving him. “At the end of [the] 2002, 2003 season, when I was going through [a bad period,] my dad died of cancer…. I was fatigued, just needed recovery you know, and this guy says, ‘Try this cream, try this cream,’” he said. “And Greg came to the ballpark and said, you know, ‘This will help you recover.’ And he rubbed some cream on my arm … gave me some flaxseed oil, man. It’s like, ‘Whatever, dude.’ ”
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Related:
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