It's Inconcievable!

This just in on MLB.com:

"Melvin Mora is among the remaining free agents still available."

Really? A 38 year old third baseman who slugged .358 last year is still available? Has anyone told Brian Sabean this? The Royals have lost the number of his agent? Someone get the Pirates on the line, now!

Chan Ho Park, Darin Erstad, and Mike Hampton are still unsigned as well. What is this world coming to?

A Firm Grasp of the Obvious

Dave van Dyck has a firm grasp of the obvious:

[Sean] Marshall and [Tom] Gorzelanny are left-handed, as is [Ted] Lilly. Other than those three, the Cubs' rotation would be all right-handed with Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster and Randy Wells.

To sum up:  except for the lefties who may be in the rotation, the Cubs' rotation will be all right-handed.

Damn.  I was hoping to see Carlos throw with his feet this year...

Time to Dust Off an Old Story

Of course Cardinal Fan is going to forgive Mark McGwire.  No surprise there.

But, as always seems to be the case when the media discusses McGwire, Sosa, steroids, et al, they bury the lede. According to the AP's Jim Salter:

It was a season [1998] that many said helped baseball finally recover from the damage caused by the 1994 labor dispute that forced cancellation of the World Series. Congress honored McGwire and Sosa. Interstate 70 through St. Louis was dubbed "Mark McGwire Highway."

Even then, there were whispers. McGwire admitted in 1998 that he used androstenedione, an over-the-counter muscle enhancer banned by the NFL, IOC and others. But it was his evasive testimony at the congressional hearing four years ago that seemed to sour many Cardinals fans. One of his questioners at the hearing, Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo. and from St. Louis, said McGwire's name should be stripped from the highway signs.

The implication being that we all "knew" what was going on in '98. But all we got were whispers -- whispers that were whispered very softly so as not to offend anyone or cause people to think that Big Mac's heroic home run chase was anything short of heroic. Whispers no one took seriously until big scary Bonds tarnished the home run record.
 
We wrote about this years ago. And it seems like every so often I have to dust off that old chestnut and re-run it.
 
We may have "known" way back then that Mac and Sammy and others were 'roided up. Do we have the right to claim the moral high ground if we didn't say anything in real time?
 
One more note:  A few members of the media have said that the reason they could not say anything in real time is because they had no solid proof for their assertions.
 
Take a cursory glance at the number of trumped-up charges and flat-out lies about the Clintons and Al Gore  that the media gleefully distributed in the late '90s without a second thought about things like fact-checking. And then wonder why they were so squeamish about telling tales about steroids in baseball.

Holy Crap!

This is post number 1,000 on our little cow-town blog.  Who'd have thunk we'd be making that much interweb noise?

Not me, that's for sure.  Especially over the last year or so.

Jason Kendall Wasn't Enough?

Despite coming up with Zach Greinke, Billy Butler, and Alex Gordon, the Royals continue to be the stupidest organization in baseball. Well, maybe tied with the Nationals. And maybe the Mets.

Really, Baron?

In the aftermath of Mark McGwire's non-shocking admission this week, Baron Budhausen had this to say:

The use of steroids and amphetamines amongst today’s players has greatly subsided and is virtually nonexistent, as our testing results have shown. The so-called steroid era — a reference that is resented by the many players who played in that era and never touched the substances — is clearly a thing of the past, and Mark’s admission today is another step in the right direction.

Really, Baron? The Steroid Era is a "thing of the past?"

I think the Baron needs to accept a bit of wisdom from William Faulkner (perhaps the greatest American writer from south of the Mason-Dixon Line): The past is never dead. It's not even past.

Part of the reason we're still having this discussion is because very few people -- owners, players, fans, and media -- were willing to talk about the prevelance of steroid and other PEDs in the late '80s and early '90s.

Oh, we're willing to kvetch about it now. But in real time, too many of us (and, yes, I'm including myself in that mix) were having too much fun to worry about it in real time.

We'll be talking about 'roids in 2020. The Baron is dumb if he thinks otherwise.

Welcome Back

Greetings, loyal reader. Our little dog and pony show is back for our entertainment, and, we hope, for yours as well. As to our absence of the past year and a half: I'd apologize, but that would not be sincere. But we're not here to talk about the past.




No sirree, we're here to talk about the present. And the future. And the past, too, if we feel like it. About things like a future with Andre Dawson as a Hall of Famer. And Mark "Not Here to Talk About the Past" McGwire as a hitting coach. And Andruw Jones as the White Sox centerfielder. And of course, all the usual mockery of real honest to goodness professional baseball writersstenographers like Phil Rogers and Rick Morrissey that you can handle.

And as usual, we stand behind our product 100%. So if you don't like what you see here, we offer you your money back, guaranteed. Because we're all about value here at the Palatial Baseball Blog.