I Like Your Style

Yesterday pitchers and catchers reported for the Met’s down in Port St. Lucie, and once there was a camera and mic in Pedro Martinezs’ face he threw one high and tight, maybe a shot at Roger Clemens whom he took the mantle from in Boston. Asked about how he felt about the whole steroids thing, the 3 time Cy Young award winner is quoted as saying:

“I dominated that era and I did it clean… I can stand by my numbers and I can be proud of them.”

When asked about HGH, he added this gem,

“I have a small frame and when I hurt all I could do was take a couple of Aleve or Advil, a cup of coffee and a little mango and an egg — and let it go!”

I love it! At 5′ 11″ and about a buck sixty soaking wet, Pedro could throw his as off. He was a beast, look at the stats. He  brought some serious excitement to the game too, I can only remember watching all of those Red Sox games when he was on a roll and all the Dominican’s would be in the cheap seats with flags and k signs cheering him to great things. Fun times, we may not see anything like it for a while.

Ummm… Really, Who Cares

So they are saying that a lot of rappers and entertainers are taking steroids these days… ummm OK, so what!!! Trust me, almost all of them are taking something. How do you think Brad Pitt got “in shape” for Fight Club, or Will Smith in Ali, or Ed Norton in American History X, or Gerard in 300, or Brad in Alexander. Let’s not even start with all these ladies taking clenbuterol and those types of drugs trying to lose weight. Whatever, I don’t care, because it is entertainment. This is as big a non story as I’ve read in months.

Everyone in MLB gets an * now

The Mitchell Report is out… and the next few weeks are going to be very interesting. There are names attached obviously, pretty much all that we cared about. And there are some names like Roger Clemens that are just as big as Barry Bonds. I am curios to see if the same venomous statements and admonishing of self that was thrown at BB will be thrown at Roger and Andy Pettitte and the other names on this list. Roger is arguably the best pitcher in the last 50 years, does he potentially get asterisks too? You obviously cant wipe the numbers and records out of the books, because that would basically turned the statistics upside down, all numbers would have to be updated, its a virtual impossibility! What the hell is baseball going to do, I am so fired up.

Here is a link to Mitchell’s recommendations 

One quote from Mitchell is potentially disturbing about his suggestions to the commish about punishing the players:

“except in those cases where he determines that the conduct is so serious that discipline is necessary to maintain the integrity of the game.”

That sounds like a clear indication that they still think BB should suffer even more than everyone else. I still don’t understand how he is more culpable than any other player in this era. It is piss-offable. This is why i cannot deal with MLB and can only watch the Yankees.

I hope this really blow up in Baseball’s face. Think about this: what if someone knows they are innocent and decide to sue. The case can go to court because this report can be considered slanderous. Does that make it a case in the court of law where cats can be subpoenaed and have to testify? This thing is just beginning. Everyone gets an asterisk now. Baseball(for ignoring this when it should have jumped off with the Andro in Marks locker), friggin Bud Selig (how does he feel now that he cant put this all on BB), the players(for doing this), the players association(for trying to cya and not allowing any sort of testing), the media(for ignoring this when it shave jumped off with the Andro in Marks locker. The irony here is that there is no real new news. Most people new that this was all going on and most people people chose to ignore it. The only people that I feel sorry for are the gentleman in the records books that are being passed during this era. I mean they all set their records when black players couldn’t play before this era, and should be thought of in a greater light. Baseball made more than $6b dollars last year, so I don’t think they are really worried about how this is going to effect the game. The anticipation of how this is all going to play out is major. Damn, the home run king, the hits king, and maybe the one of the top 5 pitcher’s of all time shouldn’t be in the HOF, crazy.

It’s Official

A-Rod has crazy dough! Oh yeah that is nothing new, but the deal has been finalized for the richest contract in baseball history… for the second time. $275m over 10 years for the base contract, with the potential to top out at $306m if certain incentives are met. Those incentive are home run related, so passing Willie Mays, Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds on the home run list could be very lucrative some more pocket change for Mr. Rodriguez. They should should just start calling this cat moneybags because its getting a bit ridiculous. This is some good news for the bombers and baseball on a day that could have a black cloud over the game. The Mitchell Report is coming out today… I can’t wait to see all the other names that are not Barry Bonds. I sure hope they give the rest of these guys the same drama they have been giving BB.

Linkage

What the hell is Omarion thinking right there? Damn!

Jay Z is going to be running Las Vegas for a weekend … link right here… and he speak on his tenure at def jam here

Some funny shit here on youtube, Kenny Smith has his jersey retired on Inside the NBA Overtime, linked here

Peter Vesczey writes an interesting piece on Jamal Tinsley here at NY Post

I used to be mad at AI for causing the whole bad hair trend in the NBA.Don’t get me wrong his were fly at first, but then everyone started wearing them. Just like me with the dreads, but then i cut them off. anyways, you can’t help but love his take on the “athletes as targets” trend right now. Some great perspective from the Answer here

Jose Calderon from the Toronto Raptors has a blog and its pretty good take a look here

Los Angeles is considering limiting the size of houses being built. Just trust me this is a good thing. Where I live its getting out of hand. I guess its fine if these houses are in Bel Air and Brentwood, areas that have the space, but when they are in Sherman Oaks and Studio City… its not good!

A nice piece on the George Mitchell Barry Bonds witch-hunt steroids investigation. Check it out here

A great take on the biggest issue in hollywood, the writers strike. Read on here. I have wondered out loud why someone with deep pockets like Mark Cuban hasn’t been snapping up these guys by the boatload with production deals.

Mo’ money

I would be lighting up too, if the reports coming out of ESPN are correct. After a historic season turned in by Alex Rodriguez which included the regular season totals of 54 home runs 156 rbi 143 runs scored while batting .314, A-Rod collected a third MVP trophy, a silver slugger award, an all-star appearance. He is now close to collecting something else, a contract that could total up to $314m over the next ten years. As reported by espn.com here, representation for both Rodriguez and the Yankees are working the final kinks out on a deal that would pay around $275m in base, with some $30m in home run related incentives and $9m in deferred compensation. OMG. For that kind of money, you could talk about me all you want, who cares what the New York media writes about! More pictures of the slugger below