Um, Jose? Casn you not loom behind me like that? It looks too much like foreshadowing. Thanks.

Just kidding Mark.  We’re still cool, right?  What’s that?  We were never cool?  Because we’ve never met?  Fine, be that way.  So in case you didn’t hear the news, Mark McGwire is going to be the Cardinals hitting coach next year.  McGwire hasn’t been involved in baseball since his retirement in 2001, unless you count this of course.  It’ll be interesting to see what kind of effect he has on their hitters, and how his relationship is with the players, considering he was teammates with two of them.  I’m not sure how I feel about him as an MLB employee given the treatment that Pete Rose and others have received, though Sammy Sosa was allowed to come back and have a successful season as a hitter after those steroid hearings had taken place.  It’s always been hard for me to judge McGwire because he might have been using steroids his entire career.  Was it natural talent?  Was is all due to cheating?  There’s no way to say for sure with him, whereas Barry Bonds would have been a Hall of Fame player if he had retired before he started juicing.  I guess this is at least a start to understanding what kinds of talents and acumen McGwire has for the game.  But I’d like to get some readers’ thoughts on this, since I can’t make up my own mind.

It is now apparent that “the list” of 104 players is wholly suspect. Information is coming out that the names are not linked to a substance and that at least 13 of the names are tied to substances or results that would not garner discipline from the league. Thus there is a chance, a 13/104, chance that Ortiz is telling the truth. I will believe him because of what he has done on the field, because he is Big Papi, as cheesy and sentimental as that sounds.

It is disgraceful that these discrepancies were not made public when A-Rod was linked to “the list” and I do have respect for him for owning up to his previous STEROID use. Ortiz, however, has not been linked to steroids he has been linked to a list which does not include any names of substances and has the names of players who did nothing wrong. In sports they are guilty until proven guilty it seems.

There are also some differences between Ortiz and A-Rod which illuminates how we as fans and the media react to players.
For diplomacy sake and full disclosure, I think Alex Rodriguez is great, if not the greatest player to ever play the game. I will also point out that he had frosted tips way longer than they were cool.

A-Rod is prima donna and genuine narcissist, please see the kissing the mirror photo for reference. He is a sort of robot who dates famous blondes. His favorite food is probably pizza and his favorite band is probably the Beatles. He is a celebrity, not a famous athlete, a bon fide celebrity. When the info came out that he was tied to PED’s it was explosive for all those reasons. This is also the player that swatted the ball from Arroyo’s glove and yelled at the 3rd basemen fielding a pop up to distract him, he is also known as a notorious stealer of signs, so clearly he likes to get the upper hand.

Meanwhile David Ortiz is perhaps the most beloved player of the past few years, Yankees fans excluded, in baseball. In Red Sox Nation he is king. He, Schilling, and Foulke (YIKES!) gave us 2004 in the most astounding and emotional way, that he will forever be infallable. He has spoken up about PED use and made mention of taking things in the DR when he was younger that forced him to educate himself. He has been saying what he said on Saturday since 2005 at least, but why believe him now? A-Rod lied to Katie Couric while Ortiz talked about the importance of Latino players educating themselves about supplements. But yeah whatever they are exactly the same. Ortiz has a mountain of support including the league and union behind him, where were they for A-Rod? What did they know about A-Rod previously and what do they know about Papi? It seems like if there was ever an instance when their should be some doubt about a player tied to PED’s this should be it.

I also feel I need to respond to JD’s comments about Sox being the worst. I will gladly be a part of a terrible naive fandom that cheers and supports their most beloved player through the worst season of his career, professionally and personally, than be a part of a fandom that boos their most beloved player and captain for going 0-25. That’s just me though.

Also the Red Sox fucking suck so bad right now I think The Other Fifteen could probably beat them. I call First Base!

Aside from my friends (a shockingly high number of them are Sox fans), I think Red Sox fans are the worst fans ever. They live in denial. They act like their team is a struggling little mom -n-pop outfit defending good from the evil Yankees. And the leader of those rosy do-gooders is the mango-salsa eating teddy bear who has to answer to nobody.

“Oh not Big Papi. He would never do that!”

“Oh no way! He spoke out against steroids!”

“His farts smell like roses!”

Yeah, he did it. And now he wants to “get to the bottom of it”. WTF!?!? Are you kidding me? Get to the bottom of what? You took steroids. You cheated. Just admit it. It’s okay, everyone else did too. It’s not the cheating that bugs me, it’s the freedom-fighter mentality. It’s the self-righteous denial. Say what you want about the douchebag on my team (and he is a huge douchebag) at least he admitted it and embraced his douchebaggery (see picture below). Wake up Sox fans. Wake up media. You’re part of the problem by not demanding more from Papi. Where’s his interview with Sensei Gammons? They were about to burn A-Rod at the stake, but we’ll give Ortiz some time to get his story straight. And don’t act like it’s not getting to him. He went 0-5 last night, left 9 men on base, and complained to the ump about not giving him enough time. Douchebag.

Douchebag extraordinaire

Douchebag-in-training

Probably just one of many who are using PEDs in basketball.

The Orlando Magic’s Rashard Lewis tested positive for elevated testosterone levels yesterday and was suspended by the league for 10 games.  Lewis claims it was from an over the counter supplement that he took, which must have had a banned substance in it.  It seems pretty believable, and it does happen.  But are we just being naive when it come to PEDs in basketball compared to other sports? What if we heard that statement from a baseball player?  Would we believe them?  Shouldn’t we be looking further into this issue?

Kirk Radomski, the former Mets clubhouse employee who was wrapped up in PED distribution for years, alleged that there are NBA players taking HGH, and he doesn’t know why that wasn’t being looked into.  Well, someone did look into it.  In this column fromFebruary 2009,  Mark Woods of the UKs Guardian (probably the most respected newspaper on Earth) goes on to explain the loopholes in the NBA’s testing system, the lighter penalties for infractions than in other sports, and the naivete of the argument that steroids and HGH wouldn’t benefit NBA players.  Basically, this positive test is just the tip of the NBA/PED iceberg.  But is anyone going to seriously look under the surface of the water to see how big the rest of that iceberg is?  I seriously doubt it.  I think, just like baseball, it will take a major BALCO-like scandal to get the ball rolling.

“I’m sure that’s the title of the (soon to be defunct) Boston Globe this morning.  I don’t even have to google it to check.  I just know that’s what it is.  But either way, David Ortiz finally hit his first homer of the season.  This is a guy who hit 54 HR three years ago.  I know Big Papi is an extremely likable guy, so nobody wants to say this (especially in Boston), and I know I’m going to get a ton of flack for this, but with everything else that’s gone on in baseball it would be irresponsible not to say it: steroids.

That’s right, I think Big Papi did steroids.  And anyone who claims that there’s no way is just turning a blind eye to the obvious.  All the signs are there: a career that never got going, suddenly gets traded and starts hitting homers AT AGE 28, starts breaking club records at age 30 despite a lackluster career until a year or two prior, steep decline once baseball starts testing for PEDs, sudden injuries, sudden loss of his power that came out of nowhere in the first place, then decline into oblivion.  I honestly don’t understand how anyone can look at the sudden jump and steep decline of his numbers over the last eight or nine years and think that there is absolutely no way that this guy was juicing.  I’m not saying he did it for sure, but his numbers make him look like the poster boy for the steroid era.  How is his sudden power surge and subsequent lack thereof any different than Bradey Anderson?  Or Louis Gonzalez?  Or pretty much anyone else who has already been found out, or will be, or will always be suspected but never proven?  Sorry Boston fans, but it’s time to face the facts.”

Again, I’m not relishing in being right on this one.  I’m just trying to explain how we have to scrutinize all of the best players in the sport because of the era they played in.  But I’m not the only one who was vindicated by today’s news.  David Ortiz Arias was beaten out by Doug Mientkiewicz at 1B and by a platoon of forgettable players at DH. He bounced between the majors and minors for years. He hit 20 HR and 75 RBI in his best year before being cut. The Twins didn’t overlook his talent, they properly evaluated him as mediocre.  Many are going to claim that the Red Sox championships are illegitimate.  I’m not one of them.  Half of baseball was on steroids.  That means roughly half of each team.  So they were a team half-full of cheaters beating other teams half-full of cheaters.  The point is: EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING that happened in baseball from about the mid-90s to now is doubious.  So what I AM going to say is: Jimmy Foxx wants his records back.  All of the players from previous eras have had their numbers diminished.  And all of the clean players of this era, whoever they are, were robbed of both accolades and money by players who were cheating.  It’s sad that we can’t celebrate players who have put up Hall of Fame credentials and never tested positive  for PEDs.  I would really like to mention some names of players who have never been suspected cheaters and who have put up Hall of Fame numbers, like Junior Griffey, Frank Thomas, Ichiro Suzuki, and others.  But I’m affraid to praise anyone anymore, for fear that they too will be exposed as cheaters.  PED users have cast a pall over the sport, even over those who didn’t cheat, because it’s so hard to determine who did what and when.  Once again, a few bad apples have spoiled the whole barrel.

Why don't you?

After literally decades of planning, the Other Fifteen finally has a podcast…

What’s a podcast? I’m glad you asked.  It’s like the radio, but it scares your parents more.  It’s like a blog but more MP3ish.  It likes a tornado where no one dies but lots of trailers get destroyed.  It’s that good.

How best should I enjoy the podcast? Another excellent question.  I prefer my podcast in a warm tub with a glass of wine and headphones.  Jeremy likes his podcast to be screamed at him from a sound system in the back of a souped up Honda Civic.  It’s really up to you.

Enjoy!

Sosa holds the record for most 60+ home runs seasons (3), most homers in one month (20), most homers in a 4 year span (243), and ended his career 5th all-time in homers with a whopping 609.  The question I have always asked myself and others in looking at his career is: Was Sammy just doing more drugs than everyone else, or was he really that much more talented?

For the sake of this debate (with myself), I’m going to ignore the corked bat since we’re not sure how long he was using it, while it’s pretty safe to say that Sosa was on steroids from 1998-2003.  Seeing as Sosa had already been a member of the 30-30 club twice, had hit 40 homers in a season, and hit .300 for a season before that time frame, it would be stupid to say that what he did in his career was purely due to the drugs he was taking and had nothing to do with natural athletic ability.  A good way to measure this is to compare him to his contemporaries.  Though Mark McGwire could out-slug Sammy, he never had the speed and quickness that Sammy did, which accounts for both his base stealing and Sammy’s higher batting average.  If not for his chronic back problems, McGwire may well have surpassed Sosa’s total home runs and seasons with 60+, but the average and speed were never there.  When compared to Bonds, Sosa ends up having more seasons with staggering home run totals, but not more overall.  This is likely due to Bonds not starting on PEDs until getting jealous of McGwire and Sosa after the 1998 or 1999 seasons.  Though both were 5 tool players, Bonds tools were always better than Sosa’s, and would have ended up with more homers, a higher average, more gold gloves, and more steals no matter how many drugs either of them did.

Nobody else who used in that era, be it ARod, Giambi, Sheffield, Piazza, or any number of other players, slugged as many homers as Sammy, or did it as long as he did.  If Sosa had been using more ‘roids than the rest, why did he not suffer the injuries that are a hallmark of using such as tendon or ligament tearing?  Yes, he once threw out his back sneezing, which is laughably suspicious.  But unusual injuries can happen to anyone.  In the end, we are left with two nagging questions: Why did he hit so many more home runs than anyone else?  And why was he able to do it for so much longer than anyone else?  I think the only answer can be found in Sosa’s final season.  In 2007, Sammy returned to the Rangers after taking the entire 2006 season off.  His final numbers that season were 21 homers, 91 RBI, and a .253 AVG in only 114 games at the age of 37.  If he had played 150+ games, he easily could have hit 30 homers and driven in 100 runs.  At age 37.  After a year away from baseball.

In the end, the answer to my question is: a little bit of both.  Sosa did use steroids to a large effect.  But he really was as talented as the best players of his era, all of whom (save for a select few like Griffey, Jr. and Frank Thomas) were on PEDs.

That’s right, I think Big Papi did steroids.  And anyone who claims that there’s no way is just turning a blind eye to the obvious.  All the signs are there: a career that never got going, suddenly gets traded and starts hitting homers AT AGE 28, starts breaking club records at age 30 despite a lackluster career until a year or two prior, steep decline once baseball starts testing for PEDs, sudden injuries, sudden loss of his power that came out of nowhere in the first place, then decline into oblivion.  I honestly don’t understand how anyone can look at the sudden jump  and steep decline of his numbers over the last eight or nine years and think that there is absolutely no way that this guy was juicing.  I’m not saying he did it for sure, but his numbers make him look like the poster boy for the steroid era.  How is his sudden power surge and subsequent lack thereof any different than Bradey Anderson?  Or Louis Gonzalez?  Or pretty much anyone else who has already been found out, or will be, or will always be suspected but never proven?  Sorry Boston fans, but it’s time to face the facts.