A-Rod press conference
Jayson Stark is so anti-Arod he shouldn't be able to post an article on ESPN, where 90% of the country go for their sports info. His article is ridiculous.
Printable View
A-Rod press conference
Jayson Stark is so anti-Arod he shouldn't be able to post an article on ESPN, where 90% of the country go for their sports info. His article is ridiculous.
Aww I like stark :(
stark and Olney are my 2 favs witrh Law comming in a close 3rd.
he is however VERY Anti-ARod tho you are correct
I got Olney and Law as my 1 and 2 :)
Rob Neyer and Keith Law are the only ESPN writers truly worth their salt.
I used to think Stark was tolerable, and he still is on most non-A-Rod issues, but he's completely blown a good chunk of his credibility to me thanks to his ridiculous A-Rod nonsense. Olney's a guy who I can't stand EXCEPT for one of his stances, and that being that the powers that be in the MLB (both the league and the Player's Association) need to take partial responsibility for the "Steroid Era."
The reaction to the A-Rod press conference just goes to show just how much of a no-win situation players are in once they're accused/outed as steroid users. The media clamors for some sort of response. A-Rod does it with the Gammons interview and admits to use. That's not enough. The media clamors to know what he used, how he used, why he used, and where he got it from. So, A-Rod gives them that. But that's STILL not enough. No, now they think everything he says is a lie and he still has to tell them more. Jeez, give it the **** up already. It was 6 years ago. Yeah, it sucks, but seriously, move the hell on.
I always forget about neyer :( I like him too lol
While I didn't watch the press conference, the issue that I heard via sports radio (granted I only heard a few mins of it this morning on the way to class) was that his numbers simply didn't add up. He claimed to be 24 when he used (from 01-03), but he wasn't 24 at any point in the years 2001-2003. Seems like if he really did use in 01-03, he would be able to properly calculate his age (especially if he was going to bring up his age & how young he was so often in the press conference). The next assumption is one most people make (that if he lied about something as simple as when he used, how old he was when he used, then who can say anything he said was the truth).Quote:
Originally Posted by HoustonGM
Again, this is just what I picked up on from other's reactions to his conference.
When he said "24", he said it in the context of responding to a question and said something like "I was 24, 25, a young guy." He wasn't specifically stating, "I used between the ages of 24 and 26" or anything.
I hate to say it but I do kind of feel bad for him at this point. if he came totaly clean... I mean lets say he has been using for longer until say 06 (just to throw out a #) and he came out and sad...
They would rip him for not giving up others. They would tear him appart for not admitting it the 1st time.Quote:
Look I lied. I used from the last year in Seattle until 2006. I used this, this, this, and this. I'm sorry I did. I'm not giving up my supplier because they are not in the country and nothring can be done to them anyway. Plus, this is MY mistake not theirs.
I am not givng up the others who have done it because it is not my place to do so. He who hath no sin may cas the forst stone" Well its obvious I am not without fault so I wil lnot place blame on others. I am hear to talk about me and me only.
Meanwhile everyone has forgotten Giambi apologised for "what he did" yea well... its to bad you never said what you did.
People have been tearing A-Rod apart for "placing the blame on others" because he "brought his cousin into it", even though:
a) He specifically says he has nobody to blame but himself.
b) These same people were tearing A-Rod apart for NOT telling where he got the stuff from. Now he does, and he's wrong for doing that!
This same nonsense happened with Clemens. The media says that if Clemen was really innocent, he'd go in front of Congress. He does so, and they call him a liar and say he committed perjury and that if he really wanted to prove his innocence, he'd sue. So, he sues, and they yell at him for being too aggressive (but of course, McGwire, the ultimate Mr. Passive, is torn apart for being quiet!).
No matter what these players do, they're going to be torn to shreds. Even if they repeatedly give in to the demands of the shrieking talking heads, those heads will turn on them and accuse them of wrongdoing for doing the exact thing they wanted them to do. It's a circus act.
I like Law and Stark. I don't really care for Neyer.
I can't stand Steve Phillips
I don't think that there's one serious baseball fan that can.Quote:
Originally Posted by boomboom
The other day he claimed that if Ryan Howard could avoid his "annual April slump", he'd put up 60 HR and 200 RBI. Yes, he literally said that.
now i gotta go find this and laugh for awhile.Quote:
Originally Posted by HoustonGM
It was on Sportscenter's MLB Spring Training special on Sunday I think.
LOL, I JUST watched that video. Great minds think alike ;):D:pQuote:
Originally Posted by HoustonGM
Thanks? For sharing that video :C
I wasn't aware that if A-Rod is the MVP it wouldn't matter to Yankee fans or increase their chance at even making the playoffs.
Well, he's confessed but there were no penalties for what he did during that period so there's no point in dragging this out even more. It's time to move on and look towards the future.
The video was from 2007. :p Before any of the steroid nonsense.Quote:
Originally Posted by Slingshot
Oh, I wasn't talking about that specific video. I just talked about the latest A-Rod confessions. Not that I would think MLB plays their games in the middle of February either. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by HoustonGM
Stark rhymes with shark and bark.
While we're on the subject of moronic ESPN baseball people,
did you see on Sunday when Karl Ravech asked if CC Sabathia's ERA could translate to the AL??
rofl... now THAT is funnyQuote:
Originally Posted by haveacigar
Speaking of a "joke"
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring...ory?id=3916048
ESPN keeps topping itself.Quote:
Originally Posted by KowboyKoop
So, this guy's trying to "re-award" MVPs to the clean guys. Just to point out one completely braindead thing this blowhard said, let's take his Adrian Beltre comment:
Of course, he didn't "fall off the face of the planet", he continued right where he left off the year before his monster year as a solid bat, great glove third basemen. A fluke season doesn't mean he used steroids. For one, it came during the first year in which there was testing, 2004. But, anyway, Beltre was cheating, or Rick Reilly is the Queen Mother, based on a fluke season, so, he doesn't get the award. But:Quote:
We're throwing out Beltre since, while he denies ever using PEDs, he fell off the face of the planet once baseball put in stricter steroid suspensions in 2005. If he wasn't cheating, I'm the Queen Mother.
Luis Gonzalez, you're obviously clean, even though you had a fluke season just as comparable to Beltre's, and your numbers dropped off beginning in 2004, the first year of testing!Quote:
And here's yours from 2001, Luis Gonzalez, after you finished behind The Barry Bonds Pharmacy
He ends this with:
And I have no idea what that means, but, I can say with certainty that a sticky-fingered third-grader can write better baseball columns than you, Mr. I'm A Human Steroid Use Detector.Quote:
Remember, we know sticky-fingered third-graders.
Of course, this idiot was heaping the praise on Mark McGwire back in 1998.
Ugh. How does this guy have a job, let alone awards for his writing?
Also, I would like to thank White Sox GM Kenny Williams for providing some level-headedness.
Yup...ESPN and baseball is just a recipe for comedy. Nothing more outside of the occasional intelligent article that seems to be a case of a blind squirrel finding a nut.
I agree, I seen this coming a mile away though. I dont think its right how Giambi can apologize without stating what hes apologizing for and get a free pass, and Pettite can come out and admit it and might not be telling the truth when he said he did it one time to get healthy and get a free pass. Now A-Rod comes out and is the most blatantly honest about using steroids and look at the media harp on him.Quote:
Originally Posted by HoustonGM
What a bunch of douches and hypocrites.
Pettitte actually revised his story a couple times, too.Quote:
Originally Posted by ragecage
This selection from Joe Sheehan's article today repeats what you're saying:
I don't know if A-Rod's being "blatantly honest", but he's surely telling a lot more than anybody this side of Jose Canseco has.Quote:
Yesterday afternoon, Alex Rodriguez sat down and answered as many questions about his use of performance-enhancing substances as any team-sports athlete ever has. No one has ever gone into the level of detail that Rodriguez did in his statement and in the 40 minutes of questioning that followed. No one has copped to as extensive a usage history. Whether you think he would have been there absent Selena Roberts' reporting, the fact is that he provided more information about his personal use than any player caught up in this mess.
Yet it's still not enough for many. The reaction to Rodriguez's press conference has been at best apathetic, and at worst, critical. His demeanor, his word choice, his expressions, his inflections have all been picked apart, and he's been given no credit for the details he provided. There's an assumption that he's being deceptive, duplicitous, and insincere. Whether this stems from the dislike so many people have for this very insecure man, the dislike of his agent, or the general disdain for the successful and wealthy—let's face it, sports coverage has devolved into thinly disguised class warfare—this most open moment has been dismissed, and Rodriguez has been given no credit for providing it.
Oh, I forgot to quote my favorite Rick Reilly quote ever from a 1998 Sports Illustrated:
Ha. And now he's haphazardly "reawarding" awards based on his insane gut feelings of whether or not players weren't "pure." This is the second time I'm using this phrase today....what a ****ing tool.Quote:
That was such an odd time in this country. Washington seemed to be filled with liars, cheats and scumbags, yet our games were as pure and shiny as I'd ever seen them. I still think that year in sports, 1998, was the best of my lifetime....
Ah, honesty.
It might help if more players came out and said, "If we had access to this stuff when I played, I'd have been tempted to/would have tried it." But, maybe not, because people don't care for logic on the steroid issue, they'd rather just sling mud.Quote:
In fact, when [Mike] Schmidt was asked directly if he thought he'd have gotten caught up in trying performance-enhancing drugs had they been part of his era, he answered: "Most likely. Why not?"
Schmidt, by the way, has admitted to using amphetamines.
You understand my point though, I appreciate honesty when it doesnt have to be given. But I find it really upsetting that most writers are still throwing A-Rod under the train. Its just not right to do that to him. It would make my life next time he gets a condescending question if he would tell the person to "**** off,".
I still say A-Rod kind of is a notch over Canseco in the honesty department because Canseco was honest to try to get rich, A-Rod isnt being paid for his honesty.
I cant fathom why the media wont forgive A-Rod when they will forgive everyone else if they are somewhat forthcoming. And another thing, **** Selig for getting onto A-Rod too.
That article I linked to (Joe Sheehan's) goes into Selig and how MLB's leaders are responsible for keeping the steroid issue the huge deal it is, but I don't want to quote too much of it because it's subscriber-only (an excellent read for anybody with a BP subscription though).Quote:
Originally Posted by ragecage
That's because A-Rod is MLB's biggest star. If he was Carlos Delgado or Jermaine Dye, he wouldn't create nearly as much buzz.Quote:
Originally Posted by ragecage
More on Reilly...his Bill Romanowski lovefest. To quote poster Tom Nawrocki of Baseball Think Factory:
Quote:
That Romanowski story is amazing. In it, Reilly describes Romanowski as ingesting CDP choline, pheryl, glutathione, shark cartilage, between 100 and 130 pills a day, and "living pancreas, brain and adrenal cells of pure-strain Scottish sheep."
All that stuff makes you a hero, but Winstrol makes you a lowlife who should be kicked out of professional athletics.
I'm still trying to figure out why the NFL seem to have a few players every year busted for some kind of PED and it isn't very big news (unless they happen to all come from the same two teams.) but in the MLB it is like the second coming.
So, I just read the Stark article...why exactly are we vilifying him? For pointing out the FACT that ARod's 'truth' has been shifting every single time he talks to somebody? For pointing out the fact that his initial response was to vilify the reporter who 'outed' him? He HAS been inconsistent, and he DID try to obfuscate and distract...grow up and accept it.
Once again, it's simply due to baseball's hallowed numbers (61 & 755). Had those not been broke, I doubt it would be nearly as big an issue in baseball.Quote:
Originally Posted by reflections
What about the walks record? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by etothep
In baseball, you can see their face. In football, they wear helmets..most of the players aren't recognizable without their helmets and jerseys.
From the Sheehan article:Quote:
Originally Posted by reflections
Quote:
Whether you want to blame Selig for what players did or not—both are at fault—what is clear is that he is as responsible as anyone for keeping baseball players' use of PEDs front and center in the public eye. Where the NFL never, ever talks about this—or really, any of the other million problems that the league has, particularly when it comes to player health—Selig and his partners have done everything in their power to keep this story alive. In fact, management openly used the image of cheating players to turn public opinion to their advantage during the 2002 negotiations for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. When the Mitchell Report was released, Selig could have used that moment to close the door on this issue, deeming it the final word on the subject. Instead, he hemmed and hawed and allowed speculation about punishments for named players to persist. When Barry Bonds was chasing the home-run record two summers ago, Selig fanned the flames by being openly disdainful of Bonds' accomplishment. Now, rather than keep the focus firmly on the testing program, the draconian punishments for getting caught, and the limited number of positives, Selig beats up on Rodriguez, saying that A-Rod shamed the game.
And that would be yet ANOTHER reason Bud should be punted.
The problem with Selig is that it's a whole lot of talk, but not much else. If he actually took care of the problems instead of just talking about them, MLB would be much better off. Now he just looks like a ***** with no idea on what to do.Quote:
Originally Posted by HoustonGM