Doing the Digging George Mitchell Didn't

[HoustonGM]

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/sh...itchell-didnt/

Follow the link in that blog entry to an excellent article regarding an anonymous major leaguer. Craig Calcaterra's commentary is good, as well:

If we take this at face value -- and I don't see why we wouldn't -- the "look-how-big-he-was/look-how-small-he-is" parlor game is just as useless as the moralizing. Just as the Mitchell Report caught only the most reckless purchasers of steroids (i.e. guys who wrote personal checks to the stupidest dealers), the physique watchers of the world are paying attention to only the most over-the-top juicers. With each new revelation we are reminded how foolish it is to make any assumptions about a given player's drug use, but the notion that even guys sharing a locker room may not know what the other players are doing underscores how silly the guessing games truly are.

The final lesson: Despite baseball's best efforts to use the Mitchell Report to end the PED story, it's failure to give us any real information is manifest. The truth about this era, as I've said before, is going to come via journalism like this and ultimately scholarship. It's better, then, to hold our final judgments about this era -- judgments which will impact the Hall of Fame, the record books, and any number of other considerations -- until we can say we have something approaching the full story.

Regarding the anonymous guy, Baseball Think Factory has some ideas, based on the information given in the story...Erik Hanson, Robert Person, James Baldwin, Frank Castillo, Chris Haney, Joey Hamilton, Brian Bohanon.

[dickay]

I agree with your quote 100%. Exactly why investigations should continue and the 104 names should simply be released. Once everything is out in the open, baseball can finally move on. Not until.

This however is a cop out;

He asked that his name not be used for this story. It's not that he is ashamed of what he has done. He is willing to accept responsibility for his actions. But he doesn't want to implicate others. Besides, he might try to get back into baseball someday. So he agreed to talk to the Daily News only on the condition of anonymity.

For people to say they want the truth to get out there and to have full disclosure, yet not offer full disclosure is disingenuous. For the author of the piece to say we should withhold opinions until we know the full story but not express disapointment in any way with the whistleblower not providing the full story is also disingenous.

Full pardon needs to be granted, and everyone in the game should just start talking about the facts. Let it all out there on the table so it could be analyzed, and informative decisions made rather than speculative.

[HoustonGM]

I agree with your quote 100%. Exactly why investigations should continue and the 104 names should simply be released. Once everything is out in the open, baseball can finally move on. Not until.

But then again, there will NEVER be a time where EVERYTHING is out in the open. It's just not possible.

For people to say they want the truth to get out there and to have full disclosure, yet not offer full disclosure is disingenuous. For the author of the piece to say we should withhold opinions until we know the full story but not express disapointment in any way with the whistleblower not providing the full story is also disingenous.

The author of the piece isn't the one that said we should withhold opinions. That's the blogger that said that (Craig Calcattera, Shysterball). I linked to his blog entry and quoted a bit of his commentary. His blog entry links to the article and quotes the article.

[gRYFYN1]

I don't really blame them for not naming names, maybe they should point out "Look I'm not giving names because I have no documented proof, sure I could throw out names and then you could believe me or them if they deny it, but that wouldn't really help"


Granted Bud Selig, BBWA and the media in general are just as much to blame for player clamming up and not wanting to clean up the game. They can't let the steriod use of the past go, they are the ones who refuse to move on, they want to dredge up the past. Untill they can get over it and players can safely admit to it, the fan will also.

[acetoolguy]

Releasing A-Roads name was wrong, doing the same mistake 102 more times does not make it right.
I can't believe I have to defend A-Rod but the test was not to try and catch users, it was to get a % of users only. The agreement before testing was not to relaease any names. Whats changed?