Grim's outlook
Arizona Diamondbacks relief pitcher Jason Grimsley has finally become a household name, and he's out of a job. The 38-year-old righthander was previously most famous for getting caught climbing through a crawl space in the ceiling of a padlocked umpires' dressing room to change out teammate Albert Belle's confiscated corked bat. Grimsley later admitted that the biggest flaw in his scheme was that all of Belle's bats were corked.It's absolutely scandalous if, in fact, we have G-men trying to wire up Grimsley in an attempt to implicate Barry Bonds and others, as Grimsley's attorney alleges. This legal defender, Edward Novak, claims that Grimsley was "outed by feds" for refusing to cooperate in the undercover assignment, although reports suggest Grimsley gave specific testimony under oath of former and current teammates using "illegal" performance enhancers.
I would put this whole episode right about on par with the NSA's illegal phone surveillance. Baseball's players union invited public scrutiny by avoiding the testing issue for too long, but now it's time for them to stand up to this infringement upon their members' right to privacy. We now have ballplayers being approached at their own homes by agents in postal "dress-up."
To test for human growth hormone--a legally prescribed substance, by the way -- blood tests would have to be obtained from players, and those samples frozen to allow for testing against all future HGH and steroid alternatives, preserving those samples' accuracy while avoiding any tampering. Where will it fucking end? And all to protect our children from actions that are less harmful to ape than baseball players' historic predilections towards cigarette smoking or tobacco chewing, and to protect Reggie Jackson from having more players pass him on the all-time home run list. I have three words for our nation's law enforcement officials-- Osama bin Laden. In baseball parlance, keep your eye on the ball!
I'll be damned if I can even see the ethical riddle of Jason Grimsley using HGH. The guy has major shoulder surgery in 2000 at the age of 33. For all intents and purposes, his career over. He pumps himself with the stuff, not unlike a child who has had trouble growing whose parents and doctor agree that the benefits outweigh the risks, and he winds up adding another five playing years and an accumulative $8 million to his life. How is this different than Tommy John playing the guinea pig of having a ligament removed from his leg and stuffed into his elbow?
Like Pete Rose, this will be a sports scandal that never ends, which is good news only for the newspapers and talk radio baffoons. Come to think of it, it will long outlast newspapers or the radio, whose ends are relatively nigh. I believe fans are already tired of hearing about steroids. They're packing the ballparks in record numbers, looking for a three hour break from the world's harsh realities. A day at the ballpark still provides that, regardless of the government and a resentful media's attempts to intrude.
---
The Cards have dropped 3 of 4 since losing Albert Pujols for four to six weeks with a strained oblique, but count me among the few who think this injury could wind up being a blessing for the team. It's beyond tragic, of course, for Pujols personally because of what he could have accomplished over a full season, but teammates have been too dependent upon his clutch hitting for too long and the guys who sign his checks have been even more complacent in their efforts to pitch in. Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds both reminded us this week how heroically they're capable of playing, Chris Duncan, Juan Encarnacion, John Rodriguez, Yadier Molina, and So Taguchi will all be asked to contribute more, which each is capable of doing, and the injury may force Walt Jocketty into a move for a Craig Wilson, Jose Vidro, or Carl Crawford.
Still, I found myself tonight in the unenviable position of rooting for the Cubs to win at Cincinnati.
posted by CM @ 9:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home