A Second Chance, and "the List"

We're still here. A second chance. And this time we take it seriously.

A "source with knowledge" has stated that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were on baseball's infamous "List" of 104 players who tested positive for PEDs in 2003. Or is it 96? Suddenly, we don't know. MLB says 104. The MLBPA says 96, 13 of which were contested. Which is the real number? And are the latest 3 outed players actually guilty of anything?

We know that Alex Rodriguez did in fact take PEDs. We know this because he admitted to it. We know that Manny Ramirez took something. He tested positive this year for a substance linked to steroid use and served his suspension with no opposition. But we don't know that he tested positive for anything in 2003. In fact, we don't know that Sammy Sosa or David Ortiz tested positive either. It's reasonable to believe they did. Sosa issued no comment after being outed. Manny did something this year. Ortiz turned into a power hitter in 2003. The circumstantial evidence is there.

But we don't know for sure. We haven't seen the list. Supposedly, the MLBPA hasn't seen the list. David Ortiz says he didn't do anything wrong. He claims he took a number of perfectly legal, over-the-counter supplements and vitamins. But no steroids. Bronson Arroyo echoes a claim that he took Andro, which was allowed under MLB rules until 2004, until he heard that it might be laced with illicit steroids. A plausible explanation? Yes. A credible one? With the shadow of Jose Canseco, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez's positive 2009 test, it's hard to say.

But there is an equally large, equally important issue here. The List itself. The List has been sealed by court order for years, the subject of a disagreement between the MLBPA and the Federal Government. The court seal hasn't prevented leaks this year. It should have. Leaking information from a sealed document is a crime. The List, which was to have been anonymous, was also the basis for the MLBPA's cooperation with the MLB testing program. It appears now that not only is the list not confidential, but that MLB may not have shared accurate information with the MLBPA.

So what should the MLBPA do now? Should it drop its opposition to release of the list? Not in the humble opinion of the Hat. In fact, just the opposite. Donald Fehr should call a press conference tomorrow. He should announce that the MLBPA agreed to cooperate with a testing program based on the results of an anonymous testing survey. Right now, that survey is not anonymous, and the results that MLB shared may not be accurate. As a result, as far as the MLBPA is concerned, the testing program is over. The players will no longer cooperate. Throw down the gauntlet. Force MLB and the courts to take action to stop the leaks and ensure that the information provided by MLB is accurate. Until then, no more tests, no more suspensions. Regardless of public opinion of the agreement, both sides should abide by it. And until MLB holds up its end, the MLBPA should refuse to be constrained by its end.

Sons of America and the Internet, I am The Original Sports Musings

OSM: Sons of America and the Internet, I am The Original Sports Musings.

Young reader: The Original Sports Musings is god not a man.

OSM: Yes, I've heard. Kills men by the hundreds, and if he were here he'd consume CJL , Jr, the evil man trying to shut us down, with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his arse. I AM The Original Sports Musings. And I see a whole army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny. You have come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What would you do without freedom? Will you fight?

Veteran reader: Fight? Against CJL, Jr.? No, we will run; and we will live.

OSM: Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you'll live -- at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our musings!!!

OSM and readers: Musings Forever!!!!

The Final Post

It's over. OSM is dead. We've failed. We've failed worse than the Oakland Raiders, who compounded their draft mistake today by giving $23M guaranteed to Darius Hey-I-Can't-Catch. We've failed worse than Manny Ramirez fails PED tests. We've failed worse than the Pittsburgh Pirates over the past 16 years. We're done. We're being contracted by the owner. We had a good run. We tried really hard. But the public just didn't seem to catch on. We're like the WUSA. Or maybe the USFL. It doesn't matter. It's over. No more Biff, no more Fenderman, no more CB40, and of course, no more Augie Phonics. We here at OSM would like to thank you for your support during our trying times. We hope to see you again on this giant interweb. Unless...

...unless you love www.originalsportsmusings.blogspot.com so much that you can't bear to see us go. If that's the case, HELP US! 1 LAST TIME, HELP US! Show your support! Stop our evil owner and keep OSM on the web!

Mike Mussina's Hall Of Fame Case - Part 1

Last week CB40 sent around a bulleted list of sports points and complaints and one of the items ended up sparking a long e-mail firestorm. The bullet was:

Chris
--WFAN CALLERS -- STOP IT! MIKE MUSSINA IS NOT A HALL OF FAMER!!!

At first, I let this go. I don’t usually get in to Hall debates because of the stupid subjectivity. But, eventually I found the arguments against to be so bad I had to respond. Some of these writers you'll know. I'm not going to really identify any of them because I'm not entirely sure they want their names out there. I will note background info where I can. These will be unedited save for capitalization and spelling.

Justin
Mussina would be a Hall of Famer if he pitched three more seasons and reached the 300 win club.

Chris B
Maybe, but I even hate that Glavine is going in. Smoltz and Maddux were much better than he was. And, again, a guy like Schilling and Pedro deserve it for their short-term dominance, rather than these guys who just hung around long enough to compile without ever dominating.

Mussina a compiler? Can you really call a guy who had one of the best seasons of his career in his last year a compiler? Still, not quite enough to get involved. Especially as some other list members made the points I was going to make.

Peter
Citing Mussina’s Wikipedia page.
Mussina's candidacy for the Hall of Fame has come under recent debate. "Do I compare to some guys who are in? I think I do," Mussina told USA Today in 2006. The only other pitchers to match Mussina's 17 seasons of 10 or more victories are Greg Maddux, Warren Spahn, Cy Young, Don Sutton and Steve Carlton; all are Hall of Famers except Maddux, who also retired after the 2008 season and thus is not yet eligible. Of the 23 eligible pitchers who have at least 265 wins and an ERA of 3.69 or less, 20 are in the Hall of Fame. Mussina's consistency is often overshadowed by the dominant peaks of contemporaries like Pedro Martínez and Randy Johnson. Baseball writer Tim Kurkjian stated on the August 3, 2008 edition of Baseball Tonight "He's a Hall of Famer. I've looked at the numbers and he's in."

He is the oldest pitcher to ever win 20 games in a season for the first time at the age of 39 in 2008. He never won the Cy Young Award, but finished in the top six of Cy Young voting eight times. Mussina also came tantalizingly close to pitching a perfect game and winning a World Series, having lost chances at achieving both in the 9th inning in 2001.

Only five pitchers in the history of major league baseball have as many victories as Mussina and a better winning percentage: Lefty Grove, Christy Mathewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander,Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson.

Greg
There may be a movement brewing where guys who were quiet and got the job done will gain votes vs. guys that chased home run records and stole headlines. If he doesn't get in on numbers, he may get in for being the right kind of guy for the voters in the years coming up. I say he gets in, but don't care that much except that I think he's one of the good guys and would be happy for him.

At this point – it seemed like the debate would be friendly. Perhaps neutral and the Sports Musings group would come to the conclusion that he’s a pretty good pitcher and it could probably go either way. Until this point, I hadn’t even chimed in… I’d just been reading the opinions. But then, the godfather of the e-mail list chimed in. Chuck is the resident hardcore Yankee fan. Loves sports, loves predicting, and as we learned in Atlantic City, loves red wine.

Chuck
Moose is not a Hall of Famer. Period. End of story. Actually, in my book, he isn't even close. He is the classic two or three starter that hung around a while and pitched on good teams. Also a terrible big game starter.

And agreements started rolling in.

Chris B
Chaz, I agree with you, 100%. Wow. ;-)

Justin
He would have 300 wins if o's gave more run support

And only one disagreement

Peter
He also pitched in the best division in baseball his whole career and still amassed 270 wins and the 6th best winning % of any pitcher with that many wins. That’s impressive. I’m sorry. People can knock him all they want but not many pitchers can say they pitched as well for as long as he did.

And this is where I finally had to join the fray. The talk about wins had become just too much.

Tom
The "wins" stat is the most retarded hall of fame statistic ever. "Hey, let's use this stat which largely has nothing to do with pitching to figure out how good of a pitcher you were." If you insist on using them, though, 120 games over .500 is pretty ridiculously awesome.

And thus arrived Coogan.

Coogan
Is it me or is he not as good as Bert Blyleven was? And BB isn't in ... ...

Interesting debate, though. Agree it could either way and I wouldn't be offended if he got in.

To end part one, I'll present the e-mail that got myself and my friend Mike fully in to the debate. Remember: hardcore Yankee fan.

Chuck
Ok, I'll play this installment of why Mike Mussina is not a Hall of Famer:

• 0 rings.


• Carried a staff 2 times 1996 and 1997.


• 0 Cy Youngs.


• Limited All-Star appearances.


• Rarely even the third best guy on the staff.


• One good post season start in the ALDS vs the A's in 2001. He even sucked as an Oriole against the Yanks.


• Pitched well in relief against the Red Sox in 2003. But wasn't even the best pitcher in the game -- Rivera was.


• Played for teams with almost a 600 winning percentage and won 20 games once last season.


• Nibbled all the time.


• Was slow to the plate.


• Never took responsibility for letting the team down.


• Retired not because he didn’t want to play anymore or he couldn't but rather because he wasn't getting paid.


• Bolted the Os for more money.


• Held the Yanks hostage after the 2006 season.

In part two, Hulse and I dismantle the previous e-mail and former IP/411 writer Mark U joins the fray -- with the bad guys.

Your Help Is Needed

In recent weeks a shot rang out that nearly destroyed the Smusing world and quite possibly the real world as well. The face of Original Sportsmusings wanted to shutdown this dearly beloved blog and instrument of humor for those who can read good.

Pic: This man is in. Are you?

Since that announcement there has been a flurry of activity in support of OSM. Mostly from The Hat...mostly. But that is not enough. More support is needed along with the ever important Twitter feed that no one will use. Will you Help?

I know this burden sounds great but the effort is minimal in exchange. For as little as 5 minutes a day you can read this blog, post comments, and and make its contributors extremely rich. All you have to do is agree to be in.

Only here can you learn about the most devastating pitch in baseball, the cutter. Maybe you too can save 500 games in the majors with just one pitch. You have to read to find out. No matter the subject, if there is anything you want to read about you can find it here at OSM...when it eventually gets written. Do you have a favorite blogger? Well, you can find all of The Hat's blogs at OSM which will soon be syndicated at http://www.originalsportsmusings.blogspot.com/.

For those that agree to be in your support will be rewarded. You can keep the fish or go for what is in the box. The choice is yours my friends. I suggest the box.

Thanks for the support,

HHH

Save OSM Update - Day 2

We're in the 2nd day of the campaign to save OSM and the outpouring has been tremendous. We've literally had a 400% increase in the number of comments that we normally receive. And the Smusers have taken notice. It was determined scientifically today that:

Mike Mussina is not a Hall of Famer

Biff has a man crush on Jason Statham

Vodka goes well with IBC root beer

The only entity that tortures Jets fans more than the Jets is Twitter

Steve Coogan loves www.originalsportsmusings.blogspot.com

And Flo from the Progressive commercials is hotter than Kelly Ripa


Please, keep the comments coming. Only your support can save us. Good luck. We're all counting on you.

An Open Letter to Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,


First, we here at OSM would like to thank you for being one of the few souls brave enough to use the comment boards and leave us your opinion on the site. Literally dozens of people visit our web site each day, read its content, and go home without giving anything back. But not you. You let us know what you think.

Unfortunately, everything you post seems to be negative. There are several schools of thought on this. One says that it doesn't matter, any reaction is a good reaction. It's not time to repackage a wrestler when he's getting booed, it's time to repackage him when the crowd doesn't even care enough to boo. One says that we should ignore negative comments. After all, some people are just negative. But one says that if your comments are negative, we must not be living up to your expectations.

That's the school we're following here. What do you want to see here at OSM? Politics? Comedy? Shots of Steve Marino wearing a wool cap at the Open? A return of "Get to know a Muser?" Maybe a movie review. Maybe you'd like to be in the inside jokes that fueled the creation of OSM in the first place.

Atreyu!!!!

Falcor!!!!!

Agreed.


Please, let us know what we need to do for your support. It could be the end for OSM. The Nothing consumes more of us by the day. Only you, the Earth Child, can give us a new name and save us. Please Bastian, save OSM. Say my name.

Chris Berman is a Bitter Old Man

http://www.tmz.com/videos?autoplay=true&mediaKey=ee933add-98a6-49ea-a661-97bb70063092

The End of OSM?

Loyal readers, the end may be near. The man who owns http://www.originalsportsmusings.blogspot.com/ has threatened to shut it down. Apparently, the site has not performed to his expectations, has not generated the cash flow that he predicted and has drawn criticism from the "media elite." We could be down to our final days. Our future could be more bleak than the LA Clippers, Washington Nationals and the New York Knicks combined. Unless you help.

Starting today, the Hat is asking for your assistance. Please, use the comments board to send as many messages as you can to support us. Without you, OSM may very well be shut down by this time next week. That means no OSM gathering in March, no more pictures of women in swimsuits, and worst of all, no where else for Mets fans to complain that their team doesn't love them. So please, give till hurts. Save OSM.

The Return of Van de Velde

Amazingly, 10 years after his monumental collapse at Carnoustie, Jean Van de Velde has been sighted once more. Holding a 3 stroke lead on the final hole of the tournament, Van de Velde decided to try and reach the green in 2 with 247 yards remaining on this par 5 from the rough. He came up short and ended up in the water on his first attempt. Then he amazingly went for the green again with the same result. Undeterred, he tried again, and then a 4th time, each with the same result. He finally ended the hole with a 15, 10 over par, and surrendered the lead to little known Hank Henry, who claimed the tournament with a score of +1.