Writers in New York and Chicago show little sympathy for two of the 19902-2000s giants of baseball: Andy Pettitte and Sammy Sosa.
Pettitte, implicated in the Mitchell Report, claimed his use of HGH amounted to injury recovery on 2 occasions. The New York Posts Mike Lupica isn't buying the sob story Pettitte's selling especially when Pettitte's dealer was trainer Brian McNamee, and not a credible physician. These writers are catching on:
A little over a year ago, it was reported in the Los Angeles Times that a former Yankee pitcher named Jason Grimsley had accused some major-league players of using performance-enhancing drugs in a federal agent's affidavit. One of the players named in the Times story was Andy Pettitte, who was about to finish his last season with the Houston Astros.
When asked about the story at the time, here is what Andy Pettitte, who now says he has worked hard his entire life to do things the right way, said: "I've never used any drugs to enhance my performance in baseball. I don't know what to say except that it's embarrassing that my name would be out there."
Now Pettitte's name is out there - for using human growth hormone - in former Sen. George Mitchell's report. Two days after Mitchell releases that report to the public, a report that has Pettitte getting HGH from personal trainer Brian McNamee and using it for two to four days, Pettitte issues a statement, throws himself on the mercy of the public and cops to two.
So Pettitte essentially cops to half of what the report said he did. In a way that really sounds half-something-else. This really is an absolute classic sports apology, the kind where somebody says that if he offended somebody he's sorry, when the only thing he's really sorry about is getting caught.
This wasn't from Pettitte's heart Saturday, it was from the lawyers and agents, with more addendums than Mitchell had in the report that brought Andy Pettitte to this moment.
Maybe, using Pettitte's logic, using human growth hormone to rehab faster from a sore elbow doesn't mean you were looking to enhance your performance. We really are getting a lot of that these days.
The real truth is that he got these drugs from McNamee, drugs he never could have gotten from a legitimate doctor for an elbow injury, and when people find out about it five years later, Pettitte expects everybody to believe he was just doing it for his school.
You might say Pettitte diagnosed himself, and Brian McNamee supplied the treatment. Not exactly Kosher now.
Meanwhile poor Sammy Sosa, who wasn't even implicated in the Mitchell Report get's hammered by the Chicago Tribune's Rick Morrissey. Not willing to buy what Sosa's fans want to sell, Morrissey says this:
Perhaps you saw the two letters to the editor in Saturday's Tribune Sports section.
One suggested that media members take a hard look at themselves in regard to their treatment of Sammy Sosa, seeing as how Sosa's name didn't show up in the Mitchell report.
To the first writer: Will do.
To the second writer: Not a chance...
Are we to believe that, among the Big Three, only Sosa's numbers are legitimate? That Sosa came by his amazing power naturally? That his numbers suddenly jumped when he reached a certain age? That somehow those stunning numbers—numbers that are out of whack with baseball history—were the result of superior talent and work ethic?To make that leap, you'd need a few steroid injections yourself.
Morrissey elaborates on the schism that engulfs sports fans about baseball's steroid era: the fans who complain that the 'powers that be' allowed the MLB to slide into the dumpster v. the fans who find every excuse possible to absolve the drug cheats of responsibility.
n some ways, this has been a no-win situation for the media.
On one side are people who chide reporters for not being proactive in outing athletes who abused performance-enhancing drugs. To repeat: No headway was made into baseball's drug problems until the federal government got involved. Two former employees of major-league teams who supplied information to the Mitchell investigation did so only because federal authorities had applied pressure. The names of players who were buying human growth hormone from "rejuvenation" centers in Florida and New York came to light only because of law-enforcement raids on those facilities.
In the same way, Watergate started with a break-in and an arrest at a Washington hotel, not with Woodward and Bernstein launching their own investigation.
On the other side are people who wish the media would leave the athletes to their various chemical activities.
Then there is the test for those that think steroids are all fine and dandy: give some to your athletic kids. Hmmmm
To those folks who believe the only thing that matters in baseball is the entertainment value, even if it is enhanced by steroids, I hope your kids don't grow up to be athletes. With that attitude, they'll believe steroids are harmless. Some of them will believe it right up until they're diagnosed with liver cancer.
The problem with what's now called the Steroids Era is that a very large blanket is going to smother the reputations of some innocent ballplayers. Players who came by their greatness naturally will be doubted. I don't believe Sosa to be among the unfairly accused.
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