Shakedownsports.com

Barry Bonds cheated. A lot. And although he didn’t come clean about it, he goal was never to put forth a river of lies. Bonds only needed to not go to prison, and to not have Major League Baseball suspend him or expunge his records. He lied to make sure he got those two things, but other than that he didn’t care if the entire American public thought he was a cheater. He understood the consequences of his actions and didn’t try to change them. Within that disconnected attitude was a certain kind of honesty; an acceptance of the punishment for his actions. You could even say that Bonds has done what most people would have done if they were in his situation (his 2007 situation, not his 2000-2005 situation).

Clemens has been the complete opposite , and that’s what makes him such a jackass. It wasn’t enough for him to escape legal and disciplinary action. He needed to keep his legacy, regardless of whether or not he got that legacy cheating. And so Clemens embarked on one of the most malicious and fallacious campaigns in the history of sports.

Bonds lied in response to questions that were being forced upon him. It was a passive kind of dishonesty. Clemens, on the other hand, initiated the lying. He went out of his way to try and deceive the American people. Instead of accepting his punishment (a tarnished legacy), Clemens made a mockery of the justice system in the hope of striking his steroid use from the record. That’s the reason he deserves to go down in history as somebody even more foul than Barry Bonds.

No Comments »

The only thing today’s Clemens-McNamee hearings made clear is that politicians are just like us. Some believe McNamee, some believe Clemens, and none are going to have their opinions swayed by any testimony. With minds already made up, today’s proceedings added no real insight we couldn’t have gotten from overhearing two drunk guys in a bar arguing about the situation.

But there is one Congresswoman whose close-mindedness and ignorance I have to mention. That woman is Virginia Foxx.

Her entire line of questioning basically amounted to “Roger, tell us what a great pitcher you are and how you couldn’t have used performance enhancers.” Then she put up a bunch of photos from different times  in Clemens’ career in which he looks very different, and pronounced there was no difference in his appearance. The pro-Clemens rhetoric was so astounding I expected her to get up from her chair, walk over to Clemens’ table, and put his balls in her mouth. She even had to be silenced by the gavel of Chairman Waxman because she was interrupting others in order to defend Clemens.

That was bad enough, but was happened after the hearing is what inspired the vitriol in this post. Immediately after Waxman announced the hearing was over Foxx got up from her chair, walked to witness table, and shook Clemens’ hand and hugged his wife. (Watch the video. It’s on there. I hope to have a photo of it up soon.)

How is that acceptable? She’s supposed to be an impartial arbiter. And if she’s not, she should at least have the guise of impartiality. It’s one thing for her line of questioning to favor Clemens—most of the people on the panel picked a side. But to publicly display her affection for one witness while the cameras are rolling and everybody is still in the room is absurd, unprofessional, and even corrupt. Oh by the way, Foxx was one of only 11 members of Congress to vote against giving aid to Katrina victims. (There’s nothing like drudging up old voting records to attack a person’s character)

Making the full transition from sports to politics, this is one reason why I’m so excited about Barack Obama. He often talks about creating transparency in the government and putting more of what it does on TV. After today I’m even more in favor of that idea. In five minutes of watching Foxx talk I learned more about her than I would have from closely following her campaign for months. I learned how she actually does her job. (The answer is not very well). When was the last time you could say that about a member of Congress?

4 Comments »

There’s a spot in the Mitchell Report where Brian McNamee mentions he spoke about steroids with Roger Clemens and Jose Canseco at a Canseco family house party. But yesterday a mysterious “lawyer” revealed that Canseco says Clemens was never at the party. Hmm. That is one crazy little story. Here’s what actually happened with Canseco and Clemens:

Two days ago Clemens sent Canseco a letter:

Dearest Jose,

My wife is an HGH-pumping freak. My son isn’t even good enough to make the Major Leagues. All I have in life is my athletic legacy. I need to hold on to that. I don’t care what the price is. I know you need money. If you sign a sworn statement for me, I will finance a Michael Bay movie for you. I will take care of you for the rest of your life. Do you know how much money I have? Last year they were paying me fifty grand for every pitch I threw. Sign these papers and I will be a bottomless ATM.

Sincerely,

Roger ( Customer #24)

It was a no-brainer for Canseco. The guy just wants to be filthy rich again. Is that too much to ask? That’s all he wants. To fade off into the sunset in a pile of expensive hookers and muscle creams. This will work out great for Canseco. His journey is over. He can finally rest.

No Comments »

(Every week there are a number of stories slip through the cracks here at ShakedownSports. These are just a few of them.)

–Tom Davis (the congressman who presided over the 2005 House hearing on steroids) announced that he will retire. Clearly the pressure of trying to run the country and keep Jose Canseco happy was too much for Davis to take.

–NBA China has reached an agreement to help design, market, program, and operate Beijing’s Olympic Basketball venue. In return for the opportunity to further market itself to China, all the NBA had to do was give the country 5 million Yao Ming autographs and 700,000 Yi Jianlian bobblehead dolls.

–The Rangers retired Brian Leetch’s #2 jersey, raising it to the rafters between fellow 1994 Stanley Cup winners Mike Richter and Mark Messier. I assume the franchise will continue to live in the only successful part of its recent past by eventually retiring the numbers of Jeff Beukeboom and Alexander Karpotsev.

–A Kansas State assistant coach was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence just hours after the his team upset #2 Kansas. It’s so nice to see that even though Bob Huggins is now at West Virginia, his legacy still lives on.

No Comments »

Not a lot of people out there remember the name Ryan Minor. The few who do probably remember him as the man who replaced Cal Ripken Jr. in the lineup when the Ironman decided to end his streak. (Some others may remember him as one of the few athletes in recent memory to be drafted in both the NBA and MLB drafts. Coincidentally, in the 1996 NBA draft he was picked one spot after Mark Hendrickson, one of the few athletes to actually play both professional basketball and professional baseball)

But there’s more to the Ryan Minor story. For three years (circa 1997-1999) he was hailed as the heir apparent to Cal Ripken Jr., the man who would be the face of the Orioles for the next decade.

It didn’t quite turn out that way. As the strikeouts piled up and his batting averaged failed to climb past .200, it became clear the Minor would never be the player the Orioles hoped. Even worse, it soon became clear that the Orioles future would never be what the team hoped it would be.

That’s why I will always remember Ryan Minor. In my mind he represents the beginning of this recent dark age for Orioles baseball. The man who was going to take over for the face of the Orioles (and hit even more home runs!!!) just never panned out. And just like that, in the blink of an eye, the Orioles had gone through 10 straight losing season.

So what’s the point of all of this? Well, this weekend Ryan Minor rejoined the Orioles organization—he will be part of the staff at Single-A Delmarva. For some reason this news brought me great joy. Part of it is that it’s always nice to see a guy who doesn’t pan out in the big leagues stay in the game and become a successful coach. But maybe there’s something else going on. Maybe Minor rejoining the organization will complete the circle and close the book on this forgettable age in Orioles history. I hope that’s it.

5 Comments »

(Every week there are a number of stories slip through the cracks here at ShakedownSports. These are just a few of them.)

–C.C. Sabathia was named Cleveland’s athlete of the year, beating out Lebron James and Braylon Edwards. That’s not all. For his role in helping the Red Sox advance to the World Series Sabathia is also in the running to be named Boston’s athlete of the year.

–Warriors forward Matt Barnes was forbidden to play in a game earlier this week because a clerical error left him off the Warriors active roster. Instead of including Barnes, the roster listed Mickael Pietrus in two spots. The Warriors say they will no longer let Pietrus’ mom type up the roster.

–A brawl outside a high school basketball game resulted in two injured police officers and 15 teenagers being placed under arrest. It looks like somebody’s ready for college….

–The Suns announced plans to play an outdoor preseason game next October at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Only one official will be allowed on the floor and he’ll have to sit in a chair at half court, but if anything that will make the officiating better.

No Comments »

The fantasy sports craze won’t last forever. At some point people will want something that adds even more importance to meaningless sporting events. And by that I mean people will want something that makes games even more exciting to gamble on.

On that note, I introduce you to Indians farmhand Randy Newsom. The 25 year-old pitcher is offering 4% of all his future major league earnings for $50,000. If you don’t have that kind of money, you can buy a share of that 4% for $20.

Think about how this takes sports gambling to the next level. If you’ve got a piece of Newsom it won’t matter if he comes in with his team down 12 runs. Every single pitch he throws will be like the spinning of a roulette wheel. Fantasy sports can’t provide that kind of excitement.

The sort of thing Newsom is doing is already fairly common in other industries. Right now the most popular form of “selling yourself” is offering a percentage your future earnings to whoever pays your grad school tuition.

Clearly there’s a bright future for sports gambling, fantasy games, stocks, and all that other good stuff. Don’t be surprised if in five or ten years you can bet on any professional athlete’s career the way you can bet on Newsom’s. Maybe college athletes will even begin selling a piece of their booster payments.

(Via Marginal Revolution…again)

2 Comments »

(Every week there are a number of stories slip through the cracks here at ShakedownSports. These are just a few of them.)

–Tom Brady was named NFL MVP after receiving 49 out of the possible 50 votes. Brett Favre came in a distant 2nd, but it’s just as well he didn’t win. There’s no doubt some horrible tragedy (probably hurricane destruction) would have befallen the award if it was put in Favre’s possession.

–Major League Baseball and the NFL have each pledged $3 million to the USOC to fund anti-doping research. Hey that’s good. Instead of spending money on immediately ridding their leagues of performance enhancing drugs, MLB and the NFL are spending money so that they can ignore a bunch of new research ten years from now.

–The World Series Trophy will go on a mini-tour in the state of Connecticut. I’m really not sure this is a good idea—there are a lot of Yankee fans in Connecticut. The Red Sox should make sure to do extensive background checks on everybody who wants to see the trophy—or at least make them correctly answer a few Red Sox trivia questions. The team does not want to let any Yankee fans steal some of the aura of the trophy.

–A woman who was assaulted by a drunken Dodger fan in the stadium parking lot back in 2005 is suing the team for $1 million for failing to adequately protect her. The team says that at the time all their security was busy protecting Eric Gagne’s latest shipment of steroids.

And don’t forget this week’s picks.

No Comments »

The battle gearing up between Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee (the man who allegedly punctured the skin of Clemens’ ass with a steroid needle) is underway and has no clear end in sight. But before everybody gets swept up in talk of legal strategy, witnesses, and finely crafted statements, we should all take a step back and appreciate how this is one of most interesting and unique legal and PR battles of all time.

Basically, the whole thing amounts to a simple “he said/she said” fight. Two people claim they are telling the truth and that the other is lying. Only one can be right. This sort of thing has probably going on since the beginning of time. I’m sure that on the banks of the Euphrates River in good ol’ Mesopotamia there were countless times where a shepherd’s sheep west missing and there were only two suspects. Each suspect would claim they were innocent and that the other shepherd was lying.

What’s remarkable about the Clemens-McNamee dispute is that every part of it is playing out in the public eye. More than any event in recent memory (except perhaps O.J.) it doesn’t matter who the judge thinks is telling the truth. The court of public opinion is the only thing that matters. Sure, the judge will be sitting there banging his gavel, but Clemens doesn’t care what he thinks. He only cares what the American people think (and what the Hall of Fame voters will think 5 years from now).

The other remarkable thing about the lawsuit is that there’s really nothing tangible (such as a sheep) at stake. The whole battle is over the abstract idea of Clemens’ “legacy” and “good name.” Usually most defamation suits that are about a “good name” are actually about money, this one really isn’t. Both Clemens’ playing days and big-money endorsement days are over. This might be the first defamation of character lawsuit in the history of the world that actually is solely about the defamation of a person’s character, and not the money affected by that character.

In the end it all comes down to this: Do you believe the testimony of guy who had nothing to gain from talking (and probably a good deal to lose), or do you believe the guy who refused to talk to the people investigating steroids and only issued a delayed and calculated denial after he was implicated?

(Just for the record, I think Clemens took steroids—a lot them. I’m basing this on two things. The first is that Clemens suddenly got really good at pitching at a time when biology suggests other things should have been happening. The second is that arguably the two most dubious things in the Mitchell Report (the paragraphs about Brian Roberts and Andy Pettite) have been proven to be true—so why should we doubt a piece of the Mitchell Report that seems extremely plausible?)

No Comments »

(Every week there are a number of stories that slip through the cracks here at ShakedownSports. Here are just a few of them.)

–On Sunday night Roger Clemens will appear on 60 Minutes to deny that he took steroids. Unfortunately, about 40 minutes into the show Clemens severely damages his credibility when he denies he has ever appeared on 60 Minutes.

–Jose Canseco finalized a book deal for a sequel to “Juiced” that is tentatively titled “Vindicated.” Canseco says the book will be a lot like the Mitchell Report, only he won’t leave out all the guys on the Red Sox who did steroids.

–The Bucs and Ticketmaster announced they will no longer restrict sales of tickets to the Bucs-Giants game to Florida residents. Hey look, something that could maybe, kind of, possibly be construed as a victory for the Hillary Clinton campaign.

–ESPN is reporting that the Celtics lead the NBA in merchandise sales. The team credits the sales to new add campaign in which Kevin Garnett threatens to eat Boston residents if they don’t buy jerseys. If this keeps up, Brian Scalabrine could have himself a post-NBA career as an Abercrombie model.

And finally, some playoff picks.

No Comments »