“oddly enough, they don’;t come up to us and confess.” I love this one. You ain’t a priest, George, you’re a journalist. You don’t work for the church, you work for a newspaper. What newspaper sits around and waits for dirty politicians or crooked cops or unscrupulous investment counselors to walk in and confess? Thank God not all writers have this attitude. After Caminiti confessed, and after Canseco confessed, and all the sports writers in America saw all the muscles and acne in America, how many spent the time and energy to track down the story? There were hundreds of players and trainers and dealers involved, so it was not a hard story to break. In sad point of fact, bloggers did a better job than straight newspapers. The sports fraternity missed the biggest story of the decade. And it was right there, staring them in the face.

And don’t tell me how life works, you sanctimonious nitwit

On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 8:07 AM, George Vecsey wrote:
You should be reading the NY Post if you want pictures of acne..
we watched, we learned…and now we know more. that’s how life works.

GV

At 05:21 PM 2/27/2009, you wrote:
Acne on the back. That’s all you had to say. In print. You had the proof of acne on the back. No more. No less. Then everyone could have investigated. Instead of being silent. And now you judge A-Rod as if you weren’t compliant.

The guys from Watergate didn’t confess either, you cry-baby.

On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 2:30 PM, George Vecsey wrote:
oh for goodness sakes…

please go back and read the progression…

oddly enough, they don’;t come up to us and confess.

Lenny Dykstra, mid ’90’s: “Lifted weighth, man.” (Lenny lisps.)

we have standards about proof at the NYT…this aint no blog.

that’s why you read it.

can’t have it both ways.

GV

At 01:27 PM 2/27/2009, you wrote:
Now you want to report the strange transformations of baseball players from season to season?
Where have you been for the past 15 years?

Shame on you.

Now you want to report the strange transformations of baseball players from season to season?
Where have you been for the past 15 years?

Shame on you.

George Vecsey to me
show details 2:30 PM (21 hours ago)

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oh for goodness sakes…

please go back and read the progression…

oddly enough, they don’;t come up to us and confess.

Lenny Dykstra, mid ’90’s: “Lifted weighth, man.” (Lenny lisps.)

we have standards about proof at the NYT…this aint no blog.

that’s why you read it.

can’t have it both ways.

GV
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shirley clyde to George
show details 5:21 PM (19 hours ago)

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Acne on the back. That’s all you had to say. In print. You had the proof of acne on the back. No more. No less. Then everyone could have investigated. Instead of being silent. And now you judge A-Rod as if you weren’t compliant.

The guys from Watergate didn’t confess either, you cry-baby.
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George Vecsey to me
show details 8:07 AM (4 hours ago)

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You should be reading the NY Post if you want pictures of acne..
we watched, we learned…and now we know more. that’s how life works.

GV
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shirley clyde to George
show details 12:22 PM (3 minutes ago)

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“oddly enough, they don’;t come up to us and confess.” I love this one. You ain’t a priest, George, you’re a journalist. You don’t work for the church, you work for a newspaper. What newspaper sits around and waits for dirty politicians or crooked cops or unscrupulous investment counselors to walk in and confess? Thank God not all writers have this attitude. After Caminiti confessed, and after Canseco confessed, and all the sports writers in America saw all the muscles and acne in America, how many spent the time and energy to track down the story? There were hundreds of players and trainers and dealers involved, so it was not a hard story to break. In sad point of fact, bloggers did a better job than straight newspapers. The sports fraternity missed the biggest story of the decade. And it was right there, staring them in the face.

And don’t tell me how life works, you sanctimonious nitwit
- Show quoted text -

wtf is wrong with these people?

A lot of folks cite the Zito signing as the cause of his moving out. That never made sense. Can anybody picture any owner/partner falling on their sword over a player acquisition and not take the GM with him? Your scenario and sequence of possible events seems to be the most reasonable explanation by far, given Selig’s penchant for palace intrigue and backstabbing.

Don’t little kids want to grow up to be police officers? Where is the outrage?! This stuff gets more and more comical.

Hal, I didn’t know that the Giants were the only privately funded stadium in the last 50 years. very interesting wrinkle… something that i have to marinate on.

Hal, I didn’t know that the Giants were the only privately funded stadium in the last 50 years. very interesting wrinkle… something that i have to marinate on.

As far as I know, the only person who’s been covering the MLBPA’s filing of a collusion suit re Bonds not getting an MLB gig last year is John Brattain
(http://baseballdigestdaily.com/blogs/category/john-brattain/) (who doesn’t even like Barry, by the way). This is due to come up shortly after the Bonds perjury trial, I believe. I’d like nothing better than to see Bands walk away from the perjury case vindicated, and then win the collusion suit. THAT would finally put Selig in the spotlight in a way he deserves.

As for the collusion case (with steroid implications), the one thing no one’s mentioned is that the Giants are the one team that’s built a privately funded baseball stadium in the last 50 years (Dodger Stadium was the last before that, in 1962). I’m convinced that Selig and the other owners saw that as a breach of the code. The entire modus operandi of big-league sports is to force taxpayers to finance their development schemes, and for the Magowan group to break from that threatened to expose their scam and make it harder to pull off in the future. That jeopardized a whole lot of potential profits – as John and other here have repeated, the only thing that Selig and the owners really care about.

My read on the situation – and this is pure speculation, I leave it to others to dig for evidence if so moved – is that Selig was leaning on Magowan, but despite what he wanted, couldn’t force him to dump Bonds before he got a shot at the HR record (profits, remember?). That would account for at least part of the glowering hands-in-pockets moment. At the end of the season, though, the Giants finally had to succumb to the pressure and leave Bonds off the roster. Not much later, Magowan announced his retirement, to “spend more time with his family.” I suspect that both of those moves were part of a deal that would let Giants management off the hook for “allowing PEDs in the clubhouse.” The next step for the Budster, of course, would be to subtly (or not) get the message to the rest of the owners that signing Bonds would put them in jeopardy of getting pressure from the commish and/or the government if the steroids issue ever was aimed in their direction, as well as serving as a warning to anyone who might consider privately financing a new stadium.

If this was in fact the case, it looks to me like Magowan managed to handle the situation fairly gracefully, but I don’t think he had much choice. For me, this scenario makes a lot of loose ends and scattered pieces come together and fall into place and make sense. That includes Brattain’s main point about collusion – never in the history of the sport has any player been so evil that NO ONE would hire him. Under any other circumstances, even with the ongoing character assassination and accusations of criminality, at least one owner would think Barry was worth the risk. See what you think.

They sit there and try and pin everything on Fehr and Orza, and act like somehow or another, poor poor Selig is getting the raw deal.

But he can ban Pete Rose, he can collude, he can force a labor stoppage, but he can’t do anything to “protect the integrity of the game?” He’s a liar. He’s no more of a liar than A-Rod is, or Clemens, or Bonds, but he’s still a liar.