Speaking Of Funny Commercials

This one is a great old gem.  Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Mark McGwire, and chicks who dig the long ball.

Enjoy.

Classic.

Enough Is Enough

Alex Rodriguez must think we're all idiots. He must think that no matter what he says, we'll believe it because he's A-Rod. He must think that after all that he's gotten away with prior to a couple weeks ago, he can continue to get away with telling lies and we'll just give him another chance.

Maybe we, the media and the public, put blinders on in 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa vaulted their way into baseball's record books on steroids. We only learned later that the reason for their enormous body masses as they blasted baseballs out of the park at prolific rates was due to a series of steroid injections that gave them bodies that resembled The Incredible Hulk.

Maybe we, the media and the public, put blinders on while A-Rod was putting up marvelous numbers year after year because we didn't want to believe that the anti-Bonds was cheating us too.

Not anymore.

It appears A-Rod's press conference Tuesday was filled with more lies. His Cousin Vinny, err, Yuri Sucart, apparently couldn't have provided primobolan to the slugger legally, or over the counter, because the drug could not be acquired legally between 2001-2003 in the Dominican Republic. (It cannot be legally acquired there today either.)

It also appears the only way to obtain primobolan is by finding an underground dealer or through the Internet.

So when A-Roid tried to appeal to the sympathetic by saying he didn't know he was doing anything wrong because he got the drug over the counter in La Republica Dominicana, as they call it there, he lied again.

He also may have lied again, about the time period of his steroid use. The New York Daily News reported today that Rodriguez has had a long standing relationship with a trainer who was banned from baseball in 2001 due to his ties to steroids. The trainer, Angel Presinal, apparently followed the slugger the entire 2007 season with the Yankees. And according to the report, he even stayed in A-Roid's hotel room on the road.

Furthermore, cousin Yuri was apparently Rodriguez driver all of the 2008 season. If he's the guy that was providing A-Rod steroids, as the slugger himself claims, wouldn't it be hard to believe that Alex didn't receive a thing from Yuri last season? Sure, maybe he hasn't tested positive recently, but everyone knows these guys are always one step ahead of the testing.

Stop lying to us, A-Roid. You're teetering on Mark McGwire territory at this point. Everything you've tried to do to help your image has been nixed by your continuous lies. It's ridiculous.

Enough is enough.

Canseco Smelling Like a Rose

Who would have thought that Jose Canseco was actually right all along?

Apparently, that's the case.

When he came out pointing fingers at all the players in an attempt to clean up the game, everyone tried to discredit him. To be fair, it's not like they didn't have good reason. Canseco himself cheated the game by taking steroids. He has been arrested four times, most recently in October. He's not a model citizen.

But everything he keeps saying about who was and wasn't on steroids continues to be accurate.
In his book "Juiced" he named Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez. All of them except Pudge were named either in the Mitchell Report, and just take a look at a picture of Pudge in 2003 and now, and you tell me whether he was on steroids or not.

Good work, Mr. Canseco.

In his newer book "Vindicated" Canseco fingers A-Roid and Albert Belle, among others. Correct again.

Maybe we should have taken Canseco more seriously when he started making these allegations. Turns out all of his "allegations" were actually facts. Granted, the guy is a boob of a human being, but he's actually done a tremendous amount of good for baseball. He's been the one that despite a ton of public criticism has done a tremendous amount of legwork that Major League Baseball would have never done to clean up a game ridden with a drug problem.

So after all this, who would have thought it would be Canseco who comes up smelling like a rose?

What Is The Point Of It All?

What does all of this tattle-telling do? What do we all get from this back and forth bickering nonsense?

Former players ratting out teammates, brothers dropping dimes on brothers. Trainers and confidants coming from out of the woodworks. And so I ask, where are we now?

Where are we after knowing all of this? How much different are our lives after the infamous Mitchell Report?

Players seem to take one of two paths. They either deny it and do so arrogantly (Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens) and are later found to be guilty. Or, they come clean, maybe cry, and are forgiven (Jason Giambi, Andy Pettitte, Marion Jones etc.).

I, for one, am tired of the whole charade. I don't want Congress involved any longer (concentrate on the more important things) or ever again. I don't want to watch some ga-gillionaire get on TV and either cry for forgiveness or wag a finger in my face like I'm a jerk for even thinking he did steroids or HGH or whatever.

My view on the game is already tainted. As Jordan mentioned, McGwire had already been convicted in the court of public opinion. But, the honest truth is, we all have players in our own minds, Mitchell Listed or not, that we think did steroids. Personally, there's about 20 or 30 players that I wouldn't be surprised to hear about having done something.

And so I ask, where do we all stand? Baseball's popularity's at an all-time high, people are flocking out to games in record numbers, and, despite a recession, teams are still spending money. Hell, the Cubs are about to be bought for nearly a billion dollars.

Does finding out that a certain player did steroids make you not want to watch the game? It would bother me, sure, but I'm not just going to stop my love. So, I beg, let's stop this. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss, and this is one of those times.

A lot of these guys messed up, and there's no defending that or making it right. But, after a while, it's time to move on. Until there is some real action taken on these players (like strike some records from the books or ban someone from the Hall), I'll be content being kept in the dark.

Brotherly Love

In the court of public opinion, Mark McGwire was found guilty of steroid use and cheating a long time ago.

There was the discovery McGwire was taking androstenedione during his record break season of 1998 when he hit 70 home runs. The controversy that followed was the validity of his records, and whether the drug later just referred to as "andro" really was a steroid. Turns out, technically it's not. And, andro was allowed by Major League Baseball at the time.

We found out a few years later that McGwire was in fact taking performance enhancing drugs, or at least, he was suspected of it. While it hadn't exactly been proven, McGwire testified under oath at a 2005 Congressional hearing probing into Major League Baseball's steroid problem. McGwire's body language oozed guilt, his facial expressions defined guilt, and his answers to questions lacked any substance, giving the impression that he was immensely guilty of performance enhancing drug use.

After that episode that murdered his already dwindling reputation, we find out this news today: McGwire's own brother Jay is writing a book detailing Mac's steroid use. It's name? "The McGwire Family Secret: The Truth About Steroids, A Slugger and Ultimate Redemption".

What a cosmic slap in the face: profiting off his brother's downfall.

"Mark is a man I think most would like to forgive because his reason wasn't nefarious--it was for survival," the proposal on his website states. "My bringing the truth to the surface about Mark is out of love. I want to live in truth to see the light, to come to repentance so he can live in freedom."

I'm sure Mark feels very loved right now.

Jay has successfully slung his brother through the mud one more time. He has only given further confirmation to something most of us already assumed. And it's not like McGwire hasn't already suffered consequences from his actions. While Mark was living quietly away from the limelight, as people were starting to forget about the man whose hall of fame votes are dwindling year by year, Jay has to bring this upon his former superstar brother. The two haven't even spoken for years. This is how Jay plans to reconcile with Mark? Publicly embarrass him again?

I'm not saying Mark McGwire is truly a victim here. McGwire deserves the flack he has taken for cheating the game of baseball and taking performance enhancing drugs. For those who will say "well, everyone was on steroids," that might be true. But that doesn't mean McGwire doesn't deserve blame. The fact is, he was breaking records. And in a sport where records are sacred, players who break them deceitfully should pay the price for their actions.

But who would have thought that the guy to finally out him would be his own brother?

That's some kind of brotherly love.