Mitchell Report Open Thread

a) Ostracized
b) Castrated
c) Crucified
d) All of the above

agreeing to being tested all the time is already a pretty big invasion...

Eh, half a dozen of one, six of the other...

I choose D!

This might be the last best chance to bring MLB into line with other sports in terms of drug testing and sanctions.  If this report fails I think the only option left is government involvement, and no one wants that.

We all were lined up and had our picture taken with Mitchell individually.  When it was my turn I shook his hand and said something like, "It is nice to meet you Senator Mitchell.  And thank you for helping clean up baseball."  Mitchell laughed a few seconds and said something in reply which I no longer remember.  I think I was probably the only person in the line who thought of his baseball career before his government service.  

Mitchell seemed like a very good guy during my 15 seconds with him.  His speech during lunch was actually pretty funny and somewhat inspiring.

I hope the report forces the media to start focusing more on fixing the broken testing system than on who the bad guys are.

Brady Anderson, Manny Alexander, Rick Ankiel, Jeff Bagwell, Bary Bonds,
Aaron

Boone, Rafaeil Bettancourt, Bret Boone, Milton Bradley, David Bell,
Dante

Bichette, Albert Belle, Paul Byrd, Wil Cordero, Ken Caminiti, Mike
Cameron,

Ramon Castro, Jose and Ozze Canseco, Roger Clemens, Paxton Crawford,
Wilson

Delgado, Lenny Dykstra, Johnny Damon, Carl Everett, Kyle Farnsoworth,
Ryan

Franklin, Troy Glaus, Rich Garces, Jason Grimsley, Troy Glaus, Juan
Gonzalez,

Eric Gagne, Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi, Jose
Guillen, Jay

Gibbons, Juan Gonzalez, Clay Hensley, Jerry Hairston, Felix Heredia,
Jr., Darren

Holmes, Wally Joyner, Darryl Kile, Matt Lawton, Raul Mondesi, Mark
McGwire,

Guillermo Mota, Robert Machado, Damian Moss, Abraham Nunez, Trot Nixon,
Jose

Offerman, Andy Pettitte, Mark Prior, Neifi Perez, Rafael Palmiero,
Albert

Pujols, Brian Roberts, Juan Rincon, John Rocker, Pudge Rodriguez, Sammy
Sosa,

Scott Schoenweiis, David Segui, Alex Sanchez, Gary Sheffield, Miguel
Tejada,

Julian Tavarez,Fernando Tatis, Maurice Vaughn, Jason Varitek, Ismael
Valdez,

Matt Williams and Kerry Wood

http://files.mlb.com/mitchrpt.pdf

As a long-time Maddux fan, I've been pissed because Clemens has passed Maddux in terms of career rate stats largely because of his continued excellence during his "decline phase".  Maddux and Clemens followed different rules and Clemens has been a better pitcher because of it.  It's sad.  I've always thought that Maddux was better than Clemens; it's just too bad that the numbers don't show it.

I think this is appropriate for the players.  I think he should have equally investigated and reported on the actions, inactions and other complicity of MLB officials and owners.  Of course he didn't.

I agree with Mitchell's findings and his recommendations.  The only area I do not like is his not pushing more strongly for rapid change in the testing program.  Mitchell seemed to be saying that it should be changed, but not necessarily before the contract comes up for negotiations again in 2011?

If you all will excuse this rather disappointed baseball fan, I am going to go get drunk and do something self-destructive like play violent video games or talk to a girl or something.

I realize I'm in the minority but I'm really not that worried about players using these types of drugs.  Their use has been rampant in all sports for years and it's yet to affect my enjoyment outside of the media hyperbole and witch hunt atmosphere surrounding Barry Bonds and baseball in general.

I will say it's probably not a good idea for younger players to use steroids thinking it's their ticket to getting to the majors but does pointing out all of these major league players were using them do anything but encourage them to try the same thing?

If you played in the late 90s and angered a trainer -- maybe you slept with his girl, maybe you got in a fight about politics, who knows -- you could easily end up on this list.

The first is the willingness of so many to allow the main issue to get lost.  The point of this report was not the names.  It was commissioned to document as well as possible the history of the problem, determine the current level of drug abuse in baseball, and offer recommendations to correct the problem.  Better than any previous effort the report lays out how widespread the abuse was and continues to be and offers what to me seem like some very clear minded recommendations to help baseball recover from this mess.

The second is this odd willingness to excuse the players who illegally used PED's just because management pretty well knew what was going on and did not stop them.  Management is at fault here, but those players are wealthy privileged adults and are responsible for their own actions.  How much or how little the boss knew does nothing to reduce their personal responsibility.

In my opinion what happened today was a very productive if imperfect first step in getting these damn drugs out of the game.  I think we all have that same goal.  Let's be happy something is finally being done.

• Document the history of the PED problem in baseball - D+ They only looked at the role of players in the PED problem in baseball.
• Determine the current level of drug abuse in baseball - D Again, they only looked at players and all they did was recycle the accusations from some books and a handful of informants.  They came up with no new information or better information.
• Offer recommendations to correct the problem - B- The recommendations were pretty obvious and are things that MLB would have likely done anyway (I wouldn't be surprised if those recommendations actually came from the office of the Commissioner, through the Mitchell Report).  And the recommendations were so light and mild that they didn't even call for the two sides to immediately negotiate changes to the CBA.  The report is happy for us to wait until 2011.