As a Red Sox fan, I would just like to say that I don’t care whether or not they did steroids.  At this point, it’s all hearsay.

Sigh…here we go again

The part that says “according to lawyers with knowledge of the results” actually kind of shocked me. That has to be a fairly small pool, and I don’t know why they’d be risking their careers (and possible jail time) for the cause of juicy baseball gossip.

Steve: Don’t worry, you won’t hear about this on WEEI. The only thing I’ve heard Dennis and Callahan mention in the last two weeks is that Harvard professor story. Every single morning, for at least an hour. No joke.

Personally, I don’t really care about the whole steroids “scandal”. I still think Bonds should be a unanimous Hall of Famer, and I smack any of my friends that present the “asterisk” qualifier. The stuff Bill James said recently about the whole debaucle carried a lot of weight with me.

Jamie:  That’s exactly what I was thinking.  These guys sure seem to be taking a huge risk.  And it’s not like this is the first time a name’s been leaked.  I would imagine each leak ups that risk.  In the end, I wouldn’t be surprised if the largest punishments around the whole steroids issue turns out to be people who didn’t take, sell, or develop them.

Must have been the slow-release steroids from Bob’s Discount Drugs cause it didn’t kick in til game 4 of the 2004 ALCS.

I can’t believe someone leaked this… oops.  Actually, I can’t believe it took this long.

With that being said, I agree with Craig’s analysis, particularly with regard to the lawyers involved.  As a fellow lawyer, I’m always dismayed when people decide to put their ethical obligations aside, but not shocked.  But I am surprised when someone commits an act that could lead to more than just professional censure.

I know NY has a shield law for journalists (for the record, I’m not a fan of press shield laws—if you want to stand on the First Amendment and protect a source, that’s wonderful, but the price may well include cooling your heels in a jail cell).  But I wonder about the scope of said law, and whether it would apply in this case.

Not surprised, not at all. First of all, I’m glad the names are coming out. I’m not glad with the manner in which they have been released. Those who are leaking these names are committing federal crimes. I’m quite surprised that no one has been caught as of yet. I’m pretty sure someone is going to get caught eventually.

This also shows how these players lie, lie, and lie again. It shows how much of an unlikable liar Manny Ramirez is. I can’t wait to see the spin.

I was watching ESPN at the bar at lunch, and one of the people on the show (I think it was Steve Phillips, couldn’t be sure because I was reading the closed captions) said that David Ortiz only had 4 home runs through June of ‘03, and then hit 27 more the rest of the year.  His statement was “Ortiz found a chemist in July..” or something to that effect.  Is there any reason to believe that the impact of injecting steroids would be instant and miraculous? (Never mind the fact that Ortiz was a part-time player early in ‘03) I mean, does anyone really believe that Luis Castillo could go in the locker room today, shoot some hormones in his ass, and then hit 15 homers in August?  Do they ever have anyone who knows what they’re talking about discuss this issue?

Gotta love how the reporter mentions the 31 home runs that Ortiz as a new personal high, but fails to mention that he also reached a personal high in plate appearances as well.  In 2001 and 2002 Ortiz hit home runs at nearly the same pace as in 2003.  Normalized to 500 PA, the numbers are thus:

Year HR/500 PA
2001   26
2002   22
2003   31

Oh yeah, and 2003 was his age-27 year.

Oh, but what about post-2003 you ask?

Year HR/500 PA
2004   31
2005   33
2006   39
2007   26

Never let facts get in the way of a good story.