Tell Me Something I Didn't Know

With the Mitchell report being released yesterday, it was the hot topic of conversation for sports media and national media outlets everywhere. Why was this story such a surprise? We all knew it was coming and we all new there would be big-time names and potential future Hall-of-Famers on the list.

This doesn't change what has happened over the last number of years. To see Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa go from looking like virtual skeletons to having Schwarzenneger-type guns, we all knew this was happening and that it was rampant. The performances and pictures told the true story.

What some are looking at correctly, is why this report was even completed or came out. This report was basically a way for Bud Selig to try and rehab his legacy as he begins his exit as baseball commissioner over the next number of years. Nothing positive came out from this report for Baseball, it's players, or it's history. But, Selig can now say he did his best to curb these issues.

I call B.S.!!!

This Mitchell Report is just a front for him to say that he tried his best to stop it. He is as much responsible for all of this as are all the players, trainers, GM's, and other commissioners who let this get so bad. There were scrubs like Adam Piatt and FP Santangelo using perfomance enhancing substances just as much as Bonds and Roger Clemens. Sure, a lot of the information in the report is hearsay from trainers or former teammates, but to see some of these athletes bodies changing enormously from 25 to 45 for the better, thus becoming almost superhuman playing their best baseball in the tail end of their careers in their 40s, showed how obvious it was that there were performance enhancing drugs involved.

Shame on you Mr. Selig for using this report as a cover for your real intent to help save your image.

Baseball is a joke and has been for quite sometime, and all it takes is to look at the leadership and see why.

Classy

Last Friday, ESPN.com's SportsNation published the above poll online. After considering the elements of it, "Senior Editors" who supposedly didn't see the poll previously, decided it was distasteful and took it off the site. ESPN issued an apology to a local Boston media outlet, and the story pretty much fell off the national media picture.

It is this type of gross abuse of power, authority, and audience that ESPN sometimes gets away with because they are the "Worldwide leader". How the ESPN staffer and ESPN execs above him/her do not get blasted in the national and local media for posting ludicrous polls or stories is beyond comprehension.

To have a thought about possibly ending an athlete's career, a person's livelihood, or even make the suggestion that a personal devastating injury could compare to a defeat on the field or a trade offer that fell through is an abomination.

After seeing this story on Awful Announcing and hearing a quick sound bite from Kevin Garnett, this story basically just fell off the radar thanks to the story of Petrino weaseling out of his deal with the Falcons and the upcoming Mitchell Report findings this afternoon.

Kudos to Garnett for responding calmly, while still questioning the point of including an option for his resulting possible injury. KG is a professional and exudes class on and off the court and for that he deserves all the credit in the world, not to mention good health.

However, I would hope that ESPN would learn from this and make sure they watch a little more closely before they put up something like this poll.

I love ESPN and ESPN.com as much as the next sports fan, but what's next for you SportsNation, a poll about which athlete you'd like to see dead next?

Wade Boggs = LEGEND!

I've never seen or heard this before today, but if this is true...WOW!

Taken from the Tasty Booze blog via Deadspin...

"The Origin of Boggs"

Gladiator, READY?!?!?!?!

American Gladiators will be returning to NBC on January 6th!

No Mike Adamle, Todd Christensen, or Joe Theismann awkwardness, but the Eliminator, Hang Tough, and Joust all appear to be making a glorious comeback.

I can't say I'm as excited as the person who runs this blog, but here's hoping the new Gladiators will follow the likes of Gemini, Nitro, and Thunder and provide some great entertainment for us. I think this is a great idea to bring back a retro show and revamp it. Gladiators can definitely bring an audience and advertising.

Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali are scheduled to be hosts...GLADIATOR, READYYYYYY!!!