The McCart...I mean Mitchell Report

It's hard for me to believe that I am even writing a post on this, since I can't stand the topic. But it is a part of baseball, like it or not, and needs to be addressed. But personally, I am sick and tired of hearing about Senator George Mitchell and steroids, etc...what happened to just playing ball?
But this past Thursday, the much anticipated Mitchell Report was released, including all the names of players mentioned in the report - players who are somehow linked to using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. Past and present players were mentioned in this report; All-stars and .200 career batters were mention; Cy Young Award winners and ESPN's Jayson Stark's Cy Yuk awards were mentioned. If a player was found to have used any performance-enhancer at least once, he was in this report.

Some of the current prominent names mentioned in Mitchell's report are listed below, along with their current (or most current team, for current Free Agents).

• Roger Clemens, NYY
• Miguel Tejada, HOU
• Andy Pettitte, NYY
• Paul LoDuca, WSH
• Eric Gagne, MIL
• Gary Sheffield, DET
• Barry Bonds, SF
• Jason Giambi, NYY
• Brian Roberts, BAL
• Rink Ankiel, STL
• Paul Byrd, CLE
• Jay Gibbons, BAL
• Jose Guillen, KC
• Troy Glaus, TOR
• Gary Matthews Jr, LAA

There were also a slew of big-name former players mentioned in the report - some of which were kind of shocking.

• Lenny Dykstra
• David Justice
• Kevin Brown
• Mo Vaughn
• Ken Caminiti
• Matt Williams
• Rafael Palmeiro
• Wally Joyner
• Fernando Vina
• Denny Neagle
• Chuck Knobluach
• Matt Franco
• Todd Hundley
• David Segui

Those are just a few of the names mentioned in the report. To view the rest of the names, or to view the entire report, click here - but good luck reading the 311 page report!

I really hate that baseball has this dark cloud hanging over its stadiums. It's such a great, historic game - they don't call it America's pastime for nothing. And in all honesty, if an individual wants to turn their testicles into raisins, that should be their business. It may be considered cheating on certain levels, but those who use lose in the end. It's sad that baseball may have been forever stigmatized by this whole ordeal, and at time where viewership was already declining, it could not have come at a worse time for the game.

There will be headlines and bylines on this topic for years to come, but not from me. From here on out, I will only be discussing the GAME of baseball - not about the people trying to ruin it. Maybe next Halloween, Sen. Mitchell will dress up as Sen. McCarthy - they seem to have some things in common anyway.

And that's my rant. Thanks Senator Mitchell for all you've done...