Thanks for Nothing

So that was The Mitchell Report, eh? Well I frankly don't have the time to sit here and scream about it - I have a real job, unfortunately - but I can throw a few things out.

First, thanks to Roger Clemens. I put my faith in you, and believed that you were the real deal. I felt like you were an old-time gunslinger; a guy who belonged in the conversation with Gibson and Drysdale and Lefty Grove - nasty SOB's who pitched like they wanted to hurt someone. Instead you turn out to be a cheater, adding another black eye to a great era of Yankees baseball.

Legendary workout routine, my arse. Which by the way, is not being injected...unlike yours.

Andy Pettitte - I'm glad that your black eye begins after the last of the four championships. At least I don't feel like you cheated during one of the great post-season pitching performances - your duel with John Smoltz in Game 5 of the 1996 World Series. Still you're not off the hook. You got busted, even if it was a one-time thing to come back from an injury.

I don't have time to go into each player. Many are just useless schmucks. A few are truly great (Miguel Tejada). Some were borderline at best. Yet, what did this whole thing prove? Nothing...nada...not a damn thing. A lot of it is witness testimony, coming from people trying to plea bargain. In the end, I still think Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens make the Hall of Fame, with a rather large asterisk over their plaques. There will still be eight million people walking through turnstiles at ballparks here in Steroid Central (that's New York, folks). In fact, yesterday really wasn't the black eye that a lot of folks thought.

One writer said that the Yankees championship era (1996-2000) is now tainted. That is categorically BS. If the writer bothered to read at all (not likely), he would have seen that the "damage" was largely done after the championships (remember, they haven't won one since 2000). I'll say that this decade is tainted - I have no problem with that assessment.

Again, what did this accomplish? As several people have said, whatever the cost was for The Mitchell Report from Major League Baseball, they should get a refund.