Bull Schmidt!

[Gooch]

Although I've only read excerpts from his new book, Mike Schmidt seems to defend the steroid-tainted sluggers like Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, etc. In TV interviews he also supports them and their possible enshrinement in Cooperstown.
I don't get it. Schmidt was a stand-up guy and seemed to represent the best values of baseball... so why is he defending these guys when the evidence against them is so overwhelming???

[Ashburn1]

Didn't he say something a little while back about how he would probably have been juicing if he played in the steroid era as well?

I'm not sure where you got the idea that Schmidt was ever considered a "stand up guy," who "seemed to represent the best values of baseball".

[ed hardiman]

Schmidt the greatest 3rd sacker of all time is just the latest example of ex-Phillies saying really wacky stuff to the press, like Dutch apparently the Fla. sun affects their noodles...

[runningshoes]

Schmidt the greatest 3rd sacker of all time is just the latest example of ex-Phillies saying really wacky stuff to the press, like Dutch apparently the Fla. sun affects their noodles...

To sell books, perhaps?

[ed hardiman]

To sell books, perhaps?

Not a bad contention except Schmidts's been way out on the wrong end of the steroid thing for a while, on the one hand he always was a contrarian where controversy over a player's concerned, like Rose after he admitted he was guilty a couple of years ago, but I think Schmidt would've used anything to make himself better as a player cause that fits his competitive drive and like a lot of players doesn't quite grasp they might play the game but it resides in fans to cherish and remember and this doesn't quite resonate as fair to them...Why stop at steroids why not a super ball core? Why not aluminum bats?
Baseball already screwed it up by lowering the mounds for batters....

[Androctus]

Schmidt admitted on TV earlier this week to taking over the counter amphetamines (he cited "No-Doze" as one, but thats obviously very different) I think he's just chosen to adopt a don't rock the boat policy where, if an investigation finds Bonds worthy of some punitive action by MLB, I think you'll see Shmiddy change his stance dramatically. Honestly, I was kind of shocked my self at his stance. If it was me, I think I'd be more upset and outraged my accomplishments we being trounced by a pack of pill-popping Venice Beach posterboys.

[ed hardiman]

Schmidt admitted on TV earlier this week to taking over the counter amphetamines (he cited "No-Doze" as one, but thats obviously very different) I think he's just chosen to adopt a don't rock the boat policy where, if an investigation finds Bonds worthy of some punitive action by MLB, I think you'll see Shmiddy change his stance dramatically. Honestly, I was kind of shocked my self at his stance. If it was me, I think I'd be more upset and outraged my accomplishments we being trounced by a pack of pill-popping Venice Beach posterboys.

Saying you popped no-doz is like saying you popped Flinstone vitamins...and this just in from Pillsbury A.Poppin, a highly touted juicer in the Devil Rays Organization, Pill's says:
"...On behalf of all the plumper juicier ballplayers built by steroids we resent your implication we worked out in any way, shape, manner, or form to build these rock hard steroidy abs and incredibly huge bald craniums..."

[Androctus]

Saying you popped no-doz is like saying you popped Flinstone vitamins...

Well he was up front at least about the no-doze, maybe he wasn't ready to come clean about the Flintstones.... Some adults are too embarassed to admit they still pop the chewables..

But I have a question, because there are those who still contend we shouldn't fault the players so much because MLB knowingly allowed the whole ordeal to take place.

Maybe some more fluent in the law will correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't most of these substances controlled in such a way that it is illegal for people to posess and distribute them without special authority to do so? I mean, not everyone can go to a drug store and buy a human growth hormone. Aren't there more laws that were being broken here by players than simply cheating at baseball? And if this is true, should we hold MLB accountable for not controlling the flow of illegal chemicals that clearly should fall under the jurisdiction of the DEA, and the law in general? But if in fact team ownerships and MLB knew players were doping and trafficking in illegal substances, wouldn't that make them accomplices to illegal activity, and subject to an investigation of their own, by the DEA?

Actually thats more than one question... but Phorumites should want to know the answer to the last question, because if true, maybe we have another avenue to replace the current ownership?

[ed hardiman]

Well he was up front at least about the no-doze, maybe he wasn't ready to come clean about the Flintstones.... Some adults are too embarassed to admit they still pop the chewables..
But I have a question, because there are those who still contend we shouldn't fault the players so much because MLB knowingly allowed the whole ordeal to take place.
Maybe some more fluent in the law will correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't most of these substances controlled in such a way that it is illegal for people to posess and distribute them without special authority to do so? I mean, not everyone can go to a drug store and buy a human growth hormone. Aren't there more laws that were being broken here by players than simply cheating at baseball? And if this is true, should we hold MLB accountable for not controlling the flow of illegal chemicals that clearly should fall under the jurisdiction of the DEA, and the law in general? But if in fact team ownerships and MLB knew players were doping and trafficking in illegal substances, wouldn't that make them accomplices to illegal activity, and subject to an investigation of their own, by the DEA?
Actually thats more than one question... but Phorumites should want to know the answer to the last question, because if true, maybe we have another avenue to replace the current ownership?

The law requires you actively conspire in such activities unless or until one of the players died as a result and someone might try using reckless indifference as a basis to take a feeble swipe at you.
With millions of dollars on the line with these athletes teams are well aware of every little pill that crawls down their gullet but was there a profit driven reason to stop them?
The opposite is true, HR's put fannies in seats, bigger tv ratings, if the pills wrung them out quicker, all the better they'd get a bigger supply of HR hitting juicers which in the long run depresses the cost per juicer to the team.
Win-win.
I'm sure they never figured the fans on calling it straight up and down cheating.
They keep acting like it will go away if they shut their eyes really hard, it won't.
And I deny eating the Betty-vitamins first...

[Androctus]

Oh I understand it was in the owners best ineterest to do nothing. But my real question is that don't most steroids fall under the same category as say, cocaine, in legal terms? In that it is simply just not lawful to have them in your posession, period? (I confess my ignorance in this matter....)

[ed hardiman]

Oh I understand it was in the owners best ineterest to do nothing. But my real question is that don't most steroids fall under the same category as say, cocaine, in legal terms? In that it is simply just not lawful to have them in your posession, period? (I confess my ignorance in this matter....)

Look would you ix-nay on the ug-drays?
Steroids can't be snorted or smoked consequently Selig doesn't realize they're illegal drugs and possession or use alone should fall under current drug policy not the weaker Alice in Wonderland steroid policy.

[Gooch]

Schmidt defending Rose I can understand since they were/are good friends (much like how Mays and McCovey are now defending their pal Bonds).
I said Schmidt was a stand-up player with good values because his career was largely free of controversy (despite the boos he received from Phillie fans) and he seemed like a good guy to me.

[Androctus]

Rose is becoming alot more defensible these days. Rose may have had a gambling problem, may have bet on baseball, may have wagered on his own team, but bottom line is never to my knowledge bet against his team or threw a game, so his actions never really had an impact on the game itself. Doping has taken the sport and turned it into a vague parody of itself.

Sorry Ed. Heads should roll over this one. Nothing would be a bigger deterrent than to see some of those enormous craniums behind bars. There should be a firing squad, gallows, deserted island, sinking ship, something.

[ed hardiman]

There should be a firing squad, gallows, deserted island, sinking ship, something.

How about
"Death by Ed Wade Motivational Seminar?"

[Androctus]

How about
"Death by Ed Wade Motivational Seminar?"

Yeah thats a good one....ranks right up there with taping the eyelids open and forcing the victim to watch a Maury Povich marathon.