Another no-hitter? Canseco was right!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Today would be a good time to offer Jose Canseco the apology we’ve owed him for the past five years.
baseball steriods
For those of you keeping score at home, Matt Garza of the Tampa Bay Rays tossed Major League Baseball’s fifth no-hitter of the season last night in a 5-0 win over Detroit. We’ve yet to reach August and there have already been five no-hitters, including two perfect games, in 2010. And there would’ve been a third perfect game by Detroit’s Armando Galarraga were it not for a horrendous blown call by umpire Jim Joyce on the final play. On top of that, 12 other pitchers have taken a no-hitter into the seventh inning or later, including – of all people – Bruce Chen, a journeyman failure who entered this month with a career earned-run average of 4.67.
You think this pitching renaissance might have a little something to do with the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program adopted four years ago by the MLB Players Association in an attempt to deter the use of steroids?
The pitchers aren’t any better now than they were during the height of the Steroid Era. The hitters have just been sapped of all their artificial power. Though it may have taken nearly four years, it appears baseball’s most notorious juicers have pissed out every last milligram of Clenbuterol and Winstrol, leaving their bats flaccid as if they just saw Rosie O’Donnell naked.
The end result has been a season dominated by pitching, which is evident far beyond the increased influx of no-nos and perfectos. Offense is down dramatically in both leagues. Two weeks ago at the All-Star Break, hitters were striking out at a rate of 7.02 per nine innings – the highest in league history – and, if it holds up, the aggregate ERA of 4.16 in both leagues would be baseball’s lowest since 1992.
Entering Monday, Toronto’s Jose Bautista led the league with 28 home runs. He’s on pace to finish with 46, which would be the lowest total for a league leader since Matt Williams belted 43 in 1994. In fact, the yearly standard for home-run power has decreased each season since 2006 – the year baseball began enforcing its steroid policy – starting with 58 that season (Ryan Howard), 54 in 2007 (Alex Rodriguez), 48 in 2008 (Howard) and 47 last year (Albert Pujols).
What does this have to do with Canseco? Five years ago, the disgraced slugger wrote his first book, entitled Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big, in which he claimed 85 percent of the league used steroids. At the time, most of us laughed.
Who’s laughing now?
Whether you love him or hate him, Canseco was right. He was right about Rafael Palmerio. He was right about Mark McGwire. He was right about Jason Giambi. He was right about A-Rod. And we have strong evidence suggesting he was right about Roger Clemens, too.
The funny thing is most of the players called out by Canseco either vehemently denied his claims or completely ignored any and all inquiries about their sketchy pasts. Palmeiro sat in front of a grand jury and said he never used steroids. Period. He even gave us the patented finger-point to make himself look quasi-believable. McGwire didn’t even have the balls to lie. Instead, he told the House Committee, “I’m not here to talk about the past,” and disappeared somewhere into the Adirondacks for the next five years before finally admitting in January he took steroids.
We should be thanking Canseco for shedding some light on this subject long before the Mitchell Report became bedside reading. Not that I care, because I enjoyed the steroid-fueled home-run orgy more than anyone, but it was incredibly fascinating to hear the inside scoop from someone who not only used PEDs himself but also watched his teammates inject one another in the shower.
Too bad most of us were still whistling past the graveyard in 2005, otherwise Canseco’s life in the aftermath of Juiced might’ve turned out much differently. There’s no reason why Canseco shouldn’t be on the set of “Baseball Tonight” next to Karl Ravech offering insight and analysis (OK, maybe not a ton of analysis, but he can’t be much worse than Bobby Valentine). The former “Bash Brother” isn’t the brightest bulb in the socket, but he tells it like it is.
Instead, Canseco is living out his days appearing on horrid reality shows and getting his ass kicked in mixed martial arts, though he did beat Todd “The Punisher” Poulton – the self-proclaimed World Heavyweight Champion of OCD – in a celebrity boxing match last November.
While none of us should be dumb enough to believe today’s players aren’t finding ways to beat the system, the enforcement of the drug-testing policy in 2006 has clearly made an impact on the way the game is currently played. Major League Baseball didn’t raise the pitcher’s mound again, so there’s no other logical way to explain this “Year of the Pitcher” other than to assume the detox is working.
Canseco eventually wrote a sequel to Juiced entitled Vindication. He should’ve called it You Can All Go to Hell. The only thing he’s guilty of is being a snitch, and because of that he’s being forced to live the rest of his life like a schnook. There’s no action. Can’t even get decent food. No spaghetti with marinara sauce – just egg noodles and ketchup.
At least give the guy the apology he deserves – and a home-cooked meal, too.
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