Baseball cannot escape its drug problem

Major League Baseball just can’t get a break in its quest to rid itself of its drug problem.

Bartolo Colon becomes the latest baseball player to get caught cheating, earning a 50-game ban after testing positive for testosterone. It’s a major blow for a surprisingly competitive Oakland A’s team. But it’s not at all shocking that Colon was busted. There were suspicions about his turnaround performance going back to last year with the New York Yankees. (The suspension news is a vindication for the New York Times, which published an article last year that stopped short of accusing Colon of cheating, but investigated a questionable procedure that he had undergone without uncovering direct evidence of wrongdoing.)

Last week, it was Melky Cabrera being punished for using a banned substance. Both Colon and Cabrera are former members of the Yankees. It’s not a coincidence. To my great annoyance, the Yankees have become the poster child for performance-enhancing drug usage in baseball. It’s no surprise that two former Yankees have gotten busted. But it is a black mark, not just for these guys and the Yankees, but for all of Major League Baseball.

Neither player is as famous or infamous, as Roger Clemens, who is making a baseball comeback for an independent team. Clemens, who has already beaten government prosecutors trying to make an example out of him, could target MLB next by trying to return to the sport. A return to the big leagues could be a smart move on his part because it would restart the clock on his Hall of Fame candidacy, putting more distance between his alleged misdeeds and the time when the baseball writers have to cast their votes for or against him.

Not that I think many writers will forgive or forget the damage he has done. But a Clemens comeback would just rub MLB’s failure to control its drug problem right in the faces of Bud Selig & Co. Not that they need a reminder from Clemens. They’re getting plenty of reminders that their drug problem is not ancient history, no matter how much they wish it was, from the guys still trying to game their system.

Random baseball thoughts: All-Star edition

That was an embarrassing performance by the American League All-Stars, who got spanked by the National League 8-0 and lost home-field advantage for the third year in a row. Remember when the American League had that 13-game unbeaten streak in All-Star contests? That is now a thing of the past. What was most disappointing was that the early drubbing made the rest of the game a total snoozefest. I got so bored that I fell asleep and missed the last two innings of the game. I didn’t even know that Melky Cabrera won the Most Valuable Player award until this morning. Good for him.

I     * I can’t say I was thrilled to see Justin Verlander laughing it up on the sidelines after getting pounded for five runs in the first inning, putting the American League in a hole they didn’t have a chance of climbing out of, especially since “this time it counts” gave the National League home-field advantage in the World Series. I bet Verlander will rue his performance if he finds himself pitching Game 1 of the World Series for the Detroit Tigers in some National League ballpark.

       * Just when you thought Kansas City Royals fans couldn’t behave any more despicably, now comes word that Robinson Cano of the New York Yankees had to have extra security guard his family during the All-Star game because of the disgraceful behavior of Royals fans upset at Cano for supposedly snubbing their hometown hero Billy Butler in the Home Run Derby. I thought the merciless booing of Cano was extreme, but this just takes it to a whole new level. To be fair, Yankee fans have been guilty of similar boorish behavior as Cliff Lee’s wife reported getting spit at and beer thrown in her direction during the 2009 World Series. But that doesn’t make it right, either in New York or Kansas City.  



Bud Selig and Joe Torre both expressed remorse for Cano’s treatment at the hands of Kansas City fans. Hopefully, it will be enough to convince them that they are setting these players up for this kind of treatment by putting them in the position of having to choose the Derby participants. Major League Baseball should retake control of that responsibility. They can be assured that they would be safe from that type of vicious treatment since most fans couldn’t pick baseball officials not named Selig and Torre out of a lineup.  

* You have to admire R.A. Dickey, not only for the way he has dominated opposing baseball teams this year with that knuckleball, but for what he has survived in his life to get to this point of tremendous success. My admiration for him grew stronger this week as he expressed disappointment over not starting the All-Star game, a start that he earned, without criticizing National League manager Tony LaRussa for taking the start away from him. Dickey is a class act. I make it a point to turn on the Mets games when I know he is starting just to watch him pitch. I’m rooting for him to continue his fantastic run in the second half. 

Random Yankee thoughts: playoff edition

You would think that the Steinbrenner family and New York Yankees have more important things to worry about these days: their team's lackluster play in the baseball playoffs, perhaps? But they are acting like real bullies in preventing a 77-year-old woman from releasing letters she received as a teenager from a young George Steinbrenner.

Lonn Trost, the COO of the Yankees, cited the potential embarrassment and harm to business interests that would be caused by the release of the letters, whose content has been described in several news articles. I'm amazed by such a claim about innocent letters passed between teenagers. If anything I would think releasing the letters would make Steinbrenner look better, especially after Bill Madden's biography cast new light on his terrible treatment of players and employees. The Steinbrenner family's behavior is shameful, but not surprising because the Boss was the ultimate bully.

* Austin Kearns is not in the lineup for Game 5 of the American League Championship Series despite the devastating injury to Mark Teixeira, which brings me back to my original question: why is he on the postseason roster? After striking out against the world in September, it is clear that Joe Girardi has no confidence in him. At this point, he’s just taking up space in the dugout. If the Yankees do make the World Series, they may want to consider making a roster move.

* Melky Cabrera, a key cog in many thrilling Yankee comebacks last year, was released by the Atlanta Braves. I guess that Javier Vazquez trade didn't really work out for either team.

* Johnny Damon last week expressed an openness to returning to the Yankees despite last year's bitter divorce. With the way the offense has been struggling this postseason, the Bronx Bombers really could have used his clutch bat this October.

* Minka Kelly, best known as Derek Jeter's girlfriend, was named Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive in 2010. For a guy like Jeter who values his privacy, I'm sure he was thrilled by the attention.

Walk-off kids do it again vs Red Sox

There they were, the walk-off kids, aka the New York Yankees, snatching victory from what would have been a bitter defeat. And they celebrated the way they did all last year: with a pie in the face from AJ Burnett.

The walk-off wins started in earnest around this time last year, with three in a row against the Minnesota Twins. In place of Melky Cabrera, it was Marcus Thames, the Yankee farmhand who came home, getting pied by Burnett after hitting a shot you knew was gone from the crack of the bat. This was two batters after Alex Rodriguez, who led several of those come-from-behind victories last year, was right in the middle of this one, tying the game with a two-run homer off Jonathan Papelbon. Just like that, the Boston Red Sox were done.

I hope last night's victory finally puts to rest all the talk about whether Yankees-Red Sox has lost its juice. The reaction of the Yankee players, a joyous convergence on the mound led by ARod and Derek Jeter, told you all you need to know about how huge this victory was. A day after a shocking loss at the hands of their normally dominant closer Mariano Rivera, the Yanks took it to their archrivals, burying them deeper in the division.

Cashman slams door on Damon return

Any hopes that the trade of Melky Cabrera to the Atlanta Braves would reopen the door to Johnny Damon's return to the Bronx were firmly dashed by Brian Cashman today.

In an interview on the MLB Network, Cashman said the loss of Cabrera would not encourage the New York Yankees to restart negotiations with Damon. "Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the case," he said.

It seems certain that Cashman will go with a much-cheaper option to fill the void left by Cabrera's departure. The Yankees general manager wouldn't speculate on who that would be, but it seemed like a decision would be made relatively quickly.

Those who like the Javier Vazquez trade are emphasizing his successful 2009 campaign, in which he finished fourth in the National League Cy Young award voting. He went 15-10 last year with a terrific 2.87 ERA and 238 strikeouts in 32 starts. Never mind the fact that this happened in the National League.

He could be a solid number #4 starter for the Yanks in the regular season, even winning 12-13 games with the Yankees juggernaut offense behind him. But he has not fared well in his postseason starts so that remains a major concern for me.

Thanks to Jimmyack205 via Wikipedia for the photo.

Javier Vasquez, really?

Forgive me if I seem underwhelmed by news that the New York Yankees have re-acquired righty starter Javier Vazquez from the Atlanta Braves. My enduring memory of Vazquez was him giving up the Grand Slam homer to then-Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, putting
the World Series out of reach for the Yankees and allowing their hated rivals to go on to win their first world title since 1918.

Even prior to that game, Vazquez always seemed pretty soft to me, never putting up the kind of numbers that validated the team's belief in him. He went 14-10 with an ERA near 5.00 in 2004 on a team with a lot of offense. Plus, he's owed $11.5 million for the last year of his current contract so he's not cheap. On the plus side, Vazquez has managed to stay pretty healthy for a starting pitcher so perhaps that makes him a better option than injury-prone free-agents such as Ben Sheets. But is Vazquez really the best Brian Cashman could do?

I'm sorry to see Melky Cabrera go in the deal although I understand that Cashman had to give up something aside from his remaining top prospect Jesus Montero in exchange for another starter. Melky put up solid numbers for the Yanks this year, including game-winning hits that earned pies in the face from AJ Burnett. His hitting the cycle in August was one of the top highlights for the Yankees this year, for which he was honored alongside teammates Derek Jeter for eclipsing Lou Gehrig's all-time Yankee hits record and Mariano Rivera saving his 500th game. We'll miss him.

Thanks to Chrisjnelson via en.Wikipedia for the photo.