Some of the people today that talk about the
use of “illegal substances”must have
just dropped from the sky from
another world.
Who said baseball was a pure game ?

By Amaury Pi-González(Disclaimer) I do not condone the use of any
illegal substance, drugs or anything that would
be done to harm the reputacion of the game
of baseball)

The Black Sox Scandal, bribery, gambling
and drinking and drugs and all that stuff is
engraved next to the history of some of the
game’s best players. To think or say otherwise
it would be like living with Michael Jackson
at his Neverland Ranch in Southern California.

Illegal substances ?

Well, then lets remove Gaylord Perry from the
Hall of Fame, take his number 36 hanging inside
SBC Park. Last I looked, putting spit on a ball
was illegal. Gaylord won 314 games during his
career and in many games the umpires had to
stop the game to make him change his
uniform, because they could not find where
he had the Vaseline he was putting to the
ball. Loading the ball was to be known as
Perry’s specialty. Am I missing something here ?

Illegal substances? (How about inside the head)

Doc Ellis was a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates,
he even wrote a book about a game he pitched
under the influence of LSD. For those of you
under 35, LSD was a popular hallucinatory drug
during the 60’s. There were cases of people
in the 1960’s pulling their own eyes because
they were under the influence of LSD, not
for throwing a slider. Did Ellis had a “Hole In The
Head”like the old Dean Martin song ?Or was
it a Kick In The Head ? It had something to
do with his head…I know that.

Role Models ?

When I was a kid Eddie Mathews of the Milwaukee
Braves (a great third baseman) was one of my
“heroes”. We all found out he was an alcoholic.
Billy Martin,(may he be in heaven looking down)
I could smell his alcohol coming out from his
breath prior to A’S games at the ‘then called’
simply the Oakland Coliseum. And this was for
day games !

Role Models ?

If today a player says something considered
racist (like pitcher John Rocker then of the Braves
said)and I was working that playoff in New
York, he is practically thrown out of the game.
Then, please let’s (for the sake of consistency)
remove Ty Cobb (The Georgia Peach)out of
Cooperstown since he was a Big League
racist. Forget about him hitting over .400
three times and hitting for a lifetime average
of .367 for 24 seasons in the majors.
He didn’t like anybody that was not anglo.
Not to mention the way he played sliding
into the bases, today that could be considered
battery.

STEROIDS ?

As of today with the suspension of Rafael Palmeiro
and under the new law of baseball (first offense)
you are suspended a dozen games or so for
testing positive. Palmeiro apologized to all
and said he never “took any illegal substances
intentionally”. Well, of course…nobody has taken
anything intentionally recently. Jason Giambi
almost died. Ken Caminit did die but he
took everything that was not legal. Canseco
wrote a book and is doing TV shows and
I just saw Iván (Pudge)Rodríguez and he looks
like another person, he is not “Pudge”anymore,
I call him “El Flaco”(skinny in Spanish).

Consistency ?

Baseball is in line with the society we are living
today, it is never our fault, it is always somebody
else. A serial killer blames his family for beating
him up. I remember my dad in Cuba would put
his belt out of his pants and give me a swipe here
and there…I never killed a fly !

But my question is what were the executives of
the game of baseball taking during this steroid
era ? What was our great Commissioner doing ?
Reacting and not pro-acting. We cannot have it
both ways, if the players are guilty, so are the
people running the sport for a notable and
tremendous lack of leadership.

Because of baseball is “retro”compared to other
sports in many ways, they were living in denial
from the problem they had right in front of their
noses. When we had guys hitting 50, 60, 70
Home runs they questioned the ball ? Not the guys
that looked like Hulk Hogan.
Did anybody said anything when Brady Anderson
a leadoff hitter for the Orioles hit over 50 Home
runs ? In the record books it says about
Brady Anderson “A speedy centerfielder
proved to be a high-percentage base stealer
with the ability to draw walks” really ?

Have anybody taken the time to just look at
the baseball cards of some of this mega starts
(Before)when they were rookies and (After)
when they were Superstars ?

What is going on here ? Are we becoming so
hypocritical that we are forgetting what has
happened ?

Attention owners,management people, union
people, the biggest star was a guy by the name
of Jesús (and I do not mean Jesús Alou) and he
once said:
“Whoever is free of sin let it cast the first stone”

.. Please if anybody here think they can walk on water met me at Jack London Square(Oakland)
I like to see you walk over the Bay to
Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco.If you make
it I will treat you to the best and most expensive
restaurant in San Francisco.