It just stinks of Maris.

You claim that, “The main problem here is the growing number of readers like yourself who don’t read critically: someone who reads Simmons’ article and believes he suggested Ortiz used PED’s. He NEVER suggested it, explicitly stated he believes Ortiz was NOT a user, and concluded Ortiz had declined due to age.”

That statement is false, and not simply a mistake. It is a lie, because you know that I exposed your hypocrisy but couldn’t bring yourself to admit it. Let me quote sections from Bill Simmons to show that he did exactly the same thing Jerrod did in his post:

From May 9, 2009:
“And what about Big Papi?” he wonders. “Played for Minnesota, didn’t hit for power, came to the Red Sox, turned into the best slugger in the league, and as soon as they cracked down on steroids, he stopped hitting homers again. And he was friends with all the other Dominican players who were linked to performance-enhancing drugs. What about him?”

We glance out to the field. Big Papi is one of Boston’s coaches now. After he hit 54 homers in 2006, his career was over within four years. Now he’s just a fat guy in his early 40s coaching first base. You would never guess this is the same guy who carried us in 2004, the guy who fueled the Greatest Comeback Ever, the guy who helped convince an entire fan base that, yes, we could believe.

“So you won the World Series twice because of Manny and Papi,” my son says, “but they might have been cheating the whole time, and so were some of their teammates? Dad, your whole book was about how you could die in peace because they won in 2004. If they cheated to win, does that make what happened OK?”

“I don’t know,” I finally answer. “I still haven’t figured that part out. Again, you don’t understand what it was like. Everyone was cheating, so the playing field was kind of even, as weird as that sounds. You can’t imagine how depressing it was to be a Red Sox fan at the time. Things always went wrong. We hadn’t won in 86 years. We were the whipping boy of the Yankees. We always expected the worst to happen, mainly because the worst always did happen. That 2004 title made life easier for everyone. We could just follow the team without all the other negative crap. Does that make sense?”

Then from the column on June 2nd, 2009 that you referenced:
“The steroid whispers started quickly. By late April, every conversation I had with a Sox fan seemed to include a “We need to mail Papi some HGH” joke. It was an easy leap for a couple of reasons: First, his power numbers leapt like Obama’s Q rating from 2003 to 2007. Second, he’s Dominican, and more than a few of his brethren — Sammy Sosa, Miguel Tejada, Guillermo Mota — have been in the center of PED controversies. Third, they sell steroids over the counter in the DR like they’re Bubblicious. And fourth, baseball has reached a depressing point in which power hitters are presumed guilty until proven innocent.

Contrary to your lie, at no point in that June 2nd column does Bill Simmons says that he doesn’t believe David Ortiz used PEDs. If you persist in repeating that lie, then quote where Simmons says it. You won’t because you can’t, since it didn’t happen. You’re lying because you’re defensive about your own hypocrisy. Simmons does speculate that Ortiz’s precipitous decline may also be due to being older than claimed, but he does not deny PED use. In fact, as you see in the above quote, Simmons actually implies that Ortiz likely did use.

Moreover, the same thoughtfulness that you praise Simmons for was displayed by Jerrod. What you need to do right now is to shut up, stop prancing around this blog as if you have any room to be judging anyone, and be more careful about where you run your mouth. You never know when you’re going to run into someone like me who is both capable of and interested in obliterating self-righteous windbags such as yourself.

By the way, YOU visited an insignificant blog page today. Is it STILL insignificant?

Did I just say that?

Rosenthal’s editor must have been hung over or asleep at his desk that day.

I’m not saying that a newspaper writer actually had anything original to write about, or that a newspaper writer didn’t capitalize on somebody else’s work in order to garner attention for himself. But at least he was reading the opinons of others.

Dr. Tom House, a veteran pitcher in the major leagues, said that he used steroids during his eight-year Major League career, though he wasn’t specific about which years. House estimated that “six or seven pitchers on every staff were fiddling with steroids or hGH” while he was playing.

House says that steroids were rampant in the 1960’s. This comment represents the earliest date that steroids were implicated in baseball.

So why wasn’t Henry Aaron accused of using PED’s in order to break Babe Ruth’s record? Doesn’t it seem reasonable to “assume and speculate” that Aaron’s career was enhanced and lengthened” by the use of PED’s, since one of Aaron’s contemporaries has admitted to their widespread use during their time in the league?

I sincerely apologize to a truly wonderful and inspiring player, Henry Aaron, for using his name in this purely speculative fashion. He was truly one of my childhood heros. But I hope that people will understand why it is unfair to speculate about the baseball heroes of today when this problem has clearly existed for over thirty years, and only recently has come to light.

Barry Bonds left Pittsburgh a long time ago, but he was a wonderfully gifted player who worked very hard to achieve what he did. If he ever had to cheat a little bit in order to heal from the abuse his body took while helping to win division titles for the Pirates, I forgive him. He does not deserve to be the scapegoat for a practice that became commonplace during his FATHER’S era of professional baseball.

Dude, you clearly a)did not read Jerod’s piece or b)failed entirely to understand what the analysis really meant. What the hell do you mean, saying he used “fantasy numbers”?? Last I looked fantasy used the players REAL numbers. But you seem to be the kind of guy who just starts yelling if you don’t like facts that are presented to you.

Me, I’ve studied a little bit of probability theory, and yes, it’s entirely possible Ibanez has just seen 25-40 sweet pitches and he’s been good enough to have parked 20 of them. Even at age 37? Yep. If Jerod made any error at all (and TONS of people, from bloggers to MSM sports “journalists” to sabrmetricians make the same errorneous assumptions), it’s believing a little too strongly in our ability to explain everything through statistical analysis. Randomness is, and always will be, a powerful force throwing off any attempt at perfect analysis.

Anyway, I close with a few points for Nick the Tard:
a) Jerod in no way can be accused of “trying for cheap fame at the expense of a hard-working player”. He made a post, as he frequently does, and I very much doubt he had any expectation that it would be any bigger than any other. Your accusations misrepresent what happened. That’s kind of like being a liar, but in your case, it’s most likely the unintentional result of stupidity.

b) He did not “drag a guy’s name in the mud”, “accuse anyone of being on drugs” or “bash anyone for having a good year”. Did you read the post? Do you know how to read? Do you understand what you read? Clearly, the answer is no, at least to the latter. Loser.

c) When you don’t know what you are talking about, go easy on the profanity. I could call you things that would make you cry (if you ever learned what they meant), but I refrain because on this blog, the general tone has been pretty damn civil. (With the exception of your lame comments.) Your sleazy contributions would be more acceptable (this IS the internets after all) if you showed any sign of having read the article and thus having something to base your opinions on. But you show no such signs.

In short, you haven’t shown very well here. Not only has your opinion not carried the day, but you haven’t earned any respect for yourself. To quote my Magic 8 Ball: “Try again later.”

It’s ironic that I used to call Ibanez the little manny, and people used to laugh at me. I would have never thought this kind of issue would rise with Ibanez. One of the main reasons to doubt that Ibanez is cheating is that he just signed his last(probably) lucrative contract, so why in the world would he cheat this season instead of last season? Players usually cheat when they have a contract season coming up and put up one year wonder numbers, not AFTER they already sign a contract. He’s 37 and he has no reason to suddenly cheat. The man got his dough already.

As for the writer of this blog, you did a real good job in speaking your mind on tv man. I thought those 2 guys were being pretty ridiculously lousy towards you and it almost seemed like they were jealous that you were making news. Is there a law that says bloggers aren’t allowed to speak their mind? I mean, the philly guy talks about how if you press “enter”, you are now speaking to the whole world for a conversation. Last I checked, that’s what blogging was all about. It’s your right to say what you want to say, especially when done reasonably and fairly as you have, which have now been thrown way out of proportion by the “media” guys.

I do not get the vibe they actually read the original article either but they at least acknowledge the era we are in and that they have had the same thoughts and approaches to similar situations.

BTW: For those looking to listen to PTI’s support of Jerod, click the link in my first post and go to 6:28

Wow. You’re a douche. If you want any credibility to what you’re saying, then why don’t you tell him who you are? You make no valid points and it’s clear to all the readers that the only one that’s made ass out of themselves is you. I guess you knew that when you wrote this garbage post and that’s why you hid your name. “Food for thought”, all the crap you wrote were already mentioned in his original blog and were things he actually supported, except for “it’s the first time NL pitchers are seeing him” because that’s a false statement. Idiot.

“Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing.”

I want to know what world you are living in that a major baseball player, or celebrity, or politician is going to set aside the time of day to respond to an article that does not even directly accuse anybody.

Does that mean nobody can write about them, even on their blogs?

Should every journalist that ever had a question for former President Bush or current President Obama have their ideas withheld or discredited just because they didn’t return an email or phone call?

I am sorry but most people do not have that luxury.

I’m willing to bet Jerod would love nothing more than to hear from Ibanez regarding HIS ACTUAL ARTICLE and not the countless hacks (Gonzalez, Rosenthal, etc.) who took it out of context, but the reality is that just is not going to happen on a regular basis.