Nobody.

I don’t care if it’s the Pope or Mahatma Gandhi or anyone else with a supposedly “clean” past and character. I don’t care if the person is batting ahead of Babe Ruth or if they play in a matchbox (or the new Yankee Stadium, for that matter!). It sucks, but that’s the reality of the situation as player after player gets outed (A-Rod, Manny, etc.).

I haven’t jumping in here to comment much, but since everything is slowing down now, this comment caught my eye.

Direct quote from brian: “Jrod has accused Ibanez of taking steroids”.

I don’t even know what to say. Why someone would come and comment on an article without even reading it is beyond me. If someone can find the place where I accuse Ibanez of using steroids, I’d love to see it.

Brian, I appreciate your visit to the site and your willingness to participate in the discussion, but I’d appreciate it more if you would actually read the article that you are commenting on.

Too bad Ibanez has absolutely no grounds to sue JRod on. First of all, the claim would be libel – not slander. Secondly, JRod was stating an opinion, not a fact. It was mere speculation and he never came to an ultimate conclusion on the question. Without stating a false fact, there is no valid claim for libel.

He actually did Ibanez a service by writing this article because it was going to be speculated about eventually and the way that the article was written was actually meant to dispel any possible grounds for a valid accusation. Had this article not been written, some other blogger probably would have written about it and would have done so in a much more offensive and degrading way.

It’s not like this was some off the cuff attack on Ibanez. As a Mets fan, I have been pondering the reasons behind Ibanez’s magical increase in statistics this season and the though had obviously crossed my mind, along with the jealousy that he has more home runs than the entire Mets lineup combined…

writing ability is not something that declines with age.

First, Raul has always gone on some sort of a hot streak like this at some point in time during the season. It’s one of the reasons I’ve drafted him in my fantasy league pretty much every year for the last few years. When he heats up, he makes a great fill-in off the bench for someone going through a rough patch. It could be that this year it’s happening at the beginning rather than in the middle or end. I keep expecting him to taper off anytime now. Though, I’m keeping him in my fantasy lineup until he actually does.

Second, any ballplayers will tell you that there is a significant mental element to hitting. They will also tell you that a teams problems in the clubhouse often carry over onto the field. The Seattle clubhouse has not been a very happy place for the last few years now. There was a lot of tension between players and managment and jealousy between fellow players. As a long-time team member and because of his veteran status, Raul was under a lot of pressure to be a leader in the midst of that chaos. He’s gone fro mthat situation to a clubhouse that just came off of a World Series winning season. The mental boost of that alone has likely played at least a small role in his success there.

You just wrote a blog and that not many people read. I don’t think you wanted “15 minutes”, but they gave it to you.

Good article and keep blogging.

Red Dragons!!

Good article, I applaud you