So the Globe reported that 11 members of the current free agent class would be named in the Mitchell Report; this led to some fun guessing games (Bonds, Sosa, Guillen, Cameron...), but ultimately the report was wrong and the Globe had to issue a retraction. The real story of course is that "no more than 11 were asked to speak to Mitchell". Okay...but what the hell does "no more than 11" mean? Doesn't that just mean, um, 11? (Of course, if I were leaking information from the Mitchell Report, I would tell the press "no more than 872...but no less than -13", but maybe most people wouldn't.) The other thing: what happens when a player refuses to talk to the Commission? I imagine most refused, but do they get their own chapter on "Uncooperative Witnesses"? I assume they do, meaning all 11 of them - except for those who talked and somehow cleared their names - will be in the report.
Regardless, when it comes out, it's going to be ugly. And one thing I don't know is how this affects the month before then. Will free agents (or players approaching free agency in a couple years) will be racing to lock up big lucrative contracts? Will clubs insist the contracts include "Mitchell Report" clauses? Ugh.
A local writer out here had a good take on the whole mess. But I also think that fans really don't care. And GMs probably don't care much either.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time believing that any suspensions or discipline will come from stuff unvcovered 3, 4 or more years ago.
And this will allow writers and politicians to get on their high horses. Write some articles about what a "tragedy" this whole mess is and/or hold hearings that get attention, blah, blah, blah.
And here is a pretty good article:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mercurynews.com/giantsheadlines/ci_7393032?nclick_check=1