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Rocker admits steroid use, says Selig looked the other way

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by novelist_wannabe, Feb 12, 2008.

  1. novelist_wannabe

    novelist_wannabe Well-Known Member

    It's been on ESPN all morning. I can't say I'm surprised. I do have one bone to pick with the wwl, though. The story I read said he used roids when he was with the Rangers, yet all of their footage of him was when he was with the Braves. Surely they could dig up something from when he was with Texas, right? [/if this makes me a fanboi looser, so f-ing be it]


    updated title in response to Flash's astute observation.
     
  2. Flash

    Flash Guest

    Re: Rocker admits steroid use

    This story isn't that he used steroids. That's almost a 'duh.'

    The big story is here ...

    http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3241448&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

    Former major league pitcher John Rocker said Monday that baseball commissioner Bud Selig knew he failed a drug test in 2000 and that doctors for the "league" and the "players association" advised him and several Texas Rangers teammates on how to effectively use steroids.
     
  3. mike311gd

    mike311gd Active Member

    Rocker seemed like such a good guy, though.
     
  4. rube

    rube Active Member

    gotta love Rocker's classic "I took more crap than Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron" quote ... someone should lock that guy in a New York subway car for eternity.
     
  5. Hammer Pants

    Hammer Pants Active Member

    Maybe Selig also wasn't a fan of the 7?
     
  6. hockeybeat

    hockeybeat Guest

    I have trouble feeling any sympathy for a loud mouthed, misogynistic, small-minded racist.
     
  7. Hammer Pants

    Hammer Pants Active Member

  8. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Selig may have known. And the Braves Employee Assistance Program would have known--it's the reason Rocker would have been tested in the first place; after his suspension for his comments in the SI story, he was subject to it. But according to the testing policy at the time, MLB didn't have any power to discipline him. The union managed to stonewall a testing agreement until 2002.

    You can pile on Selig for 1,000 different things and say this is proof that he is full of shit when he pretends that mlb didn't know about any users until 2004 when it instituted random testing for the first time. The fact is, the commissioner's office knew about some use at least as early as the early 90s, when the FBI had names and tipped them off. But this is a relative non-story. Even if Selig knew, given that baseball had no disciplinary measures at its disposal, Selig's hands were really tied in 2000. Even a peep about it, and the union would have had cause to stick a foot up his crack and lodge it in.
     
  9. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    While Rocker was a complete douche, he still never should have been suspended for the SI article...

    It's his opinion. It's a free country. My opinion is that his opinion sucks, but it's still a free country...

    I forget which columnist it was that year who wrote how hypocritical baseball was for suspending Rocker for making racist comments, while doing nothing about another player who was suspended for putting a gun in his wife's mouth...
     
  10. I agree with the last part, but the first part is BS, just as it was all those years ago.

    Freedom of speech doesn't mean you can say anything you want without repercussions. It means you can say anything you want without going to jail.

    If I'm an employee of a company and I'm quoted saying something that hurts the company's image they can suspend me and/or fire me. I can't tell my boss to fuck off and then claim freedom of speech.
     
  11. Bill Brasky

    Bill Brasky Active Member

    Gee, Rocker took 'roids. You mean, a guy with a neck wider than his head, who was always pissed off was on something?
     
  12. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    If Selig knew, he could have made it an issue. But the fact is he probably didn't know with any degree of certainty because EAPs are private and confidential (for very good reason). At the time there was no distinction between performance enhancers and recreational drugs within baseball's drug policy but, as I understand it, a positive test would have led to further random testing and, eventually, disciplinary measures if there were continued positives.
     
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