The branding of Bud

Scheduling could play an important factor as to whether or not he is there. However, if he doesn't acknowledge the record he's going to branded one way. If he acknowleges the record, he'll be braneded another way. Mr. Lizard can't win.

 

I believe Bud had absolutely no idea about McGwire other than that he was taking a legal supplement called androstenedione that was readily available at a GNC near you. That Bud and all of baseball's top executives knew is the biggest fallacy that gets reported over and over and over. You can suggest they should have known or that people closer to the pulse of the clubhouse (GMs, managers, coaches) should have told them. But, like the rest of us, they weren't casting suspicion on specific players. Bud goes to a lot of baseball games but he spends far less time in clubhouses than your average sports columnist. Skilled observers like Mike Lupica were writing books glorifying the likes of McGwire and Sosa but somehow an old man who never goes into the clubhouse was supposed to be able to pick up on it? Doesn't make sense.

I do believe that a lot of people within baseball were too close to notice the physical changes in players. It's sort of like noticing a change in a person you haven't seen in a long time. The person's husband/wife might not notice the same thing because the change took place gradually and he/she sees the person every day.

No, everybody didn't know. Not reporters, not baseball executives.

 

He can say -- "Hey, I was at Miller Park being amazed at what's been happening with the franchise that my family and I spent decades trying to run into the ground."

Or not.

 

What Bud should say:

"I told my wife I wouldn't. Besides, I got a big day tomorrow. You guys have a great time."

Reporter: A big day? Doing what?

"Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time. "

 

End

Of

Conversation.

 

Bud Selig and all of the sniveling baseball writers didn't seem to care about swelling heads and biceps and unnaturally looking men back when home runs were "saving" baseball in 1998 thus, he, along with all of the baseball writers, are hypocrites now that the game is in a better place and thus they are acting like they give a shit about steroids.

 

Like now, I was in clubhouses on a near daily basis in 1998, talking regularly with many, many other writers as well as players. Sorry to break the news to you but it wasn't a hot topic among baseball writers or players at the time. Not even close. Personally, I recall seeing one player that year (not McGwire) and wondering based on the acne on his back. I never voiced the thought because, well, sometimes acne is just acne. After about 30 seconds, I moved on to whatever it was I was there to write about.

Two or three stories over about 10 years doesn't equate to everybody knowing. Kevin Towers (and, perhaps other GMs, assistant GMs) was certainly a lot closer to the situation than most of us so I wouldn't doubt his sincerity for a moment. However, Selig (like other top-level execs) didn't go in clubhouses and, frankly, only goes on the field a handful of times over the course of a season.

 

Of course there were no suspicions - people were too busy waxing poetic about Sammy and Marky and their home run chase and what it was doing to bring fans back to the grand old game......

 

If Bud would just stop pussyfooting and do what the Onion reported he already did he wouldn't have this problem..

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/mlb_credits_hank_aaron_with_50

 

And, Jeebus, enough with Caminiti. He took steroids. He also took enough cocaine, as Robin Williams puts it in Good Will Hunting, to kill a small horse. The cocaine killed his ass. He has less in common with Barry Bonds than he does with Len Bias.