Reilly re-distributing baseball's MVP awards

[Steak Snabler]

"Now, for the man of the night. I have a U-Haul of hardware here for Jose Alberto Pujols Alcántara of the St. Louis Cardinals. You already have two MVPs, Albert, and you're about to get three more, since Barry Bonds ripped you off worse than Bernie Madoff to win the award from 2002 to 2004. You hit .335 and averaged 41 bombs those years and yet you finished second behind the clearly creaming Bonds in '02 and '03 and third behind Bonds and Adrian Beltre in '04. We're throwing out Beltre since, while he denies ever using PEDs, he fell off the face of the planet once baseball put in stricter steroid suspensions in 2005. If he wasn't cheating, I'm the Queen Mother. And this is history we're making here. It gives you five MVPs, and nobody else in baseball history now has more than three. Just don't let us down on this thing, Albert. You know what we're talking about."

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3915217

Sounds like a great idea, because it's clear that Reilly has personally drug tested all of baseball's MVPs of the steroids era, so he knows who's clean and who's not.

I wonder, if he had written this column a year ago, how many MVP awards would he have given to A-Rod?

 

[zagoshe]

My thoughts exactly -- I am glad he can say for certainity who is and who isn't clean and who deserves MVP's and who doesn't.

What a self-important tool bag.

 

[poindexter]

Oy vey.

 

[JC]

How much does he get paid by ESPN?

That article is awful.

 

[Sea Bass]

Didn't really enjoy the article either, but at least he (twice) acknowledges he's running the risk of looking stupid later.

 

[cranberry]

Dear Rick,

Too bad they don't have sobriety tests before you can enter the LSU press box with your girlfriend and make a fool of yourself.

 

[playthrough]

I don't think I can read or listen to any baseball stats, awards or HoF talk for a while. Just tell me who wins the games.

 

[mustangj17]

Dear Rick,

Too bad they don't have sobriety tests before you can enter the LSU press box with your girlfriend and make a fool of yourself.

Maybe he is still drunk from the beer pong tournament?

That was the last straw for me. That will be the last column I read of his.

 

[spnited]

More useless drivel.

 

[outofplace]

My thoughts exactly -- I am glad he can say for certainity who is and who isn't clean and who deserves MVP's and who doesn't.

What a self-important tool bag.

Exactly, but that isn''t news regarding Reilly. I'll give him credit. He has been going after possible steroid users for a while. But his approach has been lousy.

Of note to me is how willing he is to go after Bonds now, but when he wanted to ambush a player and suggest he should get tested in 2002, he chose Sosa instead even though Bonds was considered the more likely suspect at the time.

 

[JC]

My thoughts exactly -- I am glad he can say for certainity who is and who isn't clean and who deserves MVP's and who doesn't.

What a self-important tool bag.

Exactly, but that isn''t news regarding Reilly. I'll give him credit. He has been going after possible steroid users for a while. But his approach has been lousy.

Of note to me is how willing he is to go after Bonds now, but when he wanted to ambush a player and suggest he should get tested in 2002, he chose Sosa instead even though Bonds was considered the more likely suspect at the time.

Didn't he choose Sosa because Sosa offered to be tested anytime, any place and Reilly called him out on it.

 

[outofplace]

My thoughts exactly -- I am glad he can say for certainity who is and who isn't clean and who deserves MVP's and who doesn't.

What a self-important tool bag.

Exactly, but that isn''t news regarding Reilly. I'll give him credit. He has been going after possible steroid users for a while. But his approach has been lousy.

Of note to me is how willing he is to go after Bonds now, but when he wanted to ambush a player and suggest he should get tested in 2002, he chose Sosa instead even though Bonds was considered the more likely suspect at the time.

Didn't he choose Sosa because Sosa offered to be tested anytime, any place and Reilly called him out on it.

Not exactly. He said he would be the first guy in line if baseball started testing for steroids, but he made it clear during the confrontation that he had no interest in going against the player's association.

Here is the column.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/magazine/life_of_reilly/news/2002/07/02/life_of_reilly/

 

[poindexter]

Blogs>>> Reilly

 

[Stoney]

So Reilly's decided that Luis Gonzales, Piazza, Pujols, Alou and Thomas are clean, but other guys who've never tested positive like Beltre and Sosa are not--and he knows this, how?

Some of the guys on his clean list have the exact same sort of suspicious career batting arc spiking during the steroid era as those proven guilty, and there's still 103 more names from that 03 testing that haven't been revealed. I'd bet the farm some of Reilly's clean guys were using too.

 

[Cousin Jeffrey]

First off, I can't believe he led that article with this tired, over-used line:
It's been tougher than a $4.99 steak.

The guy from Slate who did that tooth-related analysis of Reilly's bad puns should find out how many times he's trotted that one out.

Secondly, is he an idiot? Wait we know that answer. He really thinks Pujols, Piazza and Moises Alou are the poster children for steroid-free living? I'm not saying they're guilty, but if I had to pick a dozen unnamed guys that were on something, those three would be in the running. Even if you're not as cynical as I am, you'd think he'd purposely pick guys that are more likely to be clean...Wow.

 

[KevinmH9]

Worst. Article. Ever.

Just shut up, Reilly.

 

[broadway joe]

I actually thought this was one of Reilly's better efforts of late. (I know, I know, not saying much.) He's not saying that all of his "rightful" winners are definitely clean, just that there are no steroid allegations hanging over their head so far. Also the quote from Greenwell, about how Canseco essentially offered to hook him up with steroids, is something I'd never heard before. Reilly still has too many "tougher than a $4.99 steaks" and "cheated worse than Rosie Ruiz" groaners in there, but you can't have everything.

 

[Cousin Jeffrey]

I read that Greenwell anecdote somewhere else just last week, can't remember where, and the stuff about his wife was in stories last year. I'm sure he's been repeating that story ad nauseum with all the people looking for "color."

 

[poindexter]

The premise is stupid. Why would Mike Piazza be considered "clean"?

 

[Joe Williams]

I don't think I can read or listen to any baseball stats, awards or HoF talk for a while. Just tell me who wins the games.

I'm with you. I want to back away from the individual glory stuff and focus on the team results. I know that's contrary to the fantasy-league mania these days and I do happen to vote for the Hall of Fame. But I'm tired of looking at every stat through heavy is-he-or-isn't-he filters.