I had my first “Where Are They Now” piece published last night on Baseball Savvy, a site I was recently invited to contribute to. I interviewed Billy O’Dell, who pitched for the Giants in the 1962 World Series, and our two cordial phone conversations contrasted with the run-in I had a few weeks before with [...]
Archive for the ‘Drugs in baseball’ Category
Postscript on my failed attempt to interview Bernie Carbo
Posted: 11th May 2010 by Graham Womack in Drugs in baseball, Hitters Hall of Fame0
My attempt to interview Bernie Carbo today
Posted: 27th April 2010 by Graham Womack in Drugs in baseballTags: Bernie Carbo, Dave McCarthy
As faithful readers will know, I have been offered a chance to contribute to a Where Are They Now section on a Web site called Baseball Savvy. The section is made up of features catching up with former ballplayers, not Hall of Famers necessarily, but the Vida Blues and Bill Madlocks of the sport. I [...]
It’s all over the Internet that Jose Canseco got subpoenaed on Tuesday to testify before a grand jury on April 8 about Roger Clemens. Canseco played on three different teams with the embattled former pitcher, currently under federal investigation for lying to Congress in 2008 when he said he never used performance enhancing drugs. For [...]
Ron Washington rode the white horse. So what?
Posted: 19th March 2010 by Graham Womack in Drugs in baseballMost people will probably screw up in one way or another at some point in their lives. It’s only human to wreck a car or a marriage, to fail a class, to get fired from a job, maybe even to have problems with drugs, alcohol or the law. When most folks fall short, they do [...]
Notes on if Nomar Garciaparra did steroids and the questions we’re allowed to ask
Posted: 11th March 2010 by Graham Womack in Drugs in baseballNomar Garciaparra retired yesterday, which prompted the following Google search for me: Was Nomar on steroids? It’s a question debated in the baseball world many times in recent years, something I continue to wonder about, even as the former Boston Red Sox shortstop has never failed a drug test or admitted use or been under [...]
Alternate history: If Barry Bonds hadn’t used steroids
Posted: 28th February 2010 by Graham Womack in Drugs in baseballTags: cause for debate, what if
Think of all the possibilities for Barry Bonds if he had never chosen to take steroids following the 1998 season. I assume, of course, Game of Shadows correctly reported that Bonds began juicing following Mark McGwire’s record-setting 70-home-run year. Bonds was a lock for the Hall of Fame beforehand, his generation’s version of Willie Mays. [...]
10 baseball players who didn’t do steroids
Posted: 30th January 2010 by Graham Womack in Drugs in baseballTags: cause for debate
1. Ken Griffey Jr: The best clean player of the Steroid Era, Griffey’s only performance enhancer was playing in the Kingdome. 2. Derek Jeter: Jose Canseco, of all people, said he was sure Jeter never used steroids. That’s good enough in my book. In an era of gaudy numbers, Jeter was, like Griffey, a throwback. [...]
Who to trust, Canseco or McGwire?
Posted: 12th January 2010 by Graham Womack in Drugs in baseballTags: cause for debate, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire
Amid the hoopla surrounding Mark McGwire admitting he used steroids, an exchange he had with Bob Costas got my attention. In an interview on MLB Network on Monday, Costas read excerpts from Jose Canseco’s autobiography, Juiced, which claimed he personally injected McGwire. “‘Right before a game, we would load up our syringes and inject ourselves’,” [...]
Seeing McGwire through Rose-colored glasses
Posted: 11th January 2010 by Graham Womack in Baseball Hall of Fame, Drugs in baseballTags: Baseball Hall of Fame, cause for debate, Mark McGwire, Mark McGwire vs Pete Rose
I emailed one of the guys that oversees this site today, curious what he thought of my post about Mark McGwire’s admission of using steroids. He liked what I wrote and suggested I write about how upset Pete Rose would be. “You know he is going to come out and say you banned me but [...]
Mark McGwire: The Confession
Posted: 11th January 2010 by Graham Womack in Drugs in baseballTags: Mark McGwire
Mark McGwire confirmed long-held suspicions today, admitting he used steroids during his playing career, in an interview with the Associated Press. McGwire had previously denied this publicly. “I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come,” McGwire said in a statement issue today and posted on ESPN. “It’s time for me to [...]