Brian Fuller’s blog on the state of media and communications

Say it ain’t so, Matty

Posted on | November 6, 2007 | No Comments


The reputation blood-letting in Major League Baseball continues today with a San Francisco Chronicle story that our beloved ex-Giant Matt Williams has been linked to performance-enhancing drugs. Oh, and Jose Guillen and Ismael Call Me Ismael Valdez too. Reporters Lance Williams Mark Fainaru-Wada originally broke this story a year ago when someone leaked the Balco story to them. Good reporting. But now they’re being reduced to distributors for whomever wants to bitch-slap ballplayers, seemingly randomly.
OK, I get the Paul Byrd timing, right in the middle of the American League Championship Series. But Williams, Guillen and Valdez? What are they trying to accomplish? It’s not like these are, to quote Animal House, a few bad apples. Estimates range as high as two-thirds of major leaguers have used illegal substances. Baseball’s Steroid Era has a comprehensive list to go along with its many Google ads for human growth hormone. So why the trickling? The Mitchell Report is expected soon and it’s expected to drop a ton of names. So why out these three guys, allowing the media glare to shine brighter on them today?
Vindictiveness? Who knows.
I’ll tell you one thing, check the geographic distribution on this list: If two-thirds of major leaguers are juicing or hormoning, why do most of them seem skewed to teams in the West and Southwest? It’s not just about Balco, located in the Bay Area, because sources have emerged around Long Island and in Florida.
I’ll tell you another thing: rip the damn Band-Aid off and get it over with. The longer this crap dribbles out, the worse becomes the future of baseball in America. Overprotective moms already push their kids into soccer where presumably they won’t get hurt (Hah! My brother in law was All America at Columbia at at one point had to have his jaw wired shut for four months after a collision). Add in the “drugs” element and we’ll all be forced to watch lawn bowling in a generation.
(Photo from Giants Win blog).

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Comments

No Responses to “Say it ain’t so, Matty”

  1. st vitus
    November 7th, 2007 @ 12:30 pm

    I was wonderig what happended to Geraldo Rivera. Nice to know that he’s alive and well and muckraking under the nom de plume, Mark Fainuru-Wada. In all seriousness, you are spot-on Mr. Fuller. The periodic and strategic leakage of this crap (nice image, huh ?) represents a very low form of journalism. But, then again, what else would you expect from phil bronstein ? I hate to sound like an apologist but, in the case of Matt Williams, he has been implicated for using growth hormone back in 2002. Imagine you are Matt Williams back then, long before steroids were forbidden, let alone growth hormone. You are in the twilight of a distinguished career, suffering from a variety of ailments that have sapped your strength and flexibility. You are given a prescription for growth hormone, which some in the medical community suspect can promote healing. Do you really deserve to be denigrated 5 years later by some putz looking to make a name for himself in a 3rd tier newspaper ? I’ll always remember Williams for his fine hands, professional demeanor and flashes of power. He was actually ahead of Roger Maris’ homerun pace in 1993 during the season-that-never-was. Tsk, tsk, tsk…

  2. Anonymous
    July 31st, 2008 @ 12:40 am

    专业的翻译公司，译佰深圳翻译公司，广州翻译公司，上海翻译公司,东莞翻译公司国内同声翻译（同声传译）领域领头军！同声传译(同传)是国际会议通常使用的翻译方式， 翻译人员进入隔音间里，通过耳机接听发言人的声音再将其翻译给听众。这种形式的翻译方式需要较为复杂的设备以及非常专业的翻译人员，但能节省大量的时间。优质翻译公司译佰翻译公司能提供同传深圳英语翻译 ，深圳日语翻译，深圳法语翻译，深圳德语翻译，深圳俄语翻译，深圳韩语翻译等数种同传语言，培养一批商务口译人员，多年以来，译佰同声翻译在同声传译(同传)领域积累了丰富的业务经验，能提供从专业同声翻译、译员培训到同传设备安装租售业务等一整套国际会议同传服务深圳翻译。

  3. ox
    September 13th, 2008 @ 5:25 am

    Yes, you do deserve to be denigrated. Does it matter if it’s a young or old reporter or someone just doing his job??? It sounded like he performed the “lemmings walk” right off the cliff with the rest of the West and Southwest teams. Look, his career was over. Clemens’ too. Both should face that fact and move on and not disgrace there names and reputations. Now, both (and others) are mud. I used to like and respect Williams…not now.

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