complicity [kuhm-plis-i-tee]
the state of being an accomplice; partnership or involvement in wrongdoing: complicity in a crime.

Another very well done article from ESPN’s investigative reporter TJ Quinn about how the culture of baseball helped steriod usage blossom since the 1980′s.

Center in Quinn’s article is how tainted Torre and LaRussa have become as a result of the Mitchell Report. Quinn mentions that 20 players named in the Report have been managed, at some time, by Torre. That’s pretty incredible. LaRussa’s blind loyalty to McGwire is particularly damning, as is his Oakland/St.Louis loyalty to Dave McKay:

LaRussa’s longtime first-base coach, Dave McKay, has never been accused of directly aiding and abetting steroid users, but he was certainly in their proximity. LaRussa made McKay his first strength coach in Oakland; McKay says he never thought that the change in player physiques had anything to do with drugs.

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I type this with my teeth grinding together. Have fun. (thanks to Rob Neyer for furthering the pain, Insider access required)

Felix Pie seems to have gotten his juevos twisted. Good lord. Although, I knew a guy who had this happen back in college and I remember hearing him scream in pain. Can’t be a pleasant thing.

Looks like the list of 2nd year players who have had their contracts “renewed” and are unhappy about it is growing. The whining, while understandable as they see the major loot the more established players are getting, has got to stop. The system over-penalizes players thru their early years and over-rewards as they mature. I’ll tell ya what, if the players don’t like it, go find something else to do. They knew this system has been in place for years and what it might mean to them if they overperform their salary. Tough. Grind your teeth, play hard and get paid when it’s your time. Until then, stop the whining.

Clubs can renew the contracts of players who have spent less than three years in the major leagues. The only restrictions are the team must pay the major league minimum, $390,000, and no player can get more than a 20% pay cut. Yet, with the minimum salary rising from $109,000 since 1996, clubs are factoring in the raises players automatically get.

• O’s renew Markakis’ contract, outfielder ticked
• Brewers slugger Prince Fielder unhappy about renewed contract
• ESPN – Brewers renew young stars Fielder, Braun, Hart
• Hamels calls Phillies’ $500000 contract renewal a “low blow”
• Francoeur’s contract renewed

And Papelbon seems to be next in line to be upset about getting his contract renewed. I can hardly wait.

Closer Jonathan Papelbon hopes to avoid any unpleasantness by reaching an agreement with the Boston Red Sox before they renew his contract on Thursday. “I don’t want to renew,” he told reporters Tuesday. “I don’t want to. But if I have to, I have to.”

Boston Red Sox scout Jesse Levis, 39, gave the term “scouting” a new definition yesterday. Rather than peering into a camera and feverishly jotting notes on ballplayers, he was nabbed peering out his 2nd floor hotel window at underage girls, feverishly, um, stirring the franks and beans.

“His explanation didn’t add up,” said police spokesman Rob Vega. “We have four witnesses who say he was standing there 40 minutes. Rearranging your clothes and masturbating are definitely two different things.”

Wonder if the Red Sox fans who mugged a Yankee fan in Cambridge would do the same to this guy?

And not for nothing, maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t this dude look 10+ years older than 39?

Jesse Levis, way to get yourself booted out from the inside of MLB, a dream most of us would love to have.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…I’m a Yanks fan. I understand the hate. I can live with it. I also understand the RedSox Nation. I dig their fervor, passion, knowledge, allegiance (not Affleck or pink hats, though). I respect them as competitors. They make my team work harder to be better. I also like to think that deep down, they feel the same way. Yes, I know they hate the MFY, but I’m not sure if SunTsu said it, but you must respect the enemy.

I try to keep this to baseball 90% of the time (or more), but sometimes there’s a tailor-made “it is about the money” comment that needs to make an appearance here. Courtesy of Peter King’s SI.com MMQB column this week:

Quote of the Week II
“I just want to be able to win and get back to the Super Bowl.’‘
–Philadelphia cornerback Asante Samuel, who got $20 million guaranteed in a six-year, $57 million contract with the Eagles on Friday.

If that’s what was most important, then why didn’t Samuel stay with New England? Does he, or his agent, really think the Eagles have a better shot to get back to the Super Bowl than the Patriots in the next two or three years?

“I just want to be able to win and get back to the Super Bowl.”

You know what I want? I want one of these guys, just once, to say, “You know, I do want to win, but facts are facts. The Patriots were only going to pay me $6 million a year. The Eagles went to $9.5M a year. Do I look that stupid to turn down all that money?” But no. We have to hear this phony stuff about how players sign with lesser teams because they really want to win. Save us.

Yeeeee-sssssss! Way to go, Asante. Saying it’s not about the money, when really, that’s all it’s about! Thanks, Peter for calling him out. A super grande mochaccino half-caf with 3 shots of whatever you want in it, on me.

The well-tenured NY Times writer Murray Chass furthered a thought that I discussed last week, wondering if the pendulum had swung too far. Chass mentions that there were two major decisions made by the Yanks this season but only one of which could come back to haunt them: Letting Torre go and not trading for Johan Santana. (I think signing ARod is the 3rd major decision, but I’ll let it go)

Chass, to his credit, doesn’t get overly dramatic, but merely states what might happen, or what should have happened:

Maybe Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain will become the reincarnation of Vic Raschi, Allie Reynolds and Eddie Lopat. But maybe they will be more reminiscent of Andy Hawkins, Dave LaPoint and Tim Leary, vintage 1990.

Maybe they will be everything the Yankees expect them to be. Maybe they will all succeed from the start. But maybe they won’t. Maybe they’ll stumble and sputter and need time to develop into consistent winners.
—–
Had the Yankees sent Hughes to the Twins for Santana, it would not have been Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano. Had the Yankees traded Hughes, they would still have had Kennedy and Chamberlain.
—–
If the Yankees are certain that Hughes, Kennedy and Chamberlain will be the core of their starting rotation for the next 10 years, the decision was a good one. But that lack of a guarantee could prove to be troublesome.

All the above is certainly true and I mentioned it last Thursday. I wonder, now, after the lustre has worn off a bit, if the Yanks were being overly protective of these kids. Should the Yanks have taken the leap? Yes, Hal Steinbrenner was against the dollars being spent and Cashman was against the youth leaving. But, to get a 29 year old Santana…. maybe it would have been worth the risk. I pledge not to second-guess this to death once the season starts and I can only hope that Joba, Hughes and IPK live up to the impossibly high expectations, making it a moot point.

Lastly, my favorite comment from Chass’ article tallies up the expiring contracts for the 2008 Yanks as they look ahead to 2009:

Coming off the payroll after this year should be Pettitte, Mussina, Carl Pavano and Kyle Farnsworth, a total of $44 million in pitchers alone, in addition to Jason Giambi and Bobby Abreu for a team total of $81 million.

$81MM!!!! I hope Sabathia and Mark Teixeira hear that. KRod, too! (Here is a list of the 2009 Free Agent class)

Well, it’s finally posted, ready for all to see. I don’t want to copy/paste the entire roundtable since that’s not fair to Diesel who pulled it together, but I’ll put only my answers below. Please, please, please check out the link above for the entire roundtable, it’s more than worth it.

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Yes, Hank’s finally pushed me too far. He’s forced me to create a separate blog, just for him and his Hankisms.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Hank Yankers, Featuring the Soothing Lyrical Stylings of Hank Steinbrenner

Will be updated daily, or whenever Mt. Blowhard erupts.

I can’t stand it anymore!!!

Really, as a Yankee fan, I can’t stand hearing from Mt. Blowhard every week with some ridiculous proclamation, comment, ultimatum, threat. It’s embarrassing and indefensible. As as honest a Yanks fan as I can be, the Sox have been a model of success the last few years. No, not just because they have won the whole shebang twice in four years, but because the way their organization operates. Senior ownership lets their trusted baseball operations staff do what they think is best for the organization, mixing in targeted and selected free agents with home grown talent. Great stuff, great model for long term success. And, they must be excited to see Hank taking the reigns the way he has. They must be praying for Hank to do something rash, which seems inevitable, doesn’t it? Let’s hope Cashman doesn’t get axed after the first 3 game losing streak.

I just wish Hank would just turn off the mouth for a while. The games haven’t even freakin’ started yet!!!

Relevant recent articles on Mt. Blowhard: