'Roid Rage and Reportage, or Something Like It

This winter is not just a crazy off season because of the new Yankees’ manager or the new vacancy at third base, or even the uncertainties of whether Mo, Po and the free agent co will resign. This winter, there is the probable release of the Mitchell Report, the results of the congressional investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

While we might joke about the baseball names that seem to be obvious to be released in connection with the report, such as Rafael Palmeiro and Barry Bonds, and while we might dread the idea that any of our favorite players might be revealed, there is something else we need to consider.

George Mitchell, the leader of the investigation, is not merely a senator assigned to the task. He is a director for the Front Office of the Boston Red Sox.

Consider that for a moment. Ask yourself if that’s not a bit unlike asking the CEO of Ford to lead an investigation into car safety, or asking the head of Prudential to investigate insurance fraud.

Can I get a ‘conflict of interest’?

Can I get a ‘why has this not been mentioned by the mainstream media’?

I had no idea that George Mitchell was in Boston’s front office until others mentioned it to me on a Yankees’ blog. I had a hard time believing it at first—it seems so unprofessional, to say the least.

Now, I don’t know George Mitchell. As far as I know he could be the world’s most honest man. However, whether or not Mitchell is an honest man, and that he’s treated those on the Red Sox the same as those on all of the other major league teams, is not the point.

The point is, hiring someone with a direct stake in the results of the report is unethical, to say the least. We’ll probably not know for sure whether or not any special treatment was given to Boston players, but what’s done is done.

What’s getting to me right now, though, is the lack of coverage this conflict of interest seems to be getting. It’s a no-brainer that it would come up on Yankees’ forums; we have a great sense of Schadenfreude, especially when applied to the Red Sox. However, the Yankees are not the only team Boston plays in the course of a year.

Is it coincidence that Paul Byrd was mentioned in connection with HGH just as he was pitching in the ALCS? An ALCS that happened to go seven games? It’s not entirely likely Cleveland would have won at Fenway, but again, that’s besides the point.

Like many Yankees fans, I tend to see a pro-Boston bias with ESPN and some of the other mainstream media outlets, so perhaps I’m a bit jaded, but for this to get no mention at all? Are people really that thick? Do they just not care?

All right, I’m done ranting.

I’m setting the odds on when the names are leaked at 5:1 before Thanksgiving, 10:1 between Thanksgiving and 14 December (the end of my Semester), 20: 1 between 15 Dec and Christmas, and 50:1 between Christmas and New Year’s.