NEW YORK -- This is what you might hear: George Mitchell wasted his time. He wasted yours. He wasted baseball's.
George Mitchell's report is old news, rehashed garbage, a foundation based on two drug-peddling cons trying to save their own butts.
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| Sen. Mitchell should be viewed as a hero after exposing baseball. (Getty Images) |
Fine. Go ahead and believe that small-minded balderdash.
This is the truth: Mitchell is a hero, as barrel-chested and historically vital as Babe Ruth or Bowie Kuhn.
In a crowded hotel ballroom deep inside a rain-soaked Manhattan, on an astounding day in which three separate news conferences occurred within a handful of hours and blocks from one another (all attended by CBSSports.com), Mitchell did something I thought was virtually impossible. Using precision, diligence and an investigator's best friend -- canceled checks and money order receipts -- he forced baseball to accept blame.
(Can you imagine the NFL performing this kind of anal probe? Or the control freaks who run hockey? The NBA? The answer is no. Hell no.)
The presence of George Mitchell, former senator, and Jose Canseco, former juicer, was a fitting image on a day that began with media outlets and fans guessing what names would be on the report and ending with media outlets and fans wondering about the impact of it.
Was Mitchell's report perfect? No. Could it have had more names? Of course.
But permit me to ask a question:
What else was Mitchell going to do? What was baseball going to do?
Wasn't Mitchell's report the best of a number of incredibly bad options?
The only way Mitchell could have done better was to hold out for subpoena power, but there was no guarantee he could get it and even if he did, the players might have refused to incriminate themselves. That's what happened when alleged steroid users appeared before Congress several years ago. Remember gutless Mark McGwire and how Sammy Sosa's comprehension of the English language was suddenly flawed?
