Cleaning up after
the Mitchell Report...
The White Sox are
reviewing the 311-page document, but they have to be feeling relieved that the only four mentioned were Jose Canseco, Armando Rios, Jim Parque and Scott Schoeneweis, with Schoeneweis really the only notable case. Don Cooper had some interesting insight on that one:
"I heard his name had come up before, but my understanding was
Schoeney was taking things for a condition he had from recovering from
cancer. When Schoeneweis was cleared [by the Commissioner's Office], I
said, 'Good for him.' I thought he had a condition that warranted it."
As for Canseco, he
tried to gain entrance to the press conference but was denied. He also wondered aloud why Alex Rodriguez wasn't mentioned in the report. And so continues Canseco's remarkable post-career career path.
Speaking of former Sox, Joe Cowley gave Frank Thomas a tip of the hat
in his Sun-Times article:
''It just shows you a lot about Frank Thomas,'' [Greg] Walker said. ''I'm proud
of him and his career. And the thing I'm really proud of is he never
made excuses about what other guys were doing and not doing. That's the
thing about Frank. He went about his business, knowing it might not be
a level playing field.''
As
Fundman pointed out in the Mitchell thread, Thomas added another feather to his cap by being the only player to voluntarily speak to George Mitchell. Thomas once again adds to his record of being a lone advocate of stronger testing, and barring a shocking turn of events, that should ensure Thomas of first-ballot entry to the Hall, although I'll never be sure why people consider his case so flimsy to begin with. It'd be pretty hypocritical to both vote against players who aged supernaturally, and those who actually suffered declines because they let nature take its course.
As expected, the Sox did tender a contract to Joe Crede, and now we await the inevitable trade. An interesting juxtaposition in Mark Gonzalez's notes article:
- Bobby Jenks said it's easier to keep in shape since moving his offseason home from Seattle to Chicago.
- Jim Thome said Chicago weather makes it more difficult to manage weight, but he's dealing.
Odds and ends: