http://www.cheatersguidetobaseball.com Baseball, Cheating, and Rules discussion at the author's blog for the Cheater's Guide to Baseball Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:31:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en And I had nothing to do with it. Like Kenny Rogers, there was something that looked a lot like pine tar on his hand, and he claimed it was rosin and dirt. "Peavy laughs off dirty-hand controversy" runs the MLB.com headline, which obviously endorses one side of the controversy. Here's a great ... http://www.cheatersguidetobaseball.com/2008/04/07/peavy-becomes-the-latest-pitcher-caught-with-dirt-on-his-hand/ This is incredible: A study scheduled to be released Wednesday and obtained by USA TODAY reports that 13 of the 52 supplements (25%) purchased at various U.S. retailers contained small amounts of steroids and six (11.5%) had banned stimulants. What's more, there's a reference to another, earlier study I hadn't heard about: A study by ... http://www.cheatersguidetobaseball.com/2007/12/07/tainted-stimulant-excuse-becomes-less-tainted/ From the Chronicle: (11-15) 17:20 PST SAN FRANCISCO - Barry Bonds, the former Giants star and baseball's career home run king, was indicted by a federal grand jury today on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the BALCO sports steroid scandal. Bonds was indicted for allegedly making false ... http://www.cheatersguidetobaseball.com/2007/11/16/bonds-indicted-for-perjury-obstruction-of-justice/ Mike Cameron received a 25-day suspension for testing positive again under the stimulant policy. ESPN story. It's the "tainted supplement" track, except with an interesting twist: He later issued a statement through his agent, saying doctors for the players' association helped him narrow down what triggered the positive test. "After all ... http://www.cheatersguidetobaseball.com/2007/10/31/camerons-stimulant-suspension-advance-drug-test-notification/ Astute reader Lance Elroy wrote to point me to a bit of footage where, in the sixth inning, you can - maybe - see Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek putting pine tar on his fingers. It's during Manny's at-bat, the 2nd 3-2 pitch: ("good rip by Manny Ramirez...") there's a ... http://www.cheatersguidetobaseball.com/2007/10/17/varitek-pine-tarring-his-fingers/ The Philadelphia Daily News: TBS cameras on Corpas warming up before coming into yesterday's 4-2 Colorado win in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Citizens Bank Park clearly showed the righthander pour a cup of water or soda on the front of his shirt before leaving the bullpen ... http://www.cheatersguidetobaseball.com/2007/10/04/manny-corpas-cheating-in-the-playoffs/ Reader Bob Montgomery wrote: Relatedly, I'm sure you saw this story: Tobin said the explosion in home runs coincides with a mid-1990s "steroid era" in professional sports. Use dropped to historic levels in 2003 when Major League Baseball instituted steroid testing, the article offers as background. "A change of only a few percent ... http://www.cheatersguidetobaseball.com/2007/10/01/gain-5mph-through-steroid-use-wowza/ Floyd Landis lost his 2006 Tour de France title, in a 2-1 decision that took well over a year to complete. It's the first time the Tour de France has stripped a winner of their title over a drug offense, despite cycling's long-standing reputation as the dirtiest of pro sports ... http://www.cheatersguidetobaseball.com/2007/09/20/floyd-landis-and-the-future-of-baseball-drug-testing/ Howard Bryant, who wrote what I consider the best book on the steroids era in baseball ("Juicing the Game") has an article on ESPN that makes a bold assertion: However, what Mitchell's report must do most authoritatively -- and two seismic events last week confirm this necessity -- is conclude convincingly ... http://www.cheatersguidetobaseball.com/2007/09/14/howard-bryants-espn-article-on-steroids-and-the-mitchell-report/ I've been gleefully following the Patriots-Jets controversy, because it's interesting and because it brings out interesting contrasts in how the two sports handle this. Here's Chris Mortensen's ESPN story. The summary: the NFL took a camera and a videotape from a Patriots "video assistant" when they thought he was taping signals ... http://www.cheatersguidetobaseball.com/2007/09/11/football-cheating-goodness-patriots-in-trouble/