The Loss Column — Baltimore Sports Blog and Community

The smoking gun in the Barry Bonds saga might have finally been unearthed: the Feds are claiming that he failed a steroid test in 2000.

I was as> ready as everyone else to put this nonsense to rest, but evidence of a failed test completely changes the game. Barry Bonds is a stain on baseball, pure and simple. I really can’t see any credible argument to the contrary.

Camden Chat has a nice post up today about Miguel Tejada’s recent run of bad luck, and what it all means.

The CC post pretty covers everything I would. I have a great deal of sympathy (pity?) for Tejada. It’s completely out of line for the government to go hard after a guy who kinda sorta might have told a completely inconsequential lie.

At some point, the steroid investigation became baseball’s equivalent of red light cameras. It stopped having anything to do with the people it’s supposed to help (fans, players) and became all about gratifying the most venal urges of those in seats of power. Disgusting.

Hey, maybe AndyMac will trade Bedard today? Yeah?

Last night the Navy football team pulled off an impressive upset in beating the Pitt Panthers — in Pittsburgh — 48-45 in double overtime. It was the latest in a string of surprising college football results this year:

Appalachian State over Michigan
Stanford over USC
Kansas State over Texas
Colorado over Oklahoma
Auburn over Florida

It’s games like this that drive much of our collective love of sport. They reinforce the belief that on any given day the underdog can come up aces no matter how badly outmanned or outgunned he may be. We need that.

Except there’s one small problem: none of these games mattered.

Why? Because college football is the only supposedly-credible sport in America that doesn’t use on-field achievement to determine its champion. Instead, they rely on the whim and “expertise” of coaches, journalists, and computers.

The NCAA’s refusal to crown a D-1 champion through a playoff system is unconscionable, and nobody has ever made a credible argument to the contrary. You simply cannot find out who the best team is until the champions have been forced to prove themselves against other teams vying for the spot.

Imagine, for a moment, that other sports handled their business the way the NCAA does. You can kiss the Ravens‘ Super Bowl win goodbye — no poll would have had that team in the BCS “title game.” You can boot either the Rockies or Diamondbacks from this year’s MLB playoffs — the Mets were a “stronger” team from a “power” division.

George Mason’s run? Nope.

One could go on and on like this but it would quickly become silly. Therein lies the reason everyone else has a playoff system.

To deny quality teams and quality players a chance at the championship because they lost one game or played a “weak” schedule tells them that their effort is less valuable than the efforts of, say, a PAC-10 team that had a few more bounces and calls go their way.

On the flip side, none of the teams that have won it can truly look back and say with certaintly, “we were the best that year.” The present system cheats and disrespects not only the players who didn’t make it, but equally those that did.

It’s entirely possible that one of these days Paul Johnson is going to assemble a Navy team with enough talent and chemistry that they could probably manage a win against a USC or a Florida in a championship setting. But we will never, ever get a chance to find out.

It’s shameful.

Ever since Rafael Palmeiro got busted for juicing I think we’ve all had one question in the back of our minds: does it stop there?

The answer appears to be “nope.” SI.com is reporting that O’s outfielder Jay Gibbons is the latest ballplayer to get caught in the steroids investigation net.

This news, I’m guessing, surprises exactly none of you. Gibbons is practically a poster boy for steroid use, and the rumors have been around for several years. Of course it’s all still “alleged”, and we should remain willing to hear Jay’s explanation if he has one.

That said, let’s assume it’s true. If so it raises two major issues:

1. Is this it, or are there others?
The same question we had with Palmeiro can only get stronger now. Jerry Hairston, you’ll recall, has already been mentioned, and I’ve heard a thing or two about Larry Bigbie. But what if there’s another “big” name out there? What if Tejada’s infamous B-12 shots really were dirty? This could get real, real ugly.

2. What do the Orioles do with Gibbons now?
The easy answer is “put him on the next bus out.” But it’s not that simple. They could cut him and take the financial hit, or they could try to wiggle out of his contract if the allegations prove true. But if they do that it’s going to set a terrible precedent, one that I doubt the Players Union would take sitting down. We may very well be facing the prospect of a steroid-tainted Gibbons suiting up for the O’s through the 09 season.

Nothing surprises me anymore.

You all know how I feel about Barry Bonds, and I’m not sure there’s any great desire around here to talk about him. But he broke the record last night, and it’s Big News.

Here’s a Bonds Open Thread. Feel free to post thoughts, links, etc. in the comments.

So, so glad this is over.

Hello, everyone - Dan the Man here. Many thanks to Neal for allowing me to take the reins for a short time. Should be great fun and I’ll do my best to not burn the place down.

As he said, Neal leaves TLC during a time when the three largest American sports are all in a bit of a pickle. Mostly, this isn’t any big surprise. I think we’re all used to the fact that sports consist not only of drama on the field of play, but also off. That said, it’s hard to think of a time when the MLB, NFL, and NBA produced such shameful behavior simultaneously. Here they are, in order of shamefulness, #1 being the most shameful:

1. The NFL and Michael Vick: All sports will have their problem players and legal scandals because sports are inherently based on talent first, and character second (or third, or fourth). Even so, when an allegation such as dogfighting arises in one of the leagues most talented athletes, it’s still shocking. Couple that with the gruesome details of the indictment, and that shock turns to disgust. I’m not a huge football guy, but I’m prepared to ignore the NFL altogether if this guy plays this year. Bottom line: You can’t torture animals for monetary gain and enjoyment and play football.

2. The NBA and Tim Donaghy: David Stern’s tepid press conference, in which he appeared defeated, left many NBA fans a little unimpressed. By all accounts, Stern is a good guy who is perhaps just a little too focused on teaching the NBA some manners. But in a time when technical-foul-leading referee, Tim Donaghy, a “rogue, isolated criminal”, may have skewed the NBA Playoffs because of betting, giving inside information, and point-shaving, you expect your commish to lay down the law with some fervor. A shameful event for the NBA, one that surprisingly doesn’t involve its players for once. Phoenix should have won, damnit.

3. The MLB and Barry Bonds (and Bud Selig): Hey, how about that! The MLB gets a break on the shame list - with all this other news going on, the by-gone steroids era doesn’t look so bad now. What does look bad is all this wishy-washy behavior by commissioner Bud Selig. Unlike David Stern, who is at least kind of charming, Bud is a complete stiff and, if I may, a joke. First it was, “Well, I don’t know if I’m going to attend, probably not, it depends…” Now he’s saying, in a moment of revelation while watching the Giants game, that he will travel to San Fran to watch a great moment in baseball history. Oh, but then, see, he’s got to catch the Cal and Tony induction, so maybe he’ll miss it, but if not he’ll probably rejoin the Giants afterwards….. DUDE. It’s either, “I won’t be attending because of my personal opinions towards Barry and the steroid allegations” or “Of course I will be with the Giants every step of the way to witness great baseball history.” I guess either way, he either looks like a hypocrite for being around during the steroid era and having a negative opinion of Barry, or a joke for believing that Barry breaking the HR record is a legitimate achievement. It’s tough to be the commish.

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Barry Bonds hit home run #751 tonight, leaving him four shy of tying Hammerin’ Hank Aaron’s career home run record. At some point this year, barring injury, he will break that record. Much has already been said on the issue. There’s much more yet to come.

For the most part, the arguments break down along two lines. Those opposed to Barry claim that he’s a cheater who doesn’t deserve the record or its attendant accolades. Those in favor of Barry claim that he’s always been a great player and a great hitter, and that there’s no definitive proof he did steroids (which is to say there’s no failed test). A less potent third opinion holds that Bonds probably did cheat but so did many other players, so we shouldn’t single Barry out.

Each argument has flaws. It’s true that Barry is a great player and that he’s far from the only person suspected of cheating. And yet it’s also true that he used performance enhancing drugs. I don’t need a failed test to make that declaration because there’s plenty of other evidence. Anyone who denies that evidence has either taken leave of common sense or earned a law degree.

As for the argument that we’re singling Barry out, so what? We single him out because he’s the best. It’s no different than when we heap praise on big-name players in big markets while equally skilled players in places like Kansas City or Oakland languish in relative anonymity. The pack leader gets the attention, good or bad.

For my part, the sentiment is simply this: screw Barry Bonds. I’d love nothing more than for him to suffer a career-ending injury the next time he takes the field. If that sounds harsh then so be it. I don’t like the guy, I don’t like how he conducts himself, and I don’t like his game.

But I have to admit: he’ll get the record, and it will be his free and clear. When the 2008 record book comes out it’ll have Barry in the top spot and Hank solidly entrenched at number two. The drama will be over.

Baseball stands alone among American sports in the degree to which it reveres its numbers. We do that because numbers are a huge part of what makes the game enjoyable. Whenever someone carries a hit streak past 30 it’s fun to talk about that immortal 56. When someone like Craig Biggio gets 3,000 hits it’s fun to look at that achievement in context of other guys who’ve done it.

But maybe we get a bit carried away. Maybe we need to start balancing that love of numbers with a little bit more focus on the people who produce them.

Bonds will be no more or less a prick and a pariah after he hits 756. Likewise, Cal Ripken didn’t become a better person when he passed Lou Gehrig. If/when Alex Rodriguez passes Bonds, he’ll still be A-Rod, love him or hate him. And the numbers will still serve the same function: to provide counterpoints and context, and to give us something against which to measure everyone else.

Bud Selig doesn’t need to put an asterisk next to Bonds’ name. It’s there if you want to see it.

We like to keep the coverage pretty diverse around here. A little tennis or NASCAR here, some cricket there, plenty of broad-based football and baseball talk all around. One thing we almost never talk about, though, is college football. That’s because it blows.

Not the games or the teams or the players, mind. Nothing but love there. But the system under which they labor simply blows, and there is no more delicate way to state it.

It’s so bad, in fact, that I had all but sworn not to touch the BCS this year. It’s so weighted down by fraud and whim that it barely merits serious discussion. The BCS is to a credible championship system as William Hung is to Hotel California…or something.

For proof — should anyone, somehow, still need it — one need only look at the season-ending polls that came out today, which rank Boise State 5th (AP) and 6th (coaches). My best guesses as to how that ranking was decided include the use of a divining rod, rolling a set of eight-sided dice, throwing darts at a map, and Magic 8 Ball. Why not? Any one of those methods would be 100% as reasonable a way to determine final rankings as the bowl system, and in fact might arguably end up being more accurate.

Championship by committee is championship in name only. Florida hasn’t earned a damn thing that wasn’t also earned by Boise State, USC, LSU, and a handful of other teams. Namely, the right to continue playing until they are elminated in a playoff format. This year, we have once and for all proof that the system is irreparably mangled: not one but two major upsets in “BCS Games”, and yet one of the winners gets the “National Championship” while the other is designated the 5th (or 6th?) best team in the country.

But hey, good for you, Flordia fans. I wish you the best as you enjoy both your empty championship and the fact that you have an unattractive woman on your men’s basketball team. Rock on.