Well, Kolb shouldn't have been out there for a 2nd inning. The guy was shaky enough in the 9th that i don't know how Cox thought it would be a good idea to send him back for another inning. Bases loaded, no one out? Right. Even Steve Urkel could win the game at that point. More of this and i think Minneapolis native Chris Reitsma gets the ball in the 9th for a while. This bullpen is just in shambles and no one is hitting, except for Chipper. At this point of the season, it is no need to panic, but it does have Braves fans close to calling the nearest therapist.

Tonight is a big one: Hudson vs Clemens. Ouch. I'm pretty happy with the rotation thus far, with Smoltz' first outing an exception, along with Horacio Ramirez not being able to last 5 innings. Hampton looked fantastic last night and Hudson has been good thus far. I just don't know what to make of Houston at this point to even guess how tonights game is gonna go. Their lineup is iffy, at best, but Braves hitting could make the difference in this one.

I got ya one up on Romero though: John Rocker BALKING in the winning run a few years ago. Classic. I nearly broke my TV that night.

You do have me on that one. Anything involving John Rocker just sucks.

Ouch balking in the winning run, I don't believe I even see the Giants do that one. I've seen em balk in a run, but usually they're down by 3 or more at that point.

Speaking of balk...nice one by Contreras tonight.

If Juan Rincon really is on the juice, I will be heartbroken. I rent my garments and wept openly in the streets when I heard.

Why couldn't it have been Troy Percival?

I still wouldn't rule Percival out. Maybe that would explain the Cro-Magnum brow of his.

My lord, what will Twins fans yell at Bonds when he comes to town? (if he is off the DL) Certainly not "STEROIDS"!

That sucks, Donna. The Twins will be fine though. Like i told AJ, the World Series isn't decided by one reliever. Unless you are Mark Wohlers. Then again...Rincon flamed in Game 4 didn't he?

REGARDLESS...my babbling is senseless now....er....still.

I still hate Barry Bonds.

We can just yell "You're an asshole!" Because he is.
Don't think that I don't consider Rincon (if he is guilty) as much of a cheater as Bonds. I think any achievement he had with the Twins is now in question. I feel, to a much lesser degree, how I felt about Kirby when I found out he was a wife-beater. I DO expect professional athletes to uphold a higher personal standard than the average person. However, I have pretty high standards for myself, too, so it's not like I'm expecting them to do something I'm not. Except like hit homeruns and stuff.
That's why they get all that money. They are fortunate, there are so many millions of people who wish they could be in pro sports, but know they haven't a chance. If someone told me "Donna, we're going to pay you $500,000 a year, but you need to take care of yourself, work out, eat healthy, stay off drugs, and be kind to others," I'd be like fuck yeah. I mean, I stay off drugs FOR FREE. God.
My only concern with Rincon is what I have been hearing about what goes on in Central/South America with trainers and dietary supplements and stuff. Evidently the trainers will just say "sure it's fine" but it has god knows what in it. A LOT of the players getting caught are from Central/South America. This is different from Barry Bonds saying "I didn't know what was being put in me" because he never asked. This is more like, the ingredients are listed on the package so you think it's okay, but there are things in there that aren't listed.

I hope it was a false positive.

far be it for me to post on a baseball thread (ack) but I have to chime in on this.

Bonds seems to me to be one of the biggest pieces of shit on this planet. Not only does he make stupid decisions and stupid comments, but he also sits here and tries to chalk it all up to the media trying to keep the black man down. Sitting there making stupid comments like "You just couldn't be happy till you took me down. Well now you got what you wanted." or "This is all because I'm a successful black man. If I were white, I wouldn't be in this spotlight right now." to reporters. Oh yeah, it's all their fault now. It's not because you're bigger than half of the pro wrestlers out there, it's not because you put on 20 lbs of solid muscle since you started, it's not because there were several eye witnesses to you injecting yourself on multiple occasions, it's not because you were buying performance enhancers that you knew were, at very least, "questionable substances", it's not because you hit the ball harder than %70 of the batters in the game, it's just because you're black and the reporters want to rake you over the coals for no reason.

Right. grind that one up and you could fertilize the lawn with it.

And making stupid comments like "I never asked what was being put into me". Yeah, because we all know that superheros like Barry Bonds don't worry about illegal drugs like meth, heroin, steroids, or any other drug that may do his body harm. Hell, he was oblivious, right? He thought the gorilla looking motherfucker that sold this to him was selling him a vial of flu vaccine perhaps? Fuck, it coulda been Draino, he didn't know. right?

If the bullshit gets any deeper, we're gonna drown in it.

I guess my biggest bitch is this: In football and other high profile sports, players are screened a mandatory number of times each year, and that dosen't include suprise tests. Why is it that this was never instituted in baseball? we think that because it's the national pasttime it's too holy for anyone to do these kinds of things? I just dont get how it got this far before any backlash came out of it.

This will answer some questions:

2002

Before 2002, Major League Baseball had no official policy on steroid use among players. As part of a collective bargaining agreement, players and owners agree to hold survey testing in 2003. If more than 5% of results from the anonymous tests are positive, formal testing and penalties will be put into place the next year.

2003

• Baseball announces after the season that 5% to 7% of test results were positive, triggering the new policy in 2004.

2004

• Each player is tested once a year in season. A first positive test results in treatment, followed by a 15-day suspension for a second positive and up to a year suspension for a fifth positive. The result is no player is suspended for steroid use.

2005

• Baseball agrees to a new policy. Banned substances include steroids, steroid precursors, designer steroids, masking agents and diuretics. There will be one unannounced mandatory test of each player during the season. In addition, there will be testing of randomly selected players, with no maximum number. And there will be random testing during the offseason. The penalties for a positive result are, first positive, 10 days; second, 30 days; third, 60 days; fourth, one year, and all without pay.

The players union is a tricky bitch. They have to agree to any alterations in the Collective Bargaining Agreement or else no dice. They passed on the proposal for 50 games for first offense, 100 games for second and banned with third offense. I guess it is still being "considered" but who knows...

Really, i think both sides are fearing another strike and if that happens, regardless of whether or not people do steroids, it will ruin the game even more. It'd be tough to crawl out of the hole if that happened. Or at least that is speculation.

I dunno...if there WERE a more strict policy, maybe fans would feel the game is pure and come out to more games, if a strike were to happen. Hard to say, but i think Selig is just tip-toeing on glass right now.

From what I am reading in the papers these days, I am horrified at what is going on in Winter Ball, and it's also pretty sad to hear what David Ortiz said about people coming up when they are 16/17 years old and don't speak any English and they don't translate anything. I mean, I know Twins (esp. JC Romero) are always grabbing life by the horns and reading, but when they're being coached in a commercial and can only say "One thing really help me improve my life: reading," how are they supposed to understand what team reps are telling them, in English, about banned substances? Would you know if someone said "diuretic" to you in Spanish or German or something?

I think it is really indicative of a major communication gap in MLB that NEEDS TO BE FILLED. And what in the god damn hell is going on with winter ball, anyway?

The players union and players themselves need to take some responsibility. Learn fucking english. NOW we are finding out they can't read it...after they've done something wrong? What do you think John Kruk did when he went to Mexico to play winter ball and not being able to speak a spit of Spanish? Inject himself with god-knows-what? Drink and eat everything without a care? If you are taking ANY kind of drugs, you should know what you are taking. Juan is pulling the reverse racism card and i don't fucking buy it.

They provided a list of all the banned substances to players and if i am making $600,000 a year, i am gonna hire someone to translate or teach me english.

Well he's not really pulling the reverse-racism card, but actually the normal-way-racism card...

"Learn fucking English"
Um, yeah. You learn a language IMMEDIATELY. And not just the normal words like hello and bathroom, but big medical/scientific words. I mean, amphetamine, steroid, and diuretic aren't in Spanish I, why would they be in English I?

David Ortiz, who HASN'T done something wrong, discussed the struggles that many players have with speaking, reading, and listening to English. Like I said, some of them aren't even 18 years old yet, and it's not like we are getting the best and brightest in all cases. They are trusting their trainers, because why would the trainers lie to them?
Plus, the fact that some players can't speak a word of English should mean we aren't finding out NOW that players can't read the list of banned substances. I mean, they can't even read the fucking program. NO SHIT they can't read the list. It's just being drawn attention to now.

Imagine a player who doesn't speak English well going into a GNC or something to try to find a supplement or vitamin or something. I normally trust an employee at a store to know what they are talking about and be able to suggest something appropriate, but we all know that's not true. I mean, someone who speaks English WELL could go into a health food store and come out with something they think is ok, but is not ok.

How do you explain Rincon admitting that he was injected with an "unknown" substance? Couldn't he have just as well asked the team trainer what he was being injected with?

I agree with you on the language barrier, but still feel that people aren't taking responsibility. Sure, you can't learn english in 3 days, but ballplayers have enough $$ to hire a translator, lawyers and tudors. Ichiro can't speak a spit of english, but he carries 2-3 translators minimum.

What about Alex Sanchez? He can't speak english either. I didn't see him make any excuses...

I gotta agree with this comment. I agree that you aren't going to learn difficult medical terminology from english 1. But I also know that there are many, many different places you can go, from other spanish/american players who speak both languages, down to the public high school and find translators. IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THE LAW. If a cop pulls me over in Tailand for speeding, do you think he'll let me off for being an ignorant american who cant read the signs? fuck no! And I dont think it should be the league's responsibility to babysit these players that come from Mexico or Japan. Would we get our hand held and our noses wiped for us if we went to their country not knowing their language or their policies? again, I say, fuck no! If you want U.S. dollars, take some fucking responsibility, take some fucking initiative, and get your ass to someone who can help you understand the contract. If you just sign it, not knowing what you signed, it's your own fucking fault if you screw up.

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.