Stone Cold Bloggin', 12/14/07

It sounds like Andy Pettitte has come clean about his use of Human Growth Hormone saying that he used it twice in 2002 to speed up his recovery from an elbow injury. I'm not entirely surprised at Pettitte's admission. By all accounts, he's a decent guy and probably sensitive to whatever criticism was continuing to fester until he answered the allegations in the Mitchell Report. Good for him for admitting it, apologizing to those who feel like they needed an apology, and moving on.

How this effects his legacy remains to be seen. I think the public will be forgiving, especially when you juxtapose Pettitte's accountability next to others' silence or denials (more on that in a minute). As for the Hall of Fame, Pettitte was a borderline case even before all of this came up. His stats and accomplishments are very similar to Curt Schilling's, and Pettitte probably will end up pitching a few more years than Schilling (and presumably pile up more wins). (That's not to say that Schilling is a definite Hall of Famer, but I think people debate about Schilling's inclusion more than they do Pettitte and my point is that if you think Schilling is a Hall of Famer, then Pettitte is right there, too.)

The juicier subplot in Pettitte's admission is what this does to his BFF, Roger Clemens. Clemens' denial is pretty steadfast in that it appears he is saying that the Mitchell Report is bunk and that he hasn't taken steroids or any performance enhancing drugs at all. EVER. It also paints Brian McNamee as sort of a government rat, trying to avoid federal prosecution by throwing Clemens under the bus. Now Pettitte is essentially validating the couple of pages in the Mitchell Report that pertained to him, and along with it he is validating McNamee, at least as pertains to his dealings with him. So are we to believe that McNamee was telling the truth about his dealings with Pettitte, but was completely fabricating everything about Clemens? That's a hard one to swallow. I'm not indicting Roger yet, but one more big brick in the wall fell out today.

Also, I found David Justice's appearence on the Colin Cowherd show on Friday quite hilarious. If you didn't hear it, Justice spent the entire appearance trying to refute the allegations in the Mitchell Report, which consisted of Kirk Radomski selling him HGH after the 2000 World Series, and Justice discussing HGH with Brian McNamee during his time with the Yankees. Part of Justice's self-defense consisted of basically trash talking himself, citing his shitty performance in 2001 (.246, 18 HR, 51 RBI in 111 games) as proof that there's no way he could've been on any performance-enhancing drugs. I just found it very humorous that for years some players have campaigned for their inclusion in the Baseball Hall of Fame by citing their superior stats, and now in 2007 we have players citing their dog shit stats to try and gain figurative exclusion from the Mitchell Report. Strange days, indeed.

Ok, now onto some time wasters for all of you ....

LINKS (I won't sleep until one of you gets fired)

• Anna Rawson, Aussie model and golfer, just qualified for the LPGA! Women's golf just became more watchable. [Golf Now]
• A study at BYU (!) indicates that young women are more accepting of porn. (And in a related story, applications for admission at BYU quadruple.) [Salt Lake City Tribune]
• An interesting angle on Kevin Young's steroid use. (Damn, whatever happened to that guy?) [Where is Andy Van Slyke]
• ADDICTIVE GAME ALERT - If you get fired for playing this nine hours a day at work, don;t blame me. I warned you. [The Map Game]
• The 33 best Beer Pong tables ever created. Totally sweet. [Pongalong]
• Jerry Jones interhects himself into the Arkansas coaching search. (Satire alert) [College Game Balls]
• The 9 Most Humiliating Sports Moments on video. [Holy Taco]

VIDEO (as if the drunk chick post below wasn't enough)

BEFORE THEY WERE STARS EDITION!!!

DICK VITALE
Check out Dick Vitale back in 1986! I believe the thick windows attached to his head are his glasses. It's strange seeing him so calm and measured in his analysis. If you've ever wondered what 2007 Dickie V would be like if were sedated in a dentist's chair, go ahead and play this video. (Youtube disabled embedding this video into my blog so click here to view it.)

SIMON COWELL
Before he became the resident curmudgeon on "American Idol", Simon Cowell was a contestant on the UK version of "Sale of the Century". I have to admit, dude is pretty smooth and in control even back then. (They've disabled embedding on this video, too -- what are you people afraid of?? -- anyway, click here to watch it.)

TIGER WOODS
A two year old Tiger Woods shows up on the Mike Douglas Show and whacks one 300 yards down the middle (or however far back the stage went). This clip is only 36 seconds long so it leaves out the part where he makes out with a two year old Elin Nordegren afterwards.





MATT LEBLANC
This is supposedly a Heinz ketchup commercial that LeBlanc did before he became Joey on "Friends", but this is so stupid I think it may have actually been an episode of "Friends".





Now get back to work!!