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The St. Louis Cardinals agreed to a one year deal with hitting coach Mark McGwire and a two year deal with pitching coach Dave Duncan.

Tony La Russa and Mark McGwire look on from the dugout in the ninth inning at Minute Maid Park on August 31, 2010. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Mark McGwire is coming back to the St. Louis Cardinals.

The team said Monday that McGwire has agreed to a one-year deal after making his debut as the Cardinals hitting coach last season. Terms were not disclosed.

The Cardinals also said pitching coach Dave Duncan has agreed to a two-year deal, with a mutual option for 2013. The 65-year-old Duncan has been in the Cardinals dugout with manager Tony La Russa for the past 15 seasons.

La Russa reached a new one-year deal with the team last week.

Besides McGwire, the team reached one-year deals with first-base coach Dave McKay, third-base coach Jose Oquendo and bench coach Joe Pettini.

Copyright Associated Press

Here is one of the articles I wrote after the interview:

Dave McKay: Baseball’s hardest worker

By Kevin Glew

He might be baseball’s most unlikely “lifer.”

Raised in a hockey-mad country without playing organized baseball until he was 11, Dave McKay’s road to big leagues was anything but typical.

“People ask me why I didn’t play high school baseball? Well, my high school didn’t have a baseball team,” said McKay, who was born in Vancouver and attended Sir Charles Tupper High School.

Now in his fourth decade in Major League baseball, the 2001 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductee and St. Louis Cardinals first-base coach says he only suited up for about a dozen games a year while growing up in B.C.

Small and thin as a teen, McKay was a talented shortstop, but few scouts visiting his region in the mid-to-late ’60s were coveting infielders. Fortunately, McKay’s older brother, Alex, recognized his potential and pushed him to succeed.

“Alex was really helpful and kept me focussed. And it’s got to the point where my work ethic is probably what has kept me around for so long as a coach. I just became the guy that worked harder than everyone else,” said McKay.

Now 58 years old, the Canuck coach is in better shape than most players. He’s upbeat, energetic and modest, and his hard work has earned him considerable respect in the baseball fraternity.

Hard work also earned McKay a scholarship to Columbia Basin Junior College in Pasco, Wash., in 1969, where he starred for their baseball team for two years, before he was awarded another scholarship to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

Being a Canadian, McKay was not eligible for the major league draft at that time. So after a year at Creighton, he decided to play summer ball in Wichita, Kansas. On June 20, 1971, he inked a deal with the Minnesota Twins that included a $10,000 signing bonus.

McKay was called up by the big club in August 1975. Before McKay left the Twins minor league team in Tacoma, player-coach Rick Renick, who had belted a home run in his first big league at bat, jokingly told the young Canuck that he expected him to do the same. So fittingly on August 22, 1975, McKay knocked the second pitch – a slider from Tigers hurler, Vern Ruhle – out of the park in his first at bat.

That home run ball now resides at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and McKay remains the only Canuck to homer in their first big league at bat.

McKay would spend another partial season with the Twins, before being selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1976 expansion draft. Excited to be back in his home country, McKay was the only Canadian in the Jays’ starting lineup in their first game on April 7, 1977.

“It was a really, really cold day. It was probably the coldest day I’ve ever played on. We had snow the night before and that morning they had to take the snow off the field,” he recalled.

The Jays, of course, defeated the Chicago White Sox 9-5 in that inaugural contest and McKay recorded the game-winning RBI.

After two more seasons in Toronto, he signed with the Oakland A’s in 1980, where he played for Billy Martin. Oakland finished with the best record in the American League in the strike-shortened, 1981 campaign under the volatile manager. In the postseason that year, McKay would homer in the final game of the American League Division Series to help the A’s defeat the Kansas City Royals.

After another season in Oakland, McKay spent the 1983 campaign as a player-coach in the A’s minor league system. He was hired as a coach by the big league club in 1984.

When Tony La Russa was named the A’s manager during the 1986 campaign, McKay retained his position with the club. He has now worked on La Russa’s staff for 23 years – and moved with the renowned skipper to St. Louis in 1996. Working under La Russa, McKay has been a part of two World Series-winning teams.

“Obviously the World Series we won in Oakland in 1989 was the first time, and that was really exciting. We kind of redeemed ourselves for the year before when we got beat by the Dodgers,” he said.

But the 2006 championship with the Cards was equally sweet.

“We had five rookies on that team and we had five released players, including Scott Spiezio, Preston Wilson, Jeff Weaver, Josh Hancock, Jorge Sosa and Jose Vizcaino,” he said. “So to walk into that locker room and see all of these guys soaked in champagne, wrapped around a World Championship trophy, when just less than a month or so ago some of them had their hearts ripped out of their chests telling them they were released, was special.”

A personal highlight for McKay was his induction into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001. With his brother, Alex, and wife, Lene, in the audience, McKay delivered a heartfelt and emotional speech.

One question McKay is often asked is, if he has aspirations to be the first full-time Canadian major league manager since George Gibson (who piloted the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1934)?

“I really enjoy coaching. I really enjoy being on the field and working with the guys and I think that’s what I was destined to be,” he said.

1976 Topps - Card #592 – AKA – ‘The Willie Randolph Rookie Card’

Willie Randolph – A six-time All-star and winner of 1 Silver Slugger trophy, Willie Randolph enjoyed a very successful 18-season major league career.  A solid defender at second base, Randolph used his speed as a weapon on both defense and offense.  A lifetime .276 hitter, Randolph collected 2,210 hits while scoring 1,239 runs, stealing 271 bases, and even homering 54 times.  Randolph played in 4 World Series contests, ultimately winning the prize in 1977 with the New York Yankees.

Dave McKay – An 8-year veteran, Dave McKay suited up for three different teams during his playing days.  Used as a second baseman, third baseman, and shortstop, McKay was a strong defender and played well in a utility role.  McKay’s career numbers include 441 hits, 191 runs scored, 21 home runs, and 170 RBI.

Jerry Royster - Royster’s career spanned 16 seasons.  A skilled athlete, Royster played every defensive position with the exception of first base and catcher.  During his career, Royster amassed a batting average of .249.  He tallied 1,049 hits alongside 552 runs scored, 189 steals, 165 doubles, and 352 RBI. 

Roy Staiger - Staiger played just 4 years in the big leagues, all of them in New York.  Spending 3 years with the Mets and then 1 with the Yankees, Staiger was able to see life from both sides as a big leaguer in ‘The Big Apple’.  He compiled a .228 batting average while appearing in 152 games.  In total, Staiger amassed 104 hits, scored 42 runs, smacked 4 home runs, and drove in 38 RBI.

Many of the images in Trackside Around Western Ohio 1965-1995 with Dave McKay were captured in Marion, which many in the Buckeye State would consider to be in central, not western Ohio. Likewise, many would not consider Mansfield, Crestline, Galion, Columbus or New London to be in western Ohio, either. Yet photographs taken in those places show up throughout this book.

Be that as it may, author Stephen M. Timko has done an admirable job of assembling images from McKay’s collection to show railroading in the western half of Ohio in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which is the dominant time frame covered in this work. All of the images are sharp, properly exposed and interesting to ponder. You can’t say that about every Morning Sun book. This book does well in reflecting the type of photographer that Dave was. And he was pretty good.

The book presents a nice range of images of fallen flags Erie Lackawanna, Penn Central, New York Central, Pennsylvania, Baltimore & Ohio and Chesapeake & Ohio. Modern day carriers CSX and Norfolk Southern get their due along with the late, great Conrail. There are images of such short line and regional carriers as the Ann Arbor, Detroit & Toledo Shore Line, and Toledo Terminal Railroad. The majority of the photographs, though, feature class 1 railroads.

If you like cab units, you will want to pick up this book. Dave photographed a generous array of such locomotives in the 1960s on freight and passenger trains. There are plenty of first- and second-generation diesels on display as well.

Beyond rolling stock, the book pays some tribute to stations and towers that are no more. In particular, the book shows how much the landscape has changed at Marion. Preservationists in that city, where four mainlines once intersected, have saved the union passenger station and AC tower, but much of what was once there is now gone.

This is the fourth Trackside title issued by Morning Sun that features the photography of McKay, who died in December 2004, and the third authored by Timko. The first title focused on the Cleveland region with the text and captions written by McKay himself. Timko wrote the second title, which examined Youngstown, and the third book, which had eastern Ohio as its focus.

This book follows the standard Morning Sun slide show in a book format. The text is minimal other than the captions. Timko makes the best of it to provide an overview of what railroads operated in the region, what traffic they carried and where their tracks ran. He does well in identifying locomotive models and giving a bit of history about select noteworthy units.

McKay, who served as president of the Akron Railroad Club for 12 years, was a prolific photographer and Morning Sun likely will issue additional Trackside books featuring his photographs. For those who knew Dave, reading this book is akin to spending a pleasant evening in his living room looking at slides from his vast collection. For others, it will be a journey back to an era of railroading that no longer exists. Oh, what some might give to be able to go back to those days. You can’t do that, but this book can take you there.

Trackside Around Western Ohio 1965-1995 With Dave McKay is available from book dealers and on line at the Morning Sun Web site at www.morningsunbooks.com. The cover price is $59.95.

Reviewed by Craig Sanders

A Canadian National locomotive leads CSX train Q386 eastward through Berea on April 4, 2009, during the fifth annual Akron Railroad Club Dave McKay Day outing. It was one of more than 40 trains that ARRC members spotted during the event. (Photograph by Richard Thompson)

Sunny skies and blustery winds greeted the 14 Akron Railroad Club members who turned out on Saturday, April 4 for the fifth annual Dave McKay Day at Berea. They were treated to a steady parade of trains on Norfolk Southern and CSX with more than 40 trains passing through Berea during the time that club members were on hand.

Rick Houck was the first to arrive at 6:45 a.m. followed by Richard Thompson not long after that. However, most members did not get there until late morning or early afternoon. Skies were a mixture of sun and clouds during the morning, but by noon mostly sunny skies had arrived.

Perhaps the most notable operation of the day was when an eastbound coal train parked in the Berea siding on NS and the power, both BNSF units, cut away from the train and eased down to the former BE tower to take on water in the trailing unit. Because the train was bound for the Cleveland Line, an NS unit came out to be theleader because foreign locomotives are not
equipped with a cab signal apparatus suitable for the line.

The annual outing to Berea, held on the first Saturday in April, is in memory of the late Dave McKay, who served as president of the ARRC for 12 years before stepping down in December 2004. The club raised money in 2005 for a plaque to be placed at Berea to memorialize Dave, who often could be found at Berea year around watching and photographing trains before his death in late December 2004.

The following is a list of trains seen by club members with the locomotive power in parenthesis. In instances of just one unit being shown, that was the lead locomotive.

Listed below is a compilation of trains that passed through Berea on Saturday as compiled by Richard Thompson.

 E940 – BNSF 5738 – 7:30 AM
M6N – NS 9168 – 7:40 AM
Q140 – CSXT 4738 – 7:50 AM
20Q – NS 9702 – 8:00 AM
Q380 – CSXT 8018 – 8:15 AM
Q386 – CN 5718/SOO 6027 – 8:25 AM
N859 – BNSF 6049 – 8:40 AM
Q123 – CSXT 7789 – 8:45 AM
20R – NS 9847 – 8:55 AM
Q164 – CSXT 7561 – 9:00 AM
23K – NS N/A – 9:00 AM
Q364 – CSXT 802 – 9:15 AM
20G – NS N/A – 9:15 AM
21T – NS 7512 – 9:45 AM
Q377 – CSXT 7696 – 10:00 AM
16N – NS 9490 – 10:30 AM
20E – NS 7632 – 11:00 AM
262 – NS 2734 – 11:15 AM
205 – NS 2752 – 11:20 AM
206 – NS 9653 – 11:40 AM
Q393 – CSXT 7853 – 11:50 AM
V771 – UP 5892 – 12:20 PM
Q351 – UP 5200 – 12:40 PM
261 – NS 2616 – 12:40 PM
20K – NS 9406 – 12:50 PM
Q365 – CSXT 158 – 1:10 PM
145 – NS 7699 – 1:25 PM
??? – NS 8327 – 1:30 PM
416 (PWR) – BNSF 6231 – 1:40 PM
X416 (PWR) – NS 5825 – 2:00 PM
17E – NS 9342 – 3:00 PM
LGT PWR – NS 9363 – 3:30 PM
Q110 – CSXT 5495 – 3:30 PM
416 – NS 5825 – 3:40 PM
16E – NS 8424 – 3:55 PM
25Z – NS 9205 – 4:15 PM
Q161 – CSXT 553 – 4:45 PM
M8A – NS 9972 – 5:00 PM
Q109 – CSXT 5499 – 5:15 PM
Q263 – CSXT 7916 – 5:40 PM

The following list was compiled by Steve McMullen.

13:14  E/B  NS  20K (TOFC)
NS  9406
NS  2771
 
13:25  E/B  NS  20E  (TOFC)
NS  9970
NS  2768
 
13:35  W/B CSXT  Q365  (MIXED FRT)
CSXT  158
CSXT  224
 
13:52  W/B  NS  145  (MIXED FRT)
NS  7699
NS  2550
 
13:54  W/B NS  ?SYM?  (MIXED FRT)
NS  8357
NS  5416  (Conrail Blue)
 
14:00  E/B  NS  416  (COAL LOADS)
BNSF  6231
BNSF  5915 (had low water, cut away from train and watered at BE twr)
(Departed Berea at 15:18 – added leader: NS 5825 (CSS equipped GP38-3!)
 
14:24  W/B NS  LITE PWR
NS  5825  (New CSS leader GP38-3 for outbound 416)
 
15:00  W/B  NS  11V 
NS  9342
NS  9154
 
15:07  W/B  NS  LITE PWR
NS  9363
NS  9288
 
15:09  E/B  CSXT  Q110  (TOFC)
CSXT  5495
CSXT  5425
CSXT       3
CSXT  7922
CSXT  7324
 
15:30  E/B  CSXT  Q122  (TOFC)
CSXT     26
CSXT  7712
 
15:46  E/B  NS  16E  (MIXED FRT)
NS   8424
NS   9507
 
15:52  W/B  NS  ?SYM?  (TOFC)
NS  2757
NS  2638
 
**Dinner Break!, Front Street Tavern, 15:55 – 17:18**
 
17:19  W/B  CSXT  Q161  (TOFC)
CSXT  553
CSXT  522
 
17:23  E/B  NS  M8A (MIXED FRT)
NS  9972
NS  9275
NS  2662
 
17:47  W/B  CSXT  Q109  (TOFC)
CSXT  5499
CSXT  7682
CSXT  5432
 
18:00  W/B  CSXT  Q263  (MIXED FRT)
CSXT  7916
CSXT  7691
 
Some of the symbols may be missing, or wrong,
thank the crews who don’t properly call signals!

ARRC members gathered for a group protrait by the Dave McKay memorial. Kneeling are (from left) Richard Thompson and Marty Surdyk. Standing are (from left) Paul Woodring, Dave Mangold, Alex Bruchac, Craig Sanders, Steve McMullen, Clint Ensworth, Peter Bowler and Dennis Taksar. (Photograph by Tim Krogg)

What better way to start my blogging life than with a story about the only Canadian to play for the Blue Jays in their first game. Vancouver native Dave McKay, who’s now the first-base coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, played third base for the Blue Jays on that snowy opening day on April 7, 1977. Here’s a link to an article I wrote for MLB.com that discusses McKay’s unlikely baseball odyssey:

All anyone is doing by parroting that talk is attempting to bullshit you, me, and anyone else who might be listening or watching. So, when you hear that come from someone’s mouth and they are alleged to be an insider or an expert – turn off to them. Stop listening because they are, at least – and I’m being ultra kind here, uninformed.

Sunday, on ESPN’s Outside the Lines show, Bob Ley narrated and moderated a solid segment on the history of the culture of steroids in Major League Baseball. The enigmatic former Cincinnati Reds and Florida marlins trainer, Larry Starr was interviewed. As he had in previous interviews for newspapers, Starr told of his experiences in trying to bring steroid abuse problems to the attention of MLB executives during the 1989 MLB Winter Meetings. He also talked of a player who gained 30 pounds of muscle in one winter – from 165 pounds to 195 pounds – and feeling at that moment that baseball had a “problem” with steroids.

Baseball players in the segment like Atlanta Braves pitcher Tom Glavine made excuses for steroid abuse:

“What goes on in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse. That’s the culture of the game. And it doesn’t matter if the guy has a drinking problem or guys are doin’ drugs, or whether guys are doin’ things in their marriages they shouldn’t be doin. You just don’t discuss that.

If they’re going out there and performing, then there’s reason for everybody in the whole chain-of-command to not worry about what’s goin’ on or at least not explore so much what’s goin’ on.”

In other words, Glavine, as do almost every other MLB player, engages in “the code of silence.” It is a code that can only bring with it negative outcomes. It is the code that must be broken by policemen when they expose graft in their department. It is the code that must be broken by politicos to expose lies in the government. It is the code that must be broken by corporate employees when those they work for willfully entwine themselves in illegal acts that negatively impact the public.

The code of silence is self-centered construct that is one of the many manifestations of the psychopathic nature of the corporation that so dominates American life. Glavine’s admission should be viewed as a self-indictment and an indictment on every Major League Baseball player or coach or who abides by its malfeasant principles, like ————- St. Louis Cardinals manager, Tony LaRussa.

The George Will-anointed “genius” of baseball is degenerate enough to turn a blind eye to the goings-on of his players, indulge in ill-advised behavior of his own, be smug enough to smirk and evoke American principles of freedom when questioned about such issues:

“There was not the first mistake or illegality in the Oakland A’s program or here in St, Louis, not when Dave McKay [ran the weight training program in Oakland and St, Louis for Tony LaRussa] was running it. That’s why I’m so staunchly defending the Oakland A’s program and everyone who was on it.”

And when asked if he should have checked his players more closely, in full, pompous conceit, LaRussa replied:

“This is America – not a police state”

Former general manager for the Baltimore Orioles and New York Mets Jim Duquette was asked a crucial question by ESPN reporter T.J. Quinn. A lead investigative sports reporter at the New York Daily News on the PED beat, Quinn came to ESPN in the fall of last year to spearhead their new investigative sports news division. Quinn asked Duquette whether “anyone thought the conversations he and other GMs had were morally or ethically wrong.” In short Duquette’s answer was no.

Minutes later in Ley’s report there was one preciously illuminating moment provided by statements from Quinn himself that leads directly back to his query to Duquette and every other mainstream reporter who has weighed in on the steroid issue, save a few:

“Bud Selig said they were going to have an investigation into what andro (androstenedione) was. They hired an endocrinologist from Harvard University [in 1999] who did a study…”

Here Quinn laughs sardonically before continuing:

“But that same winter you had the medical directors from both Major League Baseball and the Player’s Association speak to clubs at the Winter Meetings and gave what people there said was a pro-testosterone speech. Said that there were definite benefits to it; that they should consider informing the player’s about the benefits and dangers. There were people who left that meeting shocked that that was the opinion of the two top medical people in the game.”

This is where there the unfathomable disconnect between writers like Quinn and other of his ilk with reality occurs. It is here where Quinn and the many like him stop – for whatever reason(s) – short in their investigative work and cease in aiding the conversation about performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and sound more like propagandists. The result is that they fail to educate their peers, fail the public, and even fail lawmakers who, in part, rely on their countless hours spent close to the subject of PEDs for direction.

There is scientific evidence upon which Quinn can use responsibly explore the issue of steroids. There was apparently a study that was conducted by the medical directors from MLB and the MLBPA and, of course, there is the study conducted by Dr. Norman Fost. Fost’s findings on the subject of steroids and his feelings about baseball and steroids bear repeating:

Fost, in an interview in Steroid Law, discusses steroids and their potentially harmful effects:

RC (Rick Collins): So, there isn’t any scientific proof that the short-term changes that are common with intermittent steroid cycles are connected to heart disease?

NF (Norm Fost): Correct, and the cardiologists that I have talked with think that it’s unlikely that it would be. Many steroid risks have been wildly exaggerated or misstated in the press. Take the famous interview with Lyle Alzado, the NFL player who developed a brain tumor and claimed, “See? This is what happens when you use anabolic steroids for too long.” Nowhere in the article was there a single reference or scientific source for any connection between steroids and brain tumors, because there is none. These stories appear in the leading journalistic media, creating the false impression that the claims are somehow supported by scientific studies.

RC: Have the media fairly put the risks in perspective of other risks that athletes voluntarily assume?

NF: No, not at all. For example, playing in the NFL for three years or more risks an extremely high rate – 80 to 90% in one study – of permanent disability. That’s unfortunate, but it goes with the territory and nobody says this is a reason to ban professional football. It’s something that competent adults decide to do in exchange for the money, glory and pleasure that they get out of it. We don’t think, in America, that people’s liberty to take risks like that should be interfered with, just so long as they are not harming anyone else. Whatever the risks of steroids, even the most extravagant view of the risks isn’t remotely in that category in terms of potential for permanent disability or even death. There have been dozens of deaths attributed to playing football. I’m not aware of any football players who have died because of steroid use.

RC: What about critics who argue that the adverse effects of steroids won’t be seen or known for years, decades, or even generations?

NF: That’s an argument that can be made about any drug, any food, or any device that uses a new technology. It’s a reason why we have regulations; why we have an FDA that requires careful testing, and NIH funding for long-term studies. It’s a reason to do continuous monitoring of drugs’ effects, for having an adverse event reporting system, and for having people using these drugs under medical supervision. Everything has unknown risks. Steroids are no different. The mere fact that there are unknown risks is not a reason to prohibit something.

In a San Francisco Chronicle column by Joan Ryan about steroids hysteria Fost rebukes the nature of the information concerning steroids and castigates Major League Baseball:

“There’s mass hysteria [about steroids] because of sheer misinformation…”

“If baseball is so concerned about level playing fields, then why is George Steinbrenner’s (New York Yankees) payroll six times bigger than my Milwaukee Brewers’?…”One wonders, then, about all the beer ads at baseball parks. What kind of message does baseball’s celebration of beer send to teenagers? Unlike steroids, alcohol kills 75,000 people a year in the United States.

“Not only are players not screened for alcohol, it’s embraced and advertised,” Fost says. “Baseball is delighted to be in cahoots with the alcohol industry.”

“Sheer misinformation” is what Quinn and others spread to anyone who cares about PEDs and their relationship to athletes and sports.

It is unconscionable for Quinn not to report, at least, the “how did they come to this” of the findings by the MLB and MLBPA medical directors. It is reprehensible for Quinn to fail to heed – if he even acknowledges its existence – of the HBO Real Sports program, “A Contrarian View,” that aired in late June-early July of 2005.

Quinn is a second-generation disinformation artist. He takes his cue from a much younger Armen Keteyian who was largely responsible for beginning the late-20th hysteria about steroids some 20 years ago in his article written as a sordid eulogy for ex-NFLer Lyle Alzado. And almost 20 years after his screed he sat in front of Dr. Fost and apologized for being an accidental progenitor of the same type of disinformation Quinn – and those who do the same as him – spreads today. Almost 20 years later Keteyian sat in front of virulent anti-steroids buff, Gary Wadler, formerly of the world Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), and found that Wadler had no scientific evidence to back his claims that steroids were the evil he claimed they were; found that Wadler had no idea that Fost’s work existed. Sadly, Wadler was reduced to pathetic phrases like, you’re playing Russian roulette with your health, and why would you take a chance using them even if they aren’t harmful?

Here we are, with scientific evidence before us in the way of a peer-reviewed study that clearly shows that steroids taken under a physician’s care have no deleterious effects on healthy males over the age of 25 and that every male, because of a natural reduction in the amount of testosterone produced by the body, should take monthly injections of steroids to lead a healthier life – and the study is shunned like an “amulet” – that was actually nothing more than a pendant – might have been during the Salem witch trials.

Like those trials, we have Barry Bonds as the man who would be crushed under heavy stones for maybe – or not – practicing the fine art of witchcraft and allegedly lying about his practice. And Quinn and Howard Bryant and Shaun Assael with his fallacious beginnings for modern steroid use (for a truncated version of the actual beginnings in the U.S., click here) and his account of the “war on steroids,” and the dynamic duo of Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams are nothing more than modern-day versions of Reverend Cotton Mather. And what then of Congress? They are the white wig-wearing magistrates who now have Roger Clemens prone under the weight of the heavy stones, readying him for a place next to Bonds.

It is easy to dismiss the words written here as those of an “outsider.” However, to turn a blind eye and deaf ear to noted and accomplished writers like Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post, says that there is something deeper at stake here, some kind of gambit on the “grand chessboard” of Zbigniew Brzezinski that we are missing.

Perhaps it will serve as a better reminder of the issues if the end is served by Ms, Jenkins:

If the Mitchell report creates a new willingness to listen, to have a discussion about sports doping that’s more nuanced and forgiving, if it results in greater consideration for Bonds and clemency for Jones, then it will have done some good….

The whole nature of the enhancement and artificiality in sports needs more candor. Not an investigation that unfairly criminalizes the issue, but rather seeks to truly understand the motives and problems of athletes. Are there dosages that aren’t harmful to one’s health? What does, and doesn’t, actually enhance performance? Why did Marion Jones’s times actually get slower on Balco products? Why did Miguel Tejada’s slugging percentage decrease for three straight years? If an aging player uses HGH simply to recover from injury, or to prolong his career, to keep his job, is that really cheating?…

Here’s a fear. One day we might look back over our shoulders and realize that we created our own generational versions of Jim Thorpe. In 1912, Thorpe was singled out and punished for “sullying” the Olympics. He was found to be “impure” and stripped of his medals because he wasn’t an amateur, but rather had played two summers of baseball for money. The practice was utterly pervasive. But Thorpe was the only one disgraced for it, because it was easier, and more emotionally satisfying, to punish an Indian than all the Yalies who did the very same thing. Thirty or fifty years from now, let’s hope we aren’t similarly ashamed.

Indeed.

Dave, a utility infielder for the first Blue Jays teams, contributed two hits and the go-ahead RBI to help them win their first game ever in 1977. A Vancouver, B.C., native, he was the A’s first-base coach.

The Major League Playoffs begin today and many former Syracuse players will be in action as well as local product Jason Grilli for the Tigers.

National League:

Los Angeles:  P Giovanni Carrara (1995-96), P Mark Hendrickson (2001-03), IF Jeff Kent (1992) and OF Jayson Werth (2002-03). 

NOTES: Werth missed the entire 2006 season after having surgery on his wrist. Carrara was told by Dodgers Manager Grady Little after the final regular season game that he will not be on the playoff roster.  Former NBA player Hendrickson who started in 25 of his 31 appearances this season will pitch out of the Dodgers bullpen.

New York: IF Carlos Delgado (1991, 94-95, 98, 04-05), OF Shawn Green (1994) and IF Chris Woodward (1998-01). 

NOTES:  Two members of Blue Thunder from the 1994 season, Green and Delgado, are wearing a different shade of blue these days.  I’m sure a lot of Central New York fans will be pulling for the Mets in the NL. 

San Diego:  P Scott Cassidy (1998, 2001-03), P David Wells (1986-88), P Woody Williams (1990-96), Bullpen Coach Darrel Akerfelds (1985-86) and Hitting Coach Merv Rettenmund.

NOTES:  The Padres have yet to announce their playoff roster and local product Cassidy is probably on the bubble but according to the Padres website, he will travel with the team during the playoffs regardless.  The ageless wonder Wells is schedule to start Game 3 and Williams is scheduled to start Game 4.  Rettenmund was a roving hitting instructor for the Blue Jays from 2003-2005 and made many visits to Syracuse.  If the name sounds familiar he also endorse the Hit-A-Way that you probably seen so many commercials for a few years ago.

St. Louis: P Chris Carpenter (1997, 2002) and 1st Base Coach Dave McKay (1979)

NOTES:  Carpenter has gone from throwing out the first ever pitch at Alliance Bank Stadium to one of the best pitchers in baseball and will start Game 1 today.

American League:

Detroit: Third Base Coach Gene Lamont (1965)

NOTES:  I’m sure a lot of patrons at the Change of Pace will be torn between their beloved Yankees and their beloved adopted son Jason Grilli.

Minnesota:  OF Shannon Stewart (1996-97, 2003)

NOTES: Stewart is on the 60-day DL and will not play.  The rest of the Twins roster you probably saw play for Rochester this year, including Boof Bonser who went from starting Opening Day versus the SkyChiefs to starting Game 2 of the Playoffs versus Oakland.  Even Rochester PR Director Chuck Hinkel has joined the Twins for the playoff run.

New York:  IF Miguel Cairo (1996), P Cory Lidle (2003) and Pitching Coach Ron Guidry (1975-76)

NOTES:  Lidle will pitch out of the bullpen unless the Big Unit is unable to go. Cairo is on the playoff roster.

Oakland: P Chad Gaudin (2005), P Estaban Loaiza (2002) and C Adam Melhuse (1997-99)

NOTES:  Gaudin made the most of his opportunity in Oakland after being traded this off-season and is one of the A’s reliable middle inning options.

–AG