Life In The DPC!

“Player acknowledges and agrees that an indictment for any criminal act under [that section] … is proper grounds for termination of this contract…Player also acknowledges and agrees that he will not grieve, appeal or otherwise challenge any club action to terminate this contract as a result of player’s indictment for any criminal acts [specified] … nor will he cause or authorize any third party, such as the Major League Baseball Players Association, to grieve, appeal or otherwise challenge any club action to terminate this contract as a result of player’s indictment for any [specified] criminal acts.”  - A provision of Barry Bonds proposed contract with the San Francisco Giants

 Public enemy number one at DavidPatrickCastro.com, Barry Bonds, has am ambigously written clause in his latest contract proposal that could void the deal if he is indicted on criminal charges related to the BALCO steroid fiasco. Bonds could be facing perjury charges if it is found that he knowingly injested performance enhancing drugs and then subsequently maintained that he was a stooge during the Balco proceedings.

At this point the clause in his latest contract may be moot because the collective bargaining agreement and/or the player’s union would bar the Giants from dumping Bonds and his ample salary. In a strange way the San Francisco Giants have brought in a bit of the existentialist’s plight and ideology to the bargaining table.

In its simplest terms Bonds is, if the aforementioned contract stipulation was validated and binding, responsible for the life and legacy he chooses and will never be a victim of tainted flaxseed oil again.  Bonds finds himself as DPC.com greatest villian for two reasons: 1. He is a bit of an asshole. 2. He never owned up to his cheating ways despite the fact that it was plain as day. Only Mussolini got lynched for his crimes and I assume Bonds would be granted some level of exoneration if he had said what had gone down with the juice.

He was free, free in every way, free to behave like a fool or a machine, free to accept, free to refuse, free to equivocate; to marry, to give up the game, to drag this death weight about with him for years to come. He could do what he liked, no one had the right to advise him, there would be for him no Good or Evil unless he thought them into being. - Sartre

Ultimately Bonds is a victim of his own choices and personal misgivings. Though he may have always been a bit of a prick there was never any denying his supreme talent but at a certain point he went over the edge in search to satisfy his vanity. By virtue of his actions, ingesting illegal and immoral enhancements and then trying to maintain that he was a victim of another man’s lies, Bonds show that he made his own plight in the eyes of Sartre. Even if he was a victim of other people’s illicit desires he was ultimately responsible.

Bonds dug his own hole in one way or another and the Giants are trying to make him responsible for the last chapter of this twisted saga. But we have recently seen Bonds defy existential value and blame a teammate when he tested positive for amphetamines and I can’t fathom whom he would pass the buck off to if he was convicted of perjury.

If man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be. Thus there is no human nature, since there is no God to conceive it. Not only is man what he conceives himself to be, but he is also only what he wills himself to be after this thrust toward existence. - Sartre

The 2007 MLB Hall of Fame came out today and Mark McGwire fell quite short of the neccesary 75% of the baseball writer’s votes neccesary to gain enshrinement. McGwire received 128 votes out of the 545 ballots cast for a 23.8% approval rating from a very skeptical community of baseball writers that likely associate McGwire as a steroid induced slugger no better than his former partner in crime Jose Canseco. Canseco received six votes or 1.1% this year. Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. were the only players elected in the first Hall of Fame vote with many members of the steroid era.  In the last week or so , besides the BCS, this ballot had come upon often on the airwaves and printed press. The main crutch seemed to be the validity of McGwire’s career in this juiced era. Innuendo has destroyed his credibility,  since he only admitted to taking Andro, and despite no tangible evidence of other performance enhancing drugs I, like many, believe McGwire is a cheat and should be denied entrance into Cooperstown. I will openly admit that I have an abnormal amount of disdain for the man but this is predicated on the simple notion that he became a modern Paul Bunyan and cheated his way to do it. Canseco took the same route and has been villified. Honestly it was McGwire’s squeeky clean image that continues to rub me the wrong way and will continue to do so until he admits that he is a cheat.

“Asking me or any other player to answer questions about who took steroids in front of television cameras will not solve the problem. If a player answers ‘No,’ he simply will not be believed; if he answers ‘Yes,’ he risks public scorn and endless government investigations,” McGwire said at the House Government Reform Committee on March 17, 2005. “I’m not here to talk about the past. I’m here to be positive about this subject.”

McGwire dug his own hole during his infamous speech and to this day he should be garnering the repercussions for be a coward. America will forgive, just ask Paul Hornung, and he had his opportunity. Canseco is a hero at DavidPatrickCastro.com where his charismatic mug is plastered on many walls at our international headquarters in North Phoenix. Canseco garnered our favor by the simple fact that he was forthcoming, this may have been to sell books but regardless, and as I ittereated before, he is the Deep Throat of the Steroid Era. Canseco and Ken Caminiti have contributed more to baseball than McGwire ever will. Honesty, valor and true character are the hallmarks of Caminiti and Canseco. Yes, both men are flawed but unlike McGwire they have shown that man can redeem himself by self admonishment for one’s mistakes.

The 2007 Hall of Fame voting results came out today and only two men made it in. McGwire might have been a bigger story by being shut out but the voters messed up on many of their ballots so DPC.com has to submit its own.

Tony Gwynn: Dominate hitter, talented point guard.
2. Goose Gossage: Nearly killed Ron Cey.
3. Andre Dawson: A dominate hitter whose numbers lag behind many of the players from the (steroid) era after him.
4. Jim Rice: See above.
5.Jose Canseco: The last honest man.
6. Ken Caminiti: As honest and forthcoming as Canseco but not as popular (but still idolized at DPC.com) openly admitted steroid use during his career and became a modern tragedy.
7.Jack Morris: Pitched the greatest clinching game ever and became an icon after uttering to a female journalist; “I don’t talk to women unless they’re on top of me or I’m on top of them”.
8. Don Mattingly: The only Yankee that mattered for over a decade unfortunately played when the Bronx Bombers sucked in the 1980’s and early 90’s.

The Baseball Writers Association of America made the right choice by keeping McGwire out of Cooperstown. Caminit and Canseco are flawed, this will never be denied, but they opened up our eyes to many harsh realities that we ignored. Players like Dawson, Mattingly and Rice are also victims because their numbers are dwarfed by the Steroid Era.

Roger Clemens has reportedly been named by a former major leaguer as a user of performance enhancing drugs. Clemens, along with Andy Pettite, Miguel Tejada, Brian Roberts, David Segui and Jay Gibbons were listed on an affidavit from the search warrant of former major league pitcher Jason Grimsley’s home in June. The raid on Grimsley’s house was in response to having a shipment of performance enhancing drugs shipped to his home. Grimsley has since admitted to using steroids and named the aforementioned former teammates during the federal investigation of his home.

“I’ve been tested plenty of times,” Clemens said. “My physicals I’ve taken, they have taken my blood work. I have passed every test. Again, I just find it amazing that you can throw anybody out there.”

Clemens was also named in Jose Canseco’s tell all steroid journal Juiced.

Truthfully I have always suspected Clemens of doing something a bit illegal to stay in such dominate form into his early 40’s. When most pitchers, especially flame throwers, hit their mid to late thirties there is a tendency to go down hill not to pitch at a higher level. The only exception to this notion is Nolan Ryan and he was not domintae day in and day out. He had the ability to bring magic to the mound on rare occurrences as he got up in years. For Clemens to dominate at such a level he is either genetic freak or a doper. Since there are few physical anomalies in Major League Baseball I most go with doper.

A part of me would like to commend Jason Grimsley for naming names and taking no quarter but I seem to think the federales tightened the screws and Grimsley broke. I don’t fault the guy for it. Baseball is a cut throat business and for players like Grimsley if you dabble in doping you can tag on a few years to your career and a few more checks. If you name names to federal agents who catch you red handed with drugs you have to cover your tail.

The odd thing about this whole fiasco is that I was at a Diamondbacks game when the news broke. Nothing was mentioned over the P.A. that Grimsley was not in attendance that night but when I went out to have a smoke there was a group of guys chatting it up about how Grimsley got busted for drugs before the game. Details were sketchy as I eavesdropped on their conversation but I got the feeling that this journeyman’s career was over.

I am not an overly patriotic fella, despite driving a Chevy and watching NASCAR but on this very drab Fourth of July I am bestowing upon Jose Canseco The First Annual DPC Award for Freedom Fighting and Absolute Americana Spirit.

It seems like a stretch to imply that Canseco and his steroid using baseball dominance would embody any award based upon valor but the proof is apparent as he is the main whistle blower in the Major League Baseball steroid scandal that has dominated the headlines for the last few years. ”I feel one person can make a difference,” Canseco recently said. “I feel one person can change the world. I want Major League Baseball to know I’m not going away that easy.”

As odd is it may sound Canseco is right and his ability to write a tell all book about rampant drug use in pro baseball led to various federal investigations and the slow admission that baseball was filled with rampant drug use. Now mind you that Canseco was part of the steroid affliction during his pro career and his book was an opportunity to garner some much needed cash but in reality he is the reason there were various investigation into the doping world of pro sports.

Canseco is relevant and the recipient of my high honor due to this watchdog status in the world of baseball. In the same way that Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball (Apologies to Fleetwood Walker). The same way Curt Flood destroyed the sharecroppers mentality of player’s rights and Jim Bouton destroyed the innocence of the game with his forthcoming tale of false idolization in his tell all ‘Ball Four’. Canseco had the cajones to step up and destroy his own credibility and/or future earning potential by naming names. You sir are the truest patriot for standing up and righting the wrongs in this world.