Another Gordo Gem

Jeff Gordon writes this in todays Post Dispatch:

If you enjoyed McGwire-mania, then you are in no moral position to judge Bonds during his assault on Aaron’s record. The nation embraced McGwire, so the nation should embrace Bonds, too.

I can possibly understand the position in the 1st sentence, if it had been written before today. Even then, however, there was much more circumstantial evidence linking Bonds to illegal steroids than McGwire.
But after today's revelations, the statement becomes ridiculous. Bonds admitted using steroids!
Ok, here's my analogy:

There are two people, suspects in seperate murder cases.

Person A comes up in a computer search of people who fit the profile of the killer. Subsequently, person A admits to the killing, but claims it was unintentional. It is clear that even if it were unintentional, it was at least negligent. The killer is known, the only question being whether it was unintentional or not.

Person B comes up in a computer search of people who fit the profile of the killer. There is no evidence beyond the fact that he fits the profile.

Now, are you going to tell me that we have no right to judge Person A simply because we believe in the innocence of Person B? It is absolutely false logic.

Thats the claim Gordon is making in his first sentence. Apparently it doesn't matter that these are two completely different incidents, with two completely different sets of facts, and two completely different scales of evidence.

As much as I disagree with Gordon's first point, his second is even worse. I guess he is implying that the entire reason Bonds isn't embraced is because of the steroid contoversy. (And by the way, I think that if McGwire admitted using illegal steroids during his chase, he wouldn't have been embrace as much) Apparently he conveniently forgets that Bonds is a sullen jerk who is universally disliked, since way before any of the steroid controversy started. McGwire embraced everyone and everything that went along with breaking the home run record. Bonds has embraced none of it, and none of us, the fans of baseall. So why should we embrace him?

Suggestions

I've gotten a few comments about the font size and color combination of the page, about how the small type is hard to read with the red background. I'm going to work on that today to try and make it easier to read. Any other comments about things that I could change to improve my site are welcome... I'm new to this, so its going to be trial and error for a while. Let me know how it looks.

Big Surprise

Bonds won the MVP award again. I mean, 4 straight years, thats gotta be some kind of record, huh? The Cards did well, getting 3, 4, and 5. You gotta believe that were it Rolen or Edmonds instead of Rolen and Edmonds on the Cardinals that Pujols would have gotten 2nd. But I'd rather have 3-5 than 2 and 3 any time (except late October, 2004). What gets me is that Edmonds didn't get a single top 3 vote. His .OPS was .011 behind Pujols, and he is better defensively at a more difficult position. Pujols gets 22 top 3 votes, Edmonds gets none. I'm not trying to rag on Albert, cause you can make a very valid argument that he was more valuable than Edmonds, but why did no one see it the other way? I guess what I'm trying to say is, why can't Jimmy get no love?

Izzy worth $12.5 million?

I've been waiting to use that pun in print forever, and wouldn't you know, my 2nd day of blogging and I already got it in. Man, this is good stuff.

Anyway, I think you'd have a hard time coming up with a good argument that Isringhausen is worth $12.5 million (the amount he is reportedly due next year due to backloading). Sure, he saved 47 games last year, but I have trouble believing any closer is worth that, let alone one that makes me have to change my pants every time he pitches.

That brings us to Izzy's hip surgey on Monday. The thing that makes me wonder is the whole out of whack mechanics/ shoulder muscle atrophy angle. That doesn't sound like something you should be pitching with, especially when you have a history of arm trouble. Obviously Izzy, Tony, and the training staff know more than I do, but it seems like they dodged a bullet in that he didn't come down with serious arm problems.

What amazes me, though, is that the hip injury and subsequent mechanic and shoulder issues didn't seem to affect his performance. His ERA was up a tad, but his peripherals were all at about what you would expect if he was healthy. (Of course, have we ever seen Izzy completely healthy?) Take a look at these stats, and tell me if you would have thought he was having these problems:

	WHIP	Avg.	K/BB	BB/9	K/9	H/9
2002	0.98	.199	3.58	2.48	9.37	6.34
2003	1.17	.200	2.16	3.86	8.79	6.64
2004	1.04	.199	2.63	2.75	8.48	6.57

The only thing that worries me is K/9, but he didn't have a dramatic drop, and he's still at a pretty good rate, so I'm not too concerned. What these stats tell me, other than that he was better last year than I realized, is that Izzy is has been extremely consistent as a Cardinal, he will likely be the about the same next year, that for whatever reason his injury didn't seem it affect him, and that he is good, but not $12.5 million good.

Welcome!

I don't know how many will actually read this first post, as I don't think that anyone knows about my site yet, but I have to start somewhere, and this is it. Maybe someone will stumble across it. (or I may shamelessly self-promote myself before I even have a post with actual content)

This is my first foray into blogging, and I figure there could be no better subject than the St. Louis Cardinals. I have been a constant reader of several Cardinal blogs over the past few years, including Redbird Nation, Get Up, Baby, and Go Cardinals, just to name a few, as well as blogs from various teams around the country. They have inspired me to try and make my mark. (Or at least crash and burn trying). I have been addicted to message boards, but they always seem to turn into arguments rather than discussions. Blogs always seem more civil, and by extension, more enjoyable.

I don't really know how this will go. I don't know how often I'll post, or when, or even what I'll write about. I'm sure I'll bore alot of you, but hopefully, every once in a while, you will find something I write to have, if not intellectual, than at least entertainment value. Living in Cub territory, I may write a bit about them (nothing good, don't worry), and every once in a while I may post a note or two about football, basketball, soccer, or whatever other sport is on my mind at the time. But this is a Cardinals site, after all, so 9/10 of what I write will be about, as Jeff Gordon would say, the "Home Team."