I've waited long and hard before commenting on the Mitchell Report. Like most fans, I was shocked by the scale of the report, and yet not shocked at the same time(if that makes sense). I'm also a little concerned about the lack of corroborating evidence for much of the report but more about that later

Many Americans may not understand or appreciate the respect Irish people have for Senator Mitchell. He played a key role in the Northern Ireland peace process and there is no doubt that without his work, terrorism could still be a force in a corner of this small island. many people probably owe their lives to him without realising it and he is far more worthy of the Noble peace prize then some born again has been Presidential candidate.

The fact that much of his report into the game is based on hearsay is disturbing. Too many innocent people around the world have been convicted on bad evidence and incompetent investigative work, the West Memphis 3, Guildford 4 and Birmingham 6 all spring to mind for starters.

However, If this report had been writen by anyone else, I'd be majorily concerned, the fact that it is Sen Mitchell gives me a lot of confidence that what he is saying is correct. Let's be honest with ourselves here as well, we've seen the bulked up players, the sudden changes over a summer in performance, the records being smashed, c'mon, be honest here, we all knew something wasn't right

So who's to blame, the players, undoubtably take the bulk of the blame, their the ones who stuck needles in their arms. Likewise the clubs have to take responsibility for their employees actions. You have to wonder, how many exectives and owners knew players were juicing up and turned a blind eye. The union did not condon juicing but certainly did not go out of it's way to prevent it either. Bud Selig and the people who run the game have to take responsibility also, the buck ultimately stops at their desk. It doesn't matter if they didn't know, they should have known.

And what about us, the fans, do we share responsibility?. Most definately we do. Who cheered when someone hit a homer in a play off game, or when Bonds hit a special into centre field, or a pitcher's heat couldn't be handled by the batters?. We did and did we care?, as long as it was one of our players doing great things, probably not. Like Bud Sellig, it didn't matter if we didn't know, we should have known and we should have shouted oh so louder

What's happened has happened so where do we go from here?. I believe what is now required is an amnesty for all players. Let them come forward between here and the season opener and admit they cheated, if they indeed did. Take no action against them, this is about simply getting things out in the open but put an * on their records for all times. However, if a player does not come forward and further evidence comes to light to prove they did cheat, then let justice be swift and merciless and treat these people in the same manner as Pete Rose, lifetime ban, strip them of their pensions and let them become pariahs for all time

Secondly, robust drug testing policies are needed, probably in line with WADA rules. If it is good enough for every other sport in the world, why not baseball?

Players too need support, I know some serious athletes are reluctant to get medical treatment because they may fail a test subsequently. A players health is the main priority here, so if a doctor recomends medically something that would otherwise be banned, let the player get a 2nd opinion from MLB sponsered medical teams and if deemed the correct course of action, let them take the remedy

As for players caught juicing,  we can all make a mistate so I don't believe punishment for the first offence should be excessive, 20-50 games and a fine is probably sufficient(and an * on that seasons stats). Get caught again and a season ban, get caught a 3rd time, and you're out

Clubs too need to be punished, they are responsible for their players behavious. So if a player fails a test after a game they've won, fine the club and strip them of their victory, regardless of where in the season it's at. If it persists, then if needed, ban the team for the rest of the season

Hopefully this will be the beginning of the end of the jucing era and 2008 will allow us to start afresh, if not, I fear for the future of this great game

1: We’re not very good at it. Let’s be honest, everyone loves a successful team in any sport. 10 years ago,

Chelsea

Baseball is played over here in

Europe

2: We don’t see enough of it. It tends to be only shown in the small hours of the morning on cable television, thank God for NASN because at least they do show it. Trouble is, because of time differences, if they show a game during the day, it’s a repeat from a night or 2 previously, and most true fans know the result

I have stayed up the odd Friday night to watch a game, but it is difficult to stay away and watch the Pirates at

2am

3: We have no local superstars. Is there anyone from

Europe

4: Too many games. More then one person over here has said to me, how can you take a game seriously when it has 162 games to decide who goes through to the knock out stages?. In fairness, it is a bit of a valid point, compare that with the Premier league in soccer(36 games) or the 6 Nations

Rugby

5: Does anyone watch the game? Again, a fair question..  Any baseball game you go to, probability is that at least 10% of the crowd are wandering around buying food, drink and tee shirts. I was at the Phillies in July , and I watched a group of guys on the concourse behind me spend most of the game chatting and shooting the breeze, probably cost them $40 to get in, not to mention what the spent, they could have saved the admission money and sat in a bar and known as much.

In fairness, this is not unique to baseball; it’s an American thing where the game is often secondary to the occasion. I’ve never been to a playoff game in the

US

If you want a 2^nd opinion on this, have one from a player and read the Rangers CJ Wilson’s splendid blog on his trips through

Europe

http://cjwilson.mlblogs.com/

6: Clubs come, clubs go. Again a very American phenomenon. How can you get passionate about a club that could up sticks and leave next season, how can you be passionate about a club that has been in the neighbourhood for a few seasons. The reason the Packers, Yankees, Red Sox or Maple Leafs have that bit of extra intensity at the grounds is because history backs them up and they’d be a riot if they ever tried to move to the other side of the country. But how many clubs can you say that for?

7: Steroids

Like it or not, the whole steroid issue and the failure of baseball to tackle it has made the game the laughing stock of the world. Indeed,

America

So why do I love baseball? Am I a European freak? Who knows, but I do and that’s a story for another day

Slan

Jerry

Ok, so here's the story, I want to do a baseball tour in 08, probably only for a week but I want to get as many games in as possible with as little travel. So far I've been to the Red Sox, Giants, As, Phillie and Oriols and don't mind revisiting any of these. However I also want to see more teams and more ballparks.

The question is, where do I go, Chicago and New York have 2 teams each I could see, or I could do DC and Baltimore, but where else and why should I go to your ballpark. Give me some reasons folks

I don't get to see enough live baseball in the flesh, living 3000 miles away from the US, with a small baby and a large mortgage limits my ability to head off to the ballpark. So when my employers asked me to head off to Philadelphia for a week in July, and having checked that the Phillies were at home across the entire week, I jumped at the chance

I managed to get to see 4 games in my time in the City of Brotherly Love, 2 against the Pirates and 2 against the Nats and one game in Baltimore as well which was a bonus.

There is something about naming rights to stadiums that I don't like, I accept there is a commercial element to it, but a ballpark should have a historic almost musical ring to it's name, so heading to Citizen Bank Ballpark was not the best of starts. I also like if they are close to the city centre, as in San Francisco for example, the Phillies are in effect based in one big sporting car park in the south of the city, with the Eagles, Flyers and 76ers as neighbours and a rather scummy part of town between there and Centre City. There is a lack of soul and spirit in the area, as you might get in Boston, a lack of liveliness like you might get in San Francisco, the area actually reminded me of Oakland in many respects. Nevertheless it is easy to get to via underground train or car and that can't be knocked

Truth be told, location aside, it's a fine stadium, good viewing from all over, seats are fine and I do appreciate when they have a bottle/cup holder on the back of the seat in front. Small things make life easier. Beer was fine, maybe it's an age thing, but I'm starting to prefer lite beer on a summer's day. The food however, well, I'm going to to say something controversial here, but what on earth is all the fuss about a Philly Cheesesteak??? I had my first one ever at the ballpark and it was so disappointing. It's basically some slices of watery beef, a few onions and some cheese in a bun. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with it, it just the locals make as if it is something that should be a a 5* Restaurant in Paris. I know ballpark food can be functional at best some times so I did try a few other cheessteaks over the week, including one in the rather splendid Reading Market but my opinion didn't change and I know 50 pubs over here in Ireland that do a far better steak sandwich. The other thing that was recommended to me in the ballpark was a jerked pork sandwich which was possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten and which went to the bin after one bite.To look at it reminded me of what my baby does in her nappy and probably tasted as bad. I stuck to fries and pizza for the rest of the week

The tat shops(see my post below) were ok, nothing earth shatteringly amazing, tee shirts didn't strike me as the best quality, but some of my work colleagues did give me an 18 inch Phillie Phanatic for my smallie at home, very much appreciated.

Speaking of the Phanatic, I'm not hugely into team mascots, I used to watch Arsenal in the 90s when I lived in London and this 6 foot tall green dinasour appeared one season(called Gunnersaurus) and I never really understood what the heck he was there for. I did enjoy watching the Phanatic however, he is a bit of a loon and in a week when a local NBA ref (Mr Donaghy) was capturing the headlines for all the wrong reasons, perhaps if he had been kissed by a 7 foot tall green furry monster as happened the 3rd base umpire one night, maybe he might have turned out different. The kids like him and I suppose that's important

So to the games, first one was a straightforward win for the home side but the second one against Washinton turned into a 13 innings marathon which finally ended in the wee hours and I am proud to say I stayed to the bitter end. I have never been one of these people who leave before the final whistle(unless it is completley one sided) and to watch people going home after 6 innings is always a depressing sight to me. I enjoyed the second one all the more because I was sat next to an elderly gentleman who really knew his stuff and had played in the minors back in the 50s. A shame I can't remember his name but he pointed things out to me that I would never have considered, especially around field placement. Unfortunately 2 rows in front of us was the dreaded "drunk with the shirt off rallying the fans" fan. God I hate ******** like that. Even I realised quite quickly that I knew more then him, for example, I could read on the screen who was batting, but it all seemed very difficult for this sad little cool dude.

The highlights of the 4 games, some solid pitching, watching Jimmy Rollins hitting a triple which turned into a sort of an inside the park home run courtesy of a fielding error, people watching (always a major part of any game), guys like Rollins, Utley and a few others who play with their hearts and heads. The Phillies did impress me up to a point, but their pitching is limited and they never seemed to dominate a game in the way that the Red Sox, Yankees or even Cleveland are this season. I could see them making the playoffs, or being very close, and if they did make the playoffs, they'd win some games, but they'd probably blow a lot more as well

The Nationals also impressed me, (and that's not something you hear very often), not in terms of their playing ability, with the exception of a couple of guys like Dimitri Young and Ryan Zimmerman, that's limited enough, but in their attitude. This was a team expected to loose 100+ games at the beginning of the season, but will end up not being too far short of .500. They're not going to make the playoffs yet took the Phillies to a 13 inning marathon knowing they had a day game and a flight to catch the next day. Credit where credit is due, if the players and management can keep that going, with a new ballpark to come, watch out for the Nats in 08 and 09

The Pirates are awful, not much else I can add to that, throughly a dreadful side

So did I enjoy the Phillies?, yes, pretty much so. As an overall experience I'd rank it ahead of Boston(Sorry, detest Fenway), Oakland(baseball should never be played in a football stadium) but behind San Francisco and Baltimore. Maybe part of my dislike was Philadelphia itself. I know it has a superb Art Galley in the Barnes Foundation, lots of public art, Reading Market and the Constitution Centre, but the shopping seriously ***** unless you want to go out of town and when the highlight as a visitor seems to be running up some steps to imitate Sly Stallone, well, lets just say Rocky was overrated. Will I go back, probably if work takes me there, or I am passing through on my way to Sesame Street, and there is potentially a very good baseball tour to be made up the East Coast, especially once the Nats new ballpark is completed. But would I go out of my way?, don't think so, so sorry Phillies but thanks to all the people at work and in the ballpark who did make my visit quite enjoyable regardless

I was depressed reading the Net this morning,. A Mets player, Martin Anderson, was quoted in the latest drugs controversy as saying that when he was a player over the last 10 years, he could have taken steroids but didn't(and credit to him for that), but that people like a bit of controvesy and Hey, they are still coming to baseball games.

Bonds, Glaus, Gibbons and perhaps most depressingly of all Ankiel(say it aint so Ricky), the list seems to grow almost daily of the latest player to be names as a suspect steroid taking junkie cheating muppet.

I could write a deep and meaningful post on steroids but it's Monday, it's the end of summer, I have 2 mortgages as I slowly try to sell my house and move and the performance of the Irish rugby team last night against Namibia is deeply worringly.

So instead, let's talk about another very important piece of baseball, tat.

Tat to me is what you get in the "supporters" shop or buy online via the MLB shop. It is a crucial part of any visit to any ground for the first time, and depending on what you have, you may even want to repurchase at a later stage. As I am in the process of moving house, I did a very scary inventory of my stock over the weekend, (much of which my good lady wife will throw in the charity bag if I am not careful). So here is my list

Boston Red Sox:

Oakland As,

San Francisco Giants,

Baltimore Oriels:

Philadelphia Phillies.

Unfortunately it doesn't stop there, throw in

1 Washinton Wizards tee, the first, last and only basketball tee I will ever buy

4 Washington Capitals long sleeve and short sleeve tees, 1 puck and 1 cap

2 Montreal Canadiens tees and a puck

2 Toronto Maple Leafs tees, one windebreaker and a puck

2 Vancouver Cannucks tees, and a puck

1 Toronto Argonauts tee(very paint spattered at this stage) and a minature football. I also have a Blue Jays ball from my visit to Toronto.

1 Vancouver Grizzlies tee. The later 2 are, by the way, CFL teams, Canadien football with it's 3 downs is almost as silly as basketball. Almost as silly

It doesn't stop there however, I also have 3 London Irish rugby jerseys, 2 Munster rugby jerseys, 2 Arsenal polo shirts and 1 retro jersey from 93, 1 Leyton Orient Jeresy and an Orient Fleece.

Now I am getting scared. In total I own

5 Rugby jerseys

2 Soccer jerseys

23 tee shirsts from various teams

2 polo shirts

3 fleeces/hoodies

6 baseballs

5 baseball caps

4 hockey pucks

1 windbreaker

1 bobble head doll

1 18 inch stuffed green monster

I'm 38, need to loose a few pounds and my hair is not just going, it left the building many moons ago. Yes I own suits, wear a tie to work and have respectable chinos. Please tell me I am normal and that my collection does not indicate that I am beginning a middle age crisis at an early age.

Who ate all the pies?, Or why are baseball players so fat?

It's possible that some of you in the US will have read or heard about some of the tragedies that have happened in soccer in Europe over the last 10 days. Earlier on in the week, at halftime in a game, a player called Clive Clarke, collapsed in the dressing room and had to have his heart restarted twice with a defibrulator. Clarke is 27 years old, a young fit professional and thnakfully he survied but will probably never play football again

A player in Sevile was not so lucky, he collapsed mid game last weekend and died in the dressing room.

Sport is littered with players suffering similer episodes, I am no doctor, but I presume that part of the reason for this is the strain that persistant training places on the heart. Throw in the seemingly gowing phenoman of Sudden Adult Death syndrome  and it's scary

So why are baseball players so fat?

I was in Phildelphia in June and one thing that caught my eye in a series V the Nationals was Dimitri Young. Now, I now this guy has had his issues in the past, but the sight of him waddling down to First Base was far from inspiring. His offical MLB stats on this website have him as 6ft 2 and 220lbs, using a standard body mass indicator calculator, this classifies him as overweight (and marginally short of being obese)

So that got me thinking, who else out there ate all the pies?(and if you have know anything about English soccer you'll know what that means). Here are some examples

I presume if I looked further, I'd find an awful lot more. And yes, I know Babe Ruth was not exactly skin and bones and it did him no harm, at least in his basball career. And yes, I know a batter might run no more then a couple of hunderd yards a game

However nowadays players are paid an awful lot of money to swat at a ball. The very least they could do is take care of their bodies and get themselves fit. How many base-hits does a team miss out of in a season simply because the batter is too fat to run fast enough? How many more could they get if the player could sprint like Tyson Gaye.?. How many injuries occur due to the extra weight a player carries?. Good hitters hit with the wrists and the shoulders(Di Maggio and Williams for example), not with the belly

The soccer players who collapsed this week were young healthy fit men so nothing is risk free. However, why do clubs invest millions in players and then futher increase the risk of them collapsing on the field by not enforcing simple standards of fitness?

So more six packs and less kegs please

And yes, I have a spare tire before anyone asks, but I'm not paid $10 million a year by my employers to do my job

Slan

Jerry

Camden Yard and the Oriels

I hadn't planned on getting to see the Oriels in July, I was over in Philadelphia on business and whilst I had sorted out some tickets for a few Phillies games, this game was a bonus.

Work required me to go, with some of my American colleagues to Baltimore at short notice. Now I hadn't been to Baltimore in 7 years, my previous visit was in 2000 and to be honest, I wasn't mad about the place. In fairness it was in November and only a day trip from DC but I just found the place dark and dreary and it was the one American city that I genuinely felt a wee bit nervous in. The aquarium was excellent and I did get a ticket for the Ravens v Cowboys game, but overall, I wasn't in any rush back there

On this occasion however it was a gorgeous summers day and my impression was far more positive. We managed to get what we needed to do work wise done by lunchtime and one of the guys I was with suggested we play hooky and go to the game. Who was I to argue?

Camden Yards is a bit unusual from other parks, The walk up to it from the harbour area wouldn't suggest you are going to a ball park if it weren't for the crowds and the hawkers outside. All you see is this impressive brown warehouse structure, seemingly the longest in North America. As this was an afternoon game, tickets were easily got and in we went

First impressions were very positive, plenty of food outlets and beer outlets, including the only Guinness I have seen to date in any North American park. I passed much to the surprise of the guys I was with, explaining that in Ireland it was sacrilege to drink the stuff out of a plastic glass. Into the shop for the very necessary cap, given the weather, t-shirt and souvenir ball, picked up some chicken strips and fries and off we went

Our seats were by 3rd base. I normally try and get the best seats I can, either behind homeplate to get a good view of the pitcher and batter, or else up high to take in the entire vista of the game. This was the first time I had sat down the base lines and we were in the very front row. The view was great and I saw a part of the game that I had never really appreciated before. In future I think I'll try and get my seats in different parts of the ground.

The Oriels v Devil Rays would not normally set the pulses racing but I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed this game. The stadium was half full, and would have been less then that if it weren't for the seemingly thousands of kids who were in from their summer camps. Far better behaved kids then you'd find at a soccer game over here I have to say. Maybe it was the fact that it was a weekday afternoon when I should have been at work but instead I was watching a game on a glorious summer's day with my feet up on the 3rd base line wall but the baseball seemed good, the food tastier and the beer that extra bit colder and more refreshing. On top of that, a friend of mine in Australia (Hiya Agnes) rang me mid game, so here I was, an Irish guy watching a baseball game on the east coast of the USA talking to a friend of mine in Melbourne, arranging to meet up when she was back home in Ireland in a few weeks times. I love the 21st Century

I went for a wander after the 7th innings, (I like to do that and see what the view is like elsewhere). For the first time ever I went over and stood by the bullpen. I couldn't do that at any of the other stadia I'd been to. I watched Al Reyes of the Devil Rays warming up for a while. Reyes is a decent closer who missed all of last season, he has 20 saves at the time of writing this, but he is not an exceptional pitcher. Despite that I was blown away watching him, it was the closest I'd been to MLB pitching and it really made me appreciate what they do and what the batters achieve all the more. The noise the ball makes as it whizzes through the air, the thud into the glove at 90mph, the control over the ball these guys have is quite awesome.

And then Reyes goes and pitches one inning, give up 4 hits, including a 3 run HR to Brian Roberts and 4 runs in total and Baltimore win, 10-7.

Truth be told I could see that neither team was much good, between them, 10 guys pitched and 7 of those had an ERA of 4.75 or more, and whilst both teams have a few decent players like Roberts, Carl Crawford and one of my favourite players, Kevin Millar, both teams are a long way short of being contenders now or in the future.

Despite that, if you are in the area, you could make a very good day out of a visit to the superb aquarium in Baltimore, a bite to eat by the harbour and then stroll up to the ballpark. I had some good craic, came away with some happy memories and some really badly sunburnt arms(I wasn't planning on being out in the sun) Only downers were a handful of pig ignorant staff on the concession stands and I lost my cap somewhere, (mind you, I'd had more then a few beers at that stage). Definitely if I am in the area again, I'll call again

30-3

So how did you watch the Rangers and the Oriels?, live on TV or MLB.com?, watching the updates on ESPN or your local station and wonder if what you were reading was actually correct or the figment of the imagination of the guy who updates the tracker. Or were you like me,who logged on the next morning and went, what??????????? That can't be true, crikey, it is!!!!!!!!

Much of what I read on this game has been about the Rangers but what was it like to be in the Oriel dugout?. What was it like for the manager to sit there and watch the scoreboard go mad, to be in the bullpen, praying that the phone wouldn't ring, to be waiting to bat thinking, we only need a 20 run rally to claw ourselves back into this.!!!!!!!!!!! To be an Oriels fan watching on telly, did you switch over to CSI (CSI is always on some channel) or did you suffer? . Or were you an Oriel fan at the game itself, trying to slink under your seat as the crowd went wild. And what was Cal thinking?

I was at Camden Yards only a few weeks back (v Tampa) and my heart goes out to you guys.

I've been there at other sports, I watched Arsenal ship 6 to Man Utd in 91, watched Ireland ship 40+ to England at Twickenham in rugby a few years ago, but these things go in circles, life goes on and there will come a time when it will turn around for you. Early on this year, Ireland put 40+ on England as we anhilated them,Arsenal went on to win the championship in 91. Be brave, and remember it could be worse, you don't have Barry Bonds in your team!!!!

I'm sitting at my office desk as I type this, looking out the window at 2 bees buzzing around a flower for pollen. Can't help thinking, what a bunch of lucky b…..ds. For once in this miserable Irish summer the sun is shining and it hasn't rained in nearly 4 days. August is as it should be.

A friend of mine has told me his Father in Law has cancer, doesn't sound good. Anytime I hear of someone with this, I can't help thinking of a few years back when I was in Montreal and went to the Canadiens V Leafs. It was just after Saiku Koivu had announced he had the disease and the recepion he got that night will live long in my memory and easily makes my top 5 sports events of all time. Thankfully he receovered but he was one of the lucky ones. Sometimes too I think of athletes who have dies of Sudden Adult Death syndrome and think what a waste of a talented life

And then I think of the steroid abusers, the dog fighters, the crooked refs, the footballers with guns and the other **** who have spolied our summer of 07. Why do they get the million dollar deals, the adulation of (some) fans no matter what they do? Why do they good seem to suffer and the guilty go home to their swimming pools and Porsches?

And then I think that in an hours time I too get to go home, bounce my little 5 month old daughter on my knees and get the biggest goofiest smile you can imagine. She'll tell me about her day in the way that only 5 month old babies do, maybe drool a bit on me, just for the fun of it and then laugh at my funny faces. My dog will be jumping up and down as if to say, come on, I need to take you for your walk and my wife will give me a kiss, the dinner and the light of her smile

We have a saying over here, "you'll have no luck with that". Don't worry, the sporting **** of this summer will get their comeuppance, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even in this life but one day it will happen. So whilst the rest of us bounce our kids on our knees and eat pizza, remember, as that certain well known acress and fellow blogger says, there's always peace love and baseball

Who do I follow?????????????/

If you've read my first post you'll notice that I said I don't follow any particuler team, that's mainly because Whilst I have soft spots for certain teams, none has really grabbed my heart. Being Irish, we find lots of teams across sports to root for. At the minute, the list is long

However, my list goes beyond that

For the most part these teams have certain things in common, they are either very successful, or pretty inept, no in betweens, they all wear red/white or green (ok, bar the Caps), and I can go and watch any of them pretty easily and there is often some sort of Irish connection

But why hasn't any baseball team grabbed me in the same way?. I love the game and would probably watch Baseball tonight before Match of the Day (soccer higlights to you Yanks) but why can't I really root for someone.

So here's the story, I need a team to support, ideally they should wear some element of red or green in their colours, need to be easily accessable from over here in Europe, preferably with a history of some sort,(sorry Nats fans) a decent ball park, and a reasonably decent team. Any offers out there? Could be one of the teams above or anywhere else for that matter. Give me a reason why I should support your team

Oh yeah, before I forget, no Yankees, too darn easy, there's got to be some challenge in being a fan, not just writing the biggest cheque