Fastball Fans

A team I know all too well, the Baltimore Orioles, spoke up against the Mitchell Report on Saturday night. They more or less questioned the Mitchell Report.

“There is no place in baseball or in any other sport for the use of performance-enhancing substances.

The Orioles support Major League Baseball’s efforts to institute the most comprehensive testing program of any professional sport and one that strives to eliminate the use of performance enhancing drugs from all of baseball.

As to the information and allegations contained in the Mitchell Report, the Orioles caution observers to resist the temptation to accept collective judgments based upon unsubstantiated allegations.

The Orioles further believe that each Major League player must be treated on an individual basis, must not be judged responsible by mere association, and is innocent of any improper conduct until proven otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Well, as we all know, the organization has been hit real not only with the allegations of the past week, but also in the past. They have been down the road before, but this time, the stakes and circumstances are much different.

The New York Times explains, owner Peter Angelos’ logic:

In a telephone interview, the team’s owner, Peter Angelos, said the statement “probably applies to numerous players that they referred to in the report.�?

Angelos said he took issue with “the substance of the report, the method of execution.�?

He added, “We had nothing to do with mechanisms.�?

Also…

“To me, he has the biggest complaint, at least in reading the report, because his name gets mentioned in a conversation that Larry Bigbie remembers, one conversation,�? Duquette said in a telephone interview Sunday.

“That doesn’t have the same credibility to me. Now, if you’re the senator, where do you draw the line? But in my opinion, Brian gets the raw end of the public perception because he gets lumped into this whole list of names, many of whom have very specific information. This came across more as hearsay to me.�?

Bigbie had been compelled to cooperate with Mitchell after he was identified as a customer of Radomski’s. His statements to Mitchell, according to the report, were monitored by federal law-enforcement authorities. The agents said they would not charge Bigbie with any crime for statements to the Mitchell investigators unless he lied, in which case they could be subject to federal charges for lying to an agent or for obstruction of justice.

Roberts, the report said, declined to meet with Mitchell.

We shall see what happens, but things are getting even uglier — not better.