85 thoughts on “January 15, 2013: No More Heroes”

        1. Don't worry, they're not really space shuttles. They're more like planes that reach the outer atmosphere so that you can experience a few seconds of weightlessness.

              1. Lately, I haven't been feeling like I really care about baseball all that much. This could be due to the craptastic performance from our local club, or it could be that I'm more entertained by other things. But, just looking at that link brings me back to one of the most exciting nights I can remember.

        2. Might be kind of hard for ol' Lance to win a Super Bowl. But, yeah Super Bowls &/or Oprah = Redemption!

        3. Funny, because I'd be willing to bet there's some sort of positive correlation between winning Super Bowls and doping.

    1. Are bionic arms outlawed in the MLB rulebook? If not, I'd suggest the Twins have the doctors give one to Nick. I'd think he might be able to contribute if he had one.

    2. I'm thinking Parise in the first, Koivu in the second and Heatley in the third. Is this a money league?

  6. So, Lance sued people for defamation (including settling for $500K with a London newspaper) when they discussed his alleged PED use. Now, he admits he did it. He also did the Livestrong thing. Barry Bonds almost certainly knowingly used PEDs, but he didn't go out and sue people, yet he probably lied under oath and he has a (pretty flimsy) obstruction of justice conviction for giving an evasive answer. Both used PEDs in environments where usage was widespread. In the case of cycling, there was a concerted effort to crack down on cheating, where in baseball, usage, until the last couple of years was basically condoned by the powers that be.

    So, who is the bigger villain? Or is either a villain?

    2. I'm gonna go with Lance as the villian on the basis of the crap lawsuits that I hope he has to pay money back for. Mostly though, I don't think I care a whole lot. It'd be nice if they could all just be allowed to juice and the rest of us can move on with our lives. (not that my life has stopped because Lance is on Oprah.)

    3. I think it's kind of interesting to see how they both approached the morality of the usage. Armstrong seemed to do everything he could to cover it up, like he knew it was wrong. Bonds, despite denying it, didn't really seem to hide it with the same ferocity. There's stories about Bonds making the calculated decision to use so that he could go from being one of the best to being the best, because he was jealous of the attention McGuire and such were getting.

      Bonds seems like an example of someone taking an "ends justify the means" approach, but Armstrong's coverups demonstrate an acknowledgment that the means were wrong. From an ethical standpoint, I have more problems with the person who accepts that the ends justify the means. At the same time, Armstrong seems like the weaker person, who knew right from wrong but didn't stand up for what was right.

      It's a whole lot of projection, but I'd have to say that Bonds is more of a villain, Lance is more of a weasel. And I think I respect villains more than weasels.

      1. Armstrong seemed to do everything he could to cover it up, like he knew it was wrong.

        Or maybe because the cycling federation has long at least pretended to enforce its rules against doping. He would have been banned for a year or more in his prime if caught.

        Cycling has for decades (since LeMond, at least) been rife with a culture of cheating/coverups. But when (almost) everyone is cheating, is anyone cheating?

        1. It's a fair point if you're limiting his actions to the world of cycling. But he took a much larger approach to his cover-up, including, as was pointed out, civil suits for defamation.

    4. Say what you want about Bonds and Armstrong individually, but you're still trying to compare 755 to cycling. I don't recall hardly anyone in this country giving much of a damn about cycling before Lance Armstrong.

      1. And there's a lot of people in Europe who have never seen a baseball game or even know the first thing about it.

            1. If I could easily learn a language just for the fun of learning it, Dutch looks so cool. It looks like if English got really twisted spellings and then every tenth word is just completely random.

              1. I mean, it looks easy:

                Nieuwe club Loek van Mil heeft een nieuwe club gevonden. De Nederlandse profpitcher heeft een contract getekend bij Cincinnati Reds. Hij start in de Minor League.

                New Club Loek van Mil haves a new club gived on him. The [Dutch] pro pitcher haves a contract get takened by [the] Cincinnati Reds. He starts in the Minor League.
                That's gotta be pretty close, right?

          1. I wasn't comparing 755 to cycling. I was comparing the individuals and how people think of them. I really don't care about who holds the record for most HRs.

            1. Right, but you can't get around the fact that people hold certain things more dearly than others, and place moral weight accordingly. Bonds is going to be the greater villain because he broke the record of a black man who received death threats for hitting more home runs than a white man, and there are plenty of fans (and voters in the BBWAA) who were alive when Aaron broke Ruth's record and are going to hold that cheapening of that record against Bonds. Armstrong's success popularized cycling, but he didn't replace anyone in the record books that anyone in this country cares much about, because baseball has a ton of long-standing grip on American sporting culture, and cycling just flat doesn't.

              1. Right, but you can't get around the fact that people hold certain things more dearly than others, and place moral weight accordingly.

                So, if a guy steals your and only your retirement funds, is he more evil than a guy who steals the retirement funds of 500 people similar to you but that you don't know?

    1. During a phone call days later, Lowe asked about her sexual relationship with her husband, commented on her appearance and asked if she was interested in sex with him.

      1. The PiPress report that Lowe was placed on probation for purchasing cocaine from a client in 1997, so the most recent incident of unprofessional conduct isn't the first time he's landed himself in trouble for blending work and play.

    2. 1.8(j) might be the only rule of professional conduct I can actually remember by number.

  10. Man I love Bleacher Report if for nothing else than the humor factor. Alexi Casilla is the shortstop on their "All-Underpaid Team". How did the Twins ever let him go?!?!?!

    1. I'd forgotten we let him go. Honestly, if you asked me to name the 40-man right now, I'd do worse than I would have in any season since at least 2000.

      1. also, given the following sentence in the piece, how does that compute to being "all-underpaid"???

        A multi-year deal would be ill-advised considering that he has never earned his keep for a full season

    3. If he has been released, then I guess he is "underpaid" in the sense that he's not currently getting paid.

    1. saw the potential to help people overcome their difficulties with taking injections.

      .

      Oh, mama.

  13. The local Famous Footwear had my Pumas marked down $15 off, so I bought a pair to replace my current pair. A pair I bought last September before we went to Prague. I should be set until June 2014.

  14. File under crazy: I've just been given a lithography press for free. A day after a crushing defeat I'm given a massive gift. Crazy.

  16. not saying that I was wavering on my my faith of the show runners and writers, but glad to see that Justified is still churning out excellent episodes.

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