Patton & Co. | Player | Ken Caminiti

2 comments
mike 8 months ago	This week's Baseball Prospectus radio with Jim Bouton was interesting -- less for his proposal for annual blood testing and a "one strike and you're out" policy, more for his observation that he proposed it in order to protect competitive players from themselves. He reiterated what he said in Ball Four -- if he had a pill that would give him 20 wins in exchange for five years off his life, he would have done it in a minute, and thinks most other players would too. Maybe more so now, given the salaries, but it's important to recognize that on one level it's as much about the competition as it is about the money.
Alex 8 months ago	Article in this Sunday Times' Week in Review has an interesting observation. We don't mind, in fact enjoy -- or at least are amused by -- cheating "between the lines." Spitballs, emery boards, corked bats and so forth. The whole thing is, very simply, a health issue. Remember those White Sox scrubs who faked their pee tests? They were saying, Please don't allow us to take this stuff because who knows how bad it's going to mess us up? Owners could have cared less about that. Donald Fehr could have cared less. Players who doped cared -- but what the hell, you only play once.