On Wednesday, May 1st,
Clay Buchholz tossed seven scoreless innings allowing just two hits in the Red
Sox’s 10-1 win over the struggling Toronto Blue Jays. Buchholz has been pitching very well, no question about it,
but the question is right now, is he cheating? Blue Jays broadcaster Jack Morris thinks so.
Morris accused Buchholz of having a
substance on his arm that he was putting on the ball. Videos of Buchholz have shown him taking his two index
fingers and rubbing them against his arm (which was glistening). What those videos didn’t show was
Buchholz wiping off his index fingers immediately after touching his arm.
“I’m doing the same thing now as I
did in 2008 when I was sent down to double-A,” Buchholz told reporters.
I called Morris and he told me that
“it is all over with” and he refused to answer questions.
Morris later apologized to Buchholz
and said that the pitcher “was cool with it.” But just how cool with it do you really think Buchholz
was? He was profiled on the
headlines of ESPN’s SportsCenter for a week as a cheater, and that’s not what
any pitcher wants.
By the next night, it had become
the battle of the broadcasters. “I
faced Gaylord Perry,” said beloved NESN Red Sox broadcaster and former Red Sox
second baseman and American League All-Star Jerry Remy. But Jack Morris won 254 games in the
big leagues as well, and was backed in his accusition by another Jays
broadcaster, Dick Hayhurst, who said that Buchholz was “absolutely” cheating.
Hayhurst was an MLB pitcher also.
Everyone talks about Gaylord Perry
as the most famous spitball pitcher ever and how awful he was to face. So if he was the worst cheater ever and
we all reflect back painfully on him, why does he have a golden plaque in the
Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown?
But then that begs another
question: if we let Gaylord Perry into the Hall of Fame, why isn’t Barry Bonds,
who is widely accused of having used performance-enhancing drugs? And if we ever let Bonds in, what do we
do with Pete Rose, who was banned from the Hall for betting on baseball? The argument can go on and on.
In other incidences of cheating,
this one close to home as well, David Ortiz has hit .333 since coming off of
the DL on April 20. This has
begged the question whether the 37 year-old DH is using performance-enhancing
drugs. Though Ortiz denies it,
many question whether or not he can maintain the high level of play that he is
at.
Long time Boston Globe Red Sox
reporter Dan Shaughnessy was the first reporter to confront Ortiz. “I don’t really like doing it either,”
Shaughnessy said of questioning Ortiz several times throughout the conversation,
as he revealed on Boston Sports Live.
Ortiz denies it, “I don’t got
nothing to hide bro,” Ortiz told Shaughnessy. “If you struggle, it’s bad. If you do well, it’s bad too.”
This comes at a time when
untouchable superstars, not just in the game of baseball, are being brought
down. Major League Baseball looked
the other way on PEDs for a long time.
It’s similar to when you hear a bad noise on your car and all you do is
turn the radio up. The MLB felt
that there was too much money to be made off of drug users like Bonds, Sosa,
and McGwire, but that time is done.
It’s over. And it’s time
for us to accept that the steroid-era of baseball is no longer. And even if it means fewer home runs,
it is time.
Let’s face it, after the 2009 season; I thought Ortiz was
done. So when someone like Ortiz,
who was a part of the steroid-era, and was tested positive for PEDs in 2003,
starts hitting up in the .400s after coming off of an Achilles injury with no
spring training under his belt, it makes me and many others wonder. And that’s
all we can do right now, is wonder.
I’m not saying that he did or he didn’t, because I don’t have any
evidence.
But that can be changed. This is the first year that Major
League Baseball and their Player Association have implemented random drug testing
during the regular season. It’s
time for other pro sports to follow.
I hope that Ortiz is just having a great start, and with good testing,
we can put our suspicions to rest.
Follow Jasper Goodman on twitter: @Jasper_Goodman
Check out Jasper’s
blog:
www.goodmansports.blogspot.com
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