* The steroids books backlash begins

According to a press release from the Gibson Law Firm, distributed by PR Newswire on Aug. 10:

The publisher and authors of a book about steroid use in major league baseball were sued today by a Texas man who says they falsely claimed he was “pushing” steroids to professional athletes and using his gym as a front for selling drugs, according to The Gibson Law Firm.

Former gym owner Kelly Blair, of Deer Park, Texas, alleges that the book — “American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime” (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group) — falsely linked him to an “underground steroid network,” a convicted murderer and drug dealer, drug smuggling from Mexico and Canada, and the preparation of “collections of drugs” shipped to professional athletes.

Blair also is scheduled to testify on Tuesday before a federal grand jury in Washington.

Blair’s attorney, Jason A. Gibson, of The Gibson Law Firm, stated, “As the lawsuit alleges, Kelly Blair was maliciously and recklessly defamed by the authors and publishers of this book and at least one dubious source whose false allegations they published. Kelly looks forward to his day in court on this matter. In the meantime, he looks forward to testifying tomorrow before the grand jury in Washington.”

The defendants in the lawsuit are authors Michael O’Keeffe, Christian Red, Teri Thompson, and Nathaniel Vinton, all of whom are reporters for the New York Daily News; Robin Dobbins, a Deer Park, Texas man who was a source for the book; and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, of New York.

The lawsuit, which includes claims of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, seeks damages, exemplary damages, and attorney’s fees.

The case is “Kelly Blair v. Michael O’Keeffe, et al.,” in the District Court of Harris County, Texas, 11th Judicial District, Cause No. 2009-50671.

Here’s a report from MLB.com.

You hear about this all the time: The parties are outraged by the slander and libel and threaten to bring suit, but we haven’t heard much about it lately. Is it a question of the wheels of justice grinding slowly? Stay tuned.

* CYA for NYT?

Last week, Charles McGrath had written about “The Red Sox Nation, Betrayed.” This week, In The Public Editor column in Sunday’s Week in Review section, Clark Hoyt seeks to explain how the Times did the correct thing in its reporting that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were part of the 2003 list of players that tested positive for steroids/PED.

[Player union leader Donald] Fehr told me that if The Times wanted the names, it should have gone into court and asked the judge to lift the order. The newspaper did just that to get a front-page story last week about the pharmaceutical industry’s hidden influence on medical literature. Reporters and newspapers don’t have the right to substitute their judgment for a court’s, Fehr said.

Michael Schmidt, the reporter who got the baseball story … said he did nothing wrong. “I believe it is legal and ethical for me to ask questions of people who may be covered by court orders,” he said. “It is the choice of the source to talk.” Schmidt said that as many as 200 people know who is on the list — some of whom may not be covered by the judge’s order, which is itself sealed — and he set out systematically to talk to as many of them as possible.

Hoyt goes on to provide other examples that back his assertion that his paper was in the right in reporting what was supposed to have been sealed records.

What you decide to do with information after you get it can be the hard part….

“It’s a newspaper’s job to seek information and then, if it’s interesting, to publish it,” said Bill Keller, the executive editor.

Hoyt disagrees with those who say the names should have been kept private.

Ramirez, now with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Ortiz are still stars. [Sammy] Sosa, who hasn’t played since 2007, is hoping to make the Hall of Fame. Baseball may not be national security, but it is big business and a rich part of American culture. If the game and its records have been corrupted, people need to know.

For what it’s worth, I disagree with Hoyt, insofar as the information was intended — through legal channels — to remain undisclosed. Just because you can do something — in this case publish the names — doesn’t mean you should.

* Wait til you have grandkids of your own some day

According to Bill James, those science fiction books we’ve read for generations about “building” superior humans is never far from he truth. In this blog entry by Dan Steinberg on The Sporting News website, James opines that “steroids serve the function of prolonging youth, that fighting aging and death has been one of civilization’s greatest goals, and that therefore, steroids will be like bread and water within 50 years.” The story links to the ACTA website offering a preview of the 2010 Bill James Goldmine that includes a PDF download of the essay. For the sake of convenience, here it is.

On the positive side, Steinberg note

Having read and digested all of that, which is truly one of the most interesting arguments on the topic I’ve ever encountered, this is what I’m left with: we’re all going to live to be 300! Hot damn! After retiring at 65, I’m spending the next 193 summers playing golf on the coast of Florida, and that still leaves 42 years to yell at roided-up neighborhood kids for hitting wiffle balls 400 feet into my roided-up tomato plants! My two-year old soon-to-be-juicing daughter better start saving for my greens fees fund right now, and also for my stash of Deca-Durabolin! Oh, and buy Denny’s stock now, while you still can; imagine their bottom line with a country full of 200-year olds! If Barry Bonds is acting like such a grouch in his mid-40s, what will be like in his mid-240s? I don’t know, and I don’t care, because there’s an early-bird special with my name on it!

Can you say “Nietzsche“?

* Author interview: Zev Chafets

With the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies coming up, look for Chafets to be even more in the limelight.  This Q&A comes from the current edition of The Jewish Week and this one comes from The Forward, another Jewish publication.

* “How do you like me now?”

We might hate the man, for what he did to himself and what he did to besmirch the (relative) cleanliness of the game, but give Jose Canseco his due. He was right about about a lot of things, including players who used.

Jonathan Eig, author of a biography of Lou Gehrig — the anti-Canseco — published this op-ed piece in the July 5 edition of The Washington Post:

He’s not The Natural. The Un-Natural is more like it. But in his own clumsy, hormonally imbalanced way, Canseco has done more than any player of his time to help baseball overcome the errors of its recent ways. The worst of the Steroid Era appears to be over, and Canseco deserves a fair chunk of the credit.

and

His 2005 book, “ Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big,” called attention to the abuse of steroids. He confessed in the book to using steroids and named other suspected users when no one else was doing so.

His testimony before Congress that same year was forthright and straightforward, when others around him ducked and lied. Steroids, he told lawmakers, were as prevalent in baseball in the late 1980s and 1990s “as a cup of coffee.”

* RK Review: American Icon

The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime, by Teri Thompson, Nathaniel Vinton, Michael O’Keeffe, and Christian Red. Knopf, 2009.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, the topic du an in baseball lit is steroids/PED. No less than four major titles consider the science and those who use performance enhancers and several others have it as at least a main theme.

American Icon kind of flew in under the radar. A collective work by a quartet of NY Daily News reporters cobbled this research-intensive expose on Clemens and his “partner in crime, ” Brain McNamee, who supplied and injected him with the drugs. Clemens denied all the allegations long and loud.

In the opening author’s’ note, they write

We stand by the sources, both on and off the record, we’ve chosen [emphasis mine] to believe. And we feel strongly that anyone who reads this book carefully and objectively will come to the same conclusion.

Sorry, no.

This book preaches to the choir. Those who believe Clemens guilty have no need to read, save to claim “conclusive proof” of the pitcher’s guilt and lies;  those who still have faith in his innocence and those on the fence will not be convinced.

The writers — who form a macho-sounding “sports investigative team” — spend the majority of the book in McNamee’s corner. Sure, he may have supplied the drugs, just doing what his boss (Clemens) wanted him to do, but he was just trying to get along, not really doing any harm to anyone. It’s not like he was standing on a street corner dealing crack…. Several times the authors refer to McNamee’s time as a former police officer, as if that alone would indicate what a standup guy he is (what, there are no crooked cops?).

Like Selena Roberts in her biography on Alex Rodriguez, American Icon relies too much on unnamed sources, those who might have a professional or personal axe to grind against Clemens. They also have a tendency towards the over-dramatic: “McNamee had become a drug delivery man on the same streets he’d once policed as an undercover cop.”

The book follows a chronological format; the latter chapters cover in great detail Clemens’ appearance before Congress in February, 2008. Much of the information was covered in great detail at the time. The biggest revelation for me came in the Congressional testimony part of the book. That the federal government has nothing better to do with its time and our money is appalling, even for one who loves the game so much and wants to see justice prevail. But that the politicians would use this as a means to build their own agendas is even worse (although not, unfortunately, surprising).

Recently sports pundits such as the crew at Pardon The Interruption, have opined that it comes down to an age thing when discussing how to handle Clemens and all these players under the steroids cloud. Those over forty, they say, are much more strict as to who to let in while those under 40 just don’t care.  American Icon tries hard to be the definitve book on Clemens, the fallen hero. If it becomes so, it will only because the fans just don’t care any more to warant further discussion.

* Chafets opines on steroids and the Hall of Fame

Zev Chafets, author of Cooperstown Confidential, published this Op-Ed piece in the June 19 edition of The New York Times (“Let steroids into the Hall of Fame“). will Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, et al now become loyal Times readers?

[T]oday’s superstars have lawyers and a union. They know how to use the news media. And they have plenty of money. The only way to punish them is to deny them a place in Cooperstown. The punishment has already been visited on Mark McGwire, and many more are on deck.

This makes no sense. On any given day, the stands are packed with youngsters on Adderall and Ritalin (stimulants used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and college students who use Provigil (an anti-narcolepsy drug) as a study aid. The guy who sings the national anthem has probably taken a beta blocker to calm his stage fright. Like it or not, chemical enhancement is here to stay. And it is as much a part of the national game as $5.50 hot dogs, free agency and Tommy John elbow surgery.

Purists say that steroids alter the game. But since the Hall opened its doors, baseball has never stopped changing. Batters now wear body padding and helmets. The pitcher’s mound has risen and fallen. Bats have more pop. Night games affect visibility. Players stay in shape in the off-season. Expansion has altered the game’s geography. And its demography has changed beyond recognition. Babe Ruth never faced a black pitcher. As Chris Rock put it, Ruth’s record consisted of “714 affirmative-action home runs.” This doesn’t diminish Ruth’s accomplishment, but it puts it into context.

Needless to say, the piece generated a fair amount of comment, most con.

* The lingering impact of Canseco’s books

From SFgate.com, the literary master of disaster comments on a teammate’s assertion that he’s persona non grata among the old Oakland As.

* The Clemens book: A sneak peek?

Not really, but a funny take on what might be, courtesy of Jon Bois on Fanhouse.com.

* Reviews (and then some): Cooperstown Confidential

From the MLB portion of Fanhouse.com, this piece on Zev Chafets‘ new and controversial book on the Hall of Fame.

And another from The Hardball Times.

Upshot:

Chafets doesn’t portray himself as a baseball expert, a la Bill James. He clearly is a fan of the game—and a passionate one—make no mistake about it, but his focus is different. This isn’t a book about if the Hall inducted the right players. (The one time Chafets delves heavily into those waters provides the weakest part of the book.) Instead, it’s more about how other items unrelated to on-field merits impact selection.

***

The book does have one annoying feature: I think Chafets gets a little carried away with his caustic attitude. Any time an issue is brought up, he shows how it creates a tension between the Hall’s official standards and stature and reality. By and large this works well, but seems reflexive.

***

It’s a book worth reading if you’re interested in Cooperstown’s contemporary controversies, but not if you’re looking for analysis on who belongs in/out based on his playing ability.

There’s cheating and then there’s cheating. Or is there? Is it like being “a little bit pregnant?” Some hate Chafets for letting some light in on the subject, wanting to believe their game is pure. But players have been taking cortisone shots — which contains a steroid, albeit not anabolic — for decades without public outrage. Then there are the other “performance enhanceers” such as amphetamines.  Hell, even caffeine can be considered a substance that can give a boost. Should that be banned, too?

On the other hand, I would hope Chafets isn’t just being an iconoclast for the publicity it has and will garner him.