All right, ladies and gentlemen, a little background music to set the mood for us today. This is episode twenty of the Shawn Mackey show and we’re gonna continue talking about the top 100 baseball players of the 20th century. In the last episode we got into Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds, a couple of guys with some controversy behind them.

So we’re gonna explore that whole steroid scandal a little bit further, coming up soon in today’s episode. Right now we’re gonna start off like we always do with the Chicago Cubs and if you thought I was pissed off last episode well, let me just tell you I’m even more pissed off now. OK is there cause for concern? Yes, is it time to panic? I don’t know, but I am a panicking, kind of guy all right. It was so funny yesterday I was looking for something that popped up. It’s been about a year since a friend of mine passed away and I was on YouTube and a song I had dedicated to him popped up on the YouTube, so I went back in and kind of looked at the post you know and it kind of goes back to his friendship with my dad and it was Kenny Rogers Good Friend and listen to that but in order to see that post I had to scroll through a lot of the Cubs posts I put up last year when I didn’t have the podcast and they were interesting. Maybe one day I will read those for you so you can get an idea of what I post on Facebook when I get pissed

So the Cubs had lost that last game and the series to the Mariners. They went into St. Louis and they were facing the Cardinals for four games and you would’ve hoped they would’ve left out of there with more than just a split, but that’s what they had but unfortunately, the Cubs lose game one and two to the Cardinals so that put them on a three game losing streak which that’s where I was getting pissed off because by this time we’ve got some crazy ass things going on like Cubs’ pitchers giving up like 20 Home runs in the month of June or something like that.  Jameson Taillon I think at this point has given up over 20 Home runs this season The bullpen you know what Genesis Cabrera gets DFA’d  right and then Nate Pearson comes up and gets sent back down to the minors and then Porter Hodge comes off the IL and they had brought up Michael Fulmer and he pitches for two games and then they DFA to him when Shota comes back off the injured list which is awesome because Shota had a great game back so that guy is absolutely proving  to be an ace for us so let’s give Shoda a big round of applause for that effort that he put together yesterday coming off of the disabled list.

But Ben Brown gets optioned. He gives up a bunch of runs, takes one of those losses and he’d been a spotty issue all season long. They’ve been times where he was really good and then they were times that he just implodes and gives it all up and so the Cubs end up splitting that series they take game 3, 8 to 0. A  pretty dominant performance there they went on to win game four 3-0, but then you have Ian who forgets baseball. How long have you been playing the game, buddy?

Right I mean, you’re the longest tenured Cub on the field today and you forget how baseball works. At line drive and you round second base turn the corner realize that the ball was caught, you slip, and instead of touching the bag and getting back to first which you probably had time to do based on how far the outfielder had to go, after making the catch, in order to get himself in a position to make the throw back to first you were there in plenty of time by taking your shortcut so had you literally just leaned over You know stepped over and touched the bag, you probably get back safe to first so not sure how you forget how baseball works Ian. But I’ll I’ll cut you some slack cause you’re having a good season this year I know I’ve been on your ass in the past and I think it was well deserved because I’ve been waiting for you to live up to the potential, that’s kept you around this long with the Chicago Cubs.

Moving into Houston for three games there. Houston is leading their division so like I said last week this was a prominent series and yeah I was hoping and jokingly said at the end like I hope they go on a seven game winning streak and take four from the Cardinals, take three from the Astros right and and no so if you believe in if you’re superstitious, whatever it is you believe in jinx you wanna blame me go ahead. I got a big back and some strong shoulders.

So that’s where we stand with the Cubs and I just wanted to start the episode like we always do. We gotta get those cub recaps in there again told you a couple episodes ago. I’m not boring you with all the stats and statistics that stuff you can look up there I’m just here to provide a little bit of entertainment and my opinions with you so that’s gonna take me now I want to get into.

Steroid scandal of Major League Baseball and this is something that apparently’s been going on for 20 well we could probably say better than 25 years more than that I mean we’re talking this kind of starts at some point in the late 80s

In Major League Baseball, where they’re not really testing they’re not making any kind of tests at this point maybe for some things but not steroids not performance enhancing drugs and I wanna say that this starts with Jose Canseco‘s book.  I think this came at a period where Jose Canseco was not getting signed by anybody. Something happened to this guy and I think he was pissed off.  So he writes this book Called juiced and this book comes out and I think this is where the entire baseball world gets stood on its head with this steroid scandal right the book is called juiced wild times rampant smash hits and baseball got big and it’s a book in 2005 but he goes on and talks about dudes are doing steroids all over the place and so you gotta remember it psycho and Mark McGwire They’re coming up with the A’s in like 84 and 86 or something like that so this is like the early middle 80s and then this is when baseball starts exploding with power and everybody’s loving it fans are just like oh my God this is freaking awesome you know and and people are clamoring for it and we don’t know what’s going on until Jose. Canseco kind of makes these accusations in his book.

And he’s a guy that in 1988 he’s like the first Major League Baseball player to hit 40 Home runs and steal 40 bases in a year so there’s a fast dude with some crazy power. OK, he's playing baseball. He comes up in 85 and if I remember correctly, McGwire came up in 86 and then these guys are just knocking the cover off the ball all over the place so it plays until about 2001 which I think that’s one McGwire retired, but I know that there was some some weirdness going on with him at that point it was he couldn’t find a solid home and he was bouncing around the league you know from 97 until 2000 and one he’s with like 16 The A’s again the Blue Jays, the Devil Rays, the Yankees and then the White Sox so we can’t find a home and I don’t know what happens but he goes out. He writes this book and I think Major League Baseball is like well. We kind of gotta take notice of this and it deals. 

The whole book is about steroids. You know personal experiences that Jose Canseco had himself and he goes on. He say McGwire, Juan Gonzales,  Rafael Palmiero, Pudge Rodriguez, and Jason Giambi are all using steroids, right? And he starts thinking I’ve been blackballedl from baseball and that’s what it was. He felt that Bud Selig came in and said baseball needed to be cleaned up and he felt that the teams were being told by Bud Selig to leave. Jose Canseco alone. We don’t need him so this book comes out.

 Allegations are made and I know that the drug testing kinda really got serious around 2005 so these dudes are playing from 85 on up 98 is when Sosa and McGwire have that incredible duel that they had going on throughout the season for most home runs, but the thing is is there was a period of time in Major League Baseball where like nobody hit 40 home runs in a season that was unheard of and then all of a sudden multiple guys are hitting home runs at an unbelievable rate we start seeing many ball players putting up 50 Home runs. McGwire did 60 a couple of times Wright Rogers we know Roger Maris in 1961 hits the most home runs ever in a season in 1961 and that’s how long that record stood till the very first time that I got, I’ll have it’ll come to me, but I’ll have to remember if it was McGwire that broke at the first time maybe Ken Griffey Junior. 

He and McGwire we’re like neck and neck with this whole deal to beat Roger Maris’ record so it’s not coming to me right off the top of my head but this period of baseball like nobody knows it goes on from the 80s to the late 2000 and steroids were actually banned by Major League Baseball in 91 right but they didn’t implement a testing program that span the entire league until 2003 so that meant like nobody was getting tested so it makes sense that all these guys from the 80s were like what the hell if this is gonna make me better they’re not really testing us. You know what’s gonna happen if we get caught, and I think I think the first punishments for Steroid suspension that or drug suspension was like only 20 games you know anybody busting their ass all season, long playing baseball and hot ass weather he’d be like I got a three week

They were in the late end during the 1990s right all of a sudden people are hitting like I said people are hitting home runs at crazy crazy paces. There were only three players to ever hit 50 home runs in a season between 61 and 1994 right in the mid 90s That all blows up in 96 McGwire he leads the majors with 52 home runs and he misses part of the season due to injury and he still hits 52 in 97 McGwire and Ken Griffey Junior they were threatening that record of Roger Mary of 61 and you know that season ends though and I think McGwire ends up with 58 home runs and Griffey hits like 56 so they don’t break the record then But there’s still this is two years in a row not in a row.

 I’m sorry twice now that Mark McGwire hit 50 home runs during a season right and then halfway through the season McGwire in 97 McGwire gets traded to the St. Louis Cardinals that sets the stage for the 1998 season in which he and Sammy sold battle neck and neck for that home run title, but by that time 19 9713 different major league players hit at least 40 Home runs. I remember when Ryan Sandberg get home runs and that was a big accomplishment for him. OK so we’re talking 1997 and all of a sudden almost everybody in a freaking league is able to hit the long ball and you’re home runs little Squirrely guys that might hit four home runs in their career for the last six seasons then all of a sudden they put up this guy got to live at home runs this year Wright everybody’s wondering what’s going on in baseball nobody’s really doing anything about it cause I think nobody really wanted to know right

So in early September in a series against the Cubs McGwire hit his 61st Home run and then a 62nd Home run and boom. He broke Roger Maris' record and I don’t know why that was escaping me. I knew he’s the guy that broke the record and it was in the 1998 season and my gosh I enjoyed the hell out of that season so I don’t know why that escaped.

Right and by the end of the season McGwire hit 70 for the season and Sosa hit 66 right and that’s 26. Home runs. His previous high was like 40 home runs. He hit 26 more runs than he ever hit in his life in 98 and come on we know he had been taking steroids. I said in the last episode how big did these guys get from when they came up in the league to when they retired right?

But the crazy thing is during that 1999 or 98 home run chase that McGwire was going on dude admits to using basically a substance that was banned by the national football league and I’d be honest with you. I’ve never been able to say this word. I'm an English teacher and I’ve always had the sound out this word and I can never get it that Androstenedione I don’t even know what I can’t even say the word McGwire admits to it but there’s no real meaning. It’s not a substance banned by baseball. They’re kind of like OK no big deal

So he keeps using it OK so this all this starts coming about and we’re talking about baseball‘s gotta clean things up OK so then Congress starts getting involved there’s all sorts of hearings you know we’re talking that a couple of years like three years after McGwire breaks Mary‘s record and ends the season with 70 Home runs Barry Bonds hit 73 right but any season prior to that year Barry Bonds never hit 50. Home runs, what's going on come on. We know something’s going on Jiminy crickets Major League Baseball were booing the hell out of you because we know something‘s going on now. 

Fans are starting to wonder if these dudes all doped up, is everybody cheating and come on? We know there’s been cheaters in baseball. A couple of these guys on the top 100 list were known for like spitballs doing whatever they can to scuff up the balls I know Gaylord Perry’s on the list. I think he was one of them. There were other dudes that had spit balls. I know you remember the whole Negro deal he was caught on the mound with a nail file tried to pull it out of his back pocket and throw his hands up in the air like look nothing is in there damn thing flooded all over the place everybody watching the game that day was like what the hell was that?

But I know for some baseball fans it’s starting to put a bad taste in their mouth. You know if you are all for it and love the home runs and cheer them on. I don’t think you can really get too pissed off about these dudes using steroids right the five Home the 500 home run that’s like a big deal so a lot of these guys that are on this list the commonality is is I think a lot of these guys that finally admitted to using steroids were brought up on charges and who were who were taken to congressional hearings or whatever they’re not in the baseball Hall of Fame they might be on this list. Yeah they were great baseball players, but I think the writers and the players and everybody who votes for the baseball Hall of Fame is like no we’re we’re not gonna put these guys in. We just can’t do it so that’s something we’re gonna need to look at Eddie Murray at some point he goes on and becomes like the 15th member of the 500 club but I don’t ever think 

I remember hearing anything about Eddie Murray being part of this whole steroid deal dude just could hit so you know those are the guys that I think they want in the Hall of Fame, right Between 98 and 2009 10 more dudes make the 500 club in Home runs you know and 96 there was only 15 and then the list almost doubles in 10 years.

So you’ve got Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Manning, Ramirez, Rafael Palmeiro, and Gary Sheffield have all been linked to performance enhancing drugs. They’re all on in the club they

Right so this leads to investigations they start investigating Belco all right but this is like it’s in 2003 now right and this is a nutrition, a nutritional supplement firm out in California. They’re being suspected of giving steroids that are undetectable like this company is creating or has their hands on yeah you can take this. It’s gonna make you bigger and they’re never gonna find out right and so the case ends up going to a grand jury and they subpoena Bonds Jason Giambi Sheffield You know dozens to 20 more. Balco customers bond goes on to testify that he took substances described to him that he said were their licensed oil. It's rubbing balm you know that’s all I took. 

That’s all that’s all it was all right, but his personal trainer gets indicted in the case so that’s not looking good for Barry Bonds OK admits to use steroids, he’s using HGH and he’s saying I’m getting it from Balco so now you got another guy who admits to it, but they never tested positive by the league. The testimonies weren’t reported publicly until the year so later after they were in the grand jury, so nothing happened baseball didn’t do shit you know all right none of the players are charged with using performance drugs Wright, but that case is the one that makes finally makes Major League Baseball Institute a league wide drug testing program OK still not looking good by 2007 he charged with perjury and obstruction of justice because of what he said to the grand jury OK he appeals the case. 

The trial doesn’t happen in 2011 and he gets 30 days house arrest two years probation 250 hours of community service and it was state pending Appeal All right so I guess mine is convicted of something perjury obstruction of justice based on you know what I’ve read OK and then we have the Mitchell commission in 2006 bud sea he ask Senator George Mitchell to investigate this. I mean, put a panel together let’s investigate steroid used by Major League Baseball players all right And I think at that point the investigation is focusing on 2002 season all right but it takes 20 months Mitchell investigates an interview 100s of people the only two active players who freely cooperated with this investigation with Mitchell was Frank Thomas at that point with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Yankees Jason Giambi all right and he was told he’d faced disciplinary action from Major League Baseball if he didn’t cooperate so he was coerced into cooperating. I guarantee he didn’t want you to know he did not want to cooperate no way All right and Mitchell. He’s telling the owners he’s like look at these dudes aren’t gonna cooperate. This is gonna get the government involved even further in the matter. Donal Fehr the head of the players union. He’s like this raises a lot of questions and issues about privacy so what are we gonna do so he left it up to each individual whether they were gonna talk to investigators or not, and most of them said no fuck that.