Morse suspended
Jeff · September 7, 2005 at 11:29 am · Filed Under Mariners
I’m trying to figure out the right adjective for this press release. Terse? Succint? Spare?
I’d give you the upshot, but the whole release is the upshot:
The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball today announced that Michael Morse of the Seattle Mariners has been suspended 10 days, effective today, for violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.
Bummer.
Comments
207 Responses to “Morse suspended”
Dave Paisley wrote: “If you have something to say – say it. If not, well, shut up.”
Why the hostility? If you don’t think Dave’s comments are worthwhile, then go ahead and ignore them. No one’s forcing you to believe them.
I would rather that Dave tells us he’s basing his opinion on information he can’t give us rather than telling us he just has an opinion for no reason at all.
This thread is highly disturbing. I am not sure what I am to believe in this case, but there certainly appears to be overwhelming evidence supporting the claims of Mike Morse.
The statements from the arbitrators and Major League baseball (“Don’t blame us, blame the MLBPA”) certainly support Morse’s claims. Are we to believe that there is no expert testimony in one of these hearings? Are the arbitrators relying on google searches and blog authors for thier data? Why would MLB and the arbitrators release such statements if Morse’s story is completely and totally without merit like DMZ and Dave say?
Lastly, the reactions of Dave and DMZ are highly upsetting. For Dave to say that “I know Mike Morse,” like he’s drinking buddies with the guy isn’t fair one bit. Earlier in this thread it was said that USSM has long said that Morse is a roid user. I frequent this blog and I have never once seen the topic addressed. I know that there has been a lot of speculation, but as far as I know it has always been one of those “We know but we’re not telling you to protect his privacy” topics. To top it off, when shown data to support that Deca can be one’s system for 18 months, DMZ just scoffs at it like he’s the head IOC drug tester. It’s really patronizing to the readership here, really.
Overwhelming evidence?
Overwhelming evidence would be published reports of each of his tests, showing the tested level of the drug decreasing. Actually, really truly overwhelming evidence would be Morse actually passing a test. MLB can say they believe Morse, but they’ve said a lot of things that I’ve disagreed with before, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t believe them without a little more evidence. I guess I’m decidedly underwhelmed here.
“Why would MLB and the arbitrators release such statements if Morse’s story is completely and totally without merit like DMZ and Dave say?”
Really? They said that?
Re. #181:
Okay, semantically speaking, there was never a legitimate ban on the discussion of steroid topics; however, the cases where posts regarding the use of steroids concerning professional baseball players had been erased occurred often on this website.
At any rate, though, I hope that everyone will get along after the debate about Mike Morse.
Why would MLB and the arbitrators release such statements if Morse’s story is completely and totally without merit like DMZ and Dave say?
I didn’t say that. I said I’m skeptical.
(on us discussing his previous suspensions)
I frequent this blog and I have never once seen the topic addressed.
I don’t believe that anyone said we’ve been open about this for a long time. I think this is a reference to my comment in #25
Dave first mentions this indirectly in August of 2004
“This is one of those cases, like Rett’s “personal issuesâ€Â, where I don’t feel like it benefits anyone to reveal the details of what happened. It’s a fairly serious issue, and I’ve been asked to keep this one to myself. On stuff like this, I think it’s a reasonable request, and therefore, I’m going to do so.”
At the time, in fact, you can read the thread and see Dave being criticized at length for “withholding information” etc etc, much like in this thread.
It came up again several times. Then in June 20th, Dave made a more serious comment in a response in a comment thread here. Others argued he wasn’t on a steroid, but something else OTC.
Later on, I got involved, noting that the particulars of the minor league drug policy made it pretty clear that was what Morse got suspended for (aaaaand took a fair amount of crap for not knowing what I was talking about there, too).
To top it off, when shown data to support that Deca can be one’s system for 18 months, DMZ just scoffs at it like he’s the head IOC drug tester. It’s really patronizing to the readership here, really.
When did I scoff? I think you’re reading tone into comments. I do in some comments say “if you believe deca can be detected that far out…” or whatever, but that’s when I’m laying out things that have to be true in order for the story to work, or testing something.
I expressed great skepticism that winstrol could hang around that long, but that’s not what we’re talking about.
And what’s the deal with people making fun of me for doing Google searches on this stuff when some of these other quotes are off “steroidtips.com” and other random dark corners of the internet?
I’ve written about baseball professionally for six years now. I’ve got a track reacord a mile long, all under my name, all easily accessible for people to dissect and go over. I like to think during that time I’ve built some kind of reputation for taking these things seriously and being prepared, as well as trying to separate weighing the facts (“this could be true”) from what’s my opinion (“I’m skeptical of this story, for these reasons”).
Do people think I just pull random crap out of my ass? And if so, why hang around here? I’m extremely disappointed in particular that my reasonable skepticism about this is met with such scorn.
Okay, semantically speaking, there was never a legitimate ban on the discussion of steroid topics;
There wasn’t an illegitimate one, either
however, the cases where posts regarding the use of steroids concerning professional baseball players had been erased occurred often on this website.
Noooooooooo, that’s also not true. This in the comment guidelines if it’s unclear, but the policy has essentially always been that speculation about steroid use by players gets nuked, for site-protection reasons and also it’s totally unproductive and difficult to police.
So Jamal Strong got suspended = fine.
Raffy = okay
Franklin = okay
Saying Boone, Bonds, whoever else is on steroids = never okay
In some cases, that’s a fine line: we’ve talked about Giambi’s leaked grand jury testimony, but with kid gloves.
And, in general, steroid threads have an uncanny tendency to go off the rails and plunge into the ravine of unmanagability, so even when they start reasonable, they often get closed when we start having to spend too much time managing them.
And with that, I’m closing the thread. I’m disappointed that reasonable skepticism over today’s events and Morse’s story has been interpreted variously as condescending, patronizing, and various other negative things, and I don’t want to keep arguing over whether that’s true or not, or what a horrible person Dave is or not, or… or whatever. I don’t have the time or resources to devote to this.
Anyone who wants to raise concerns about my attitude, tone, or anything else should feel free to drop us a line.
To Pete and others who kept much of this entirely reasonable, thanks.