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I've never understood why Cards fans complain when Bernie questions ownership or writes a column that is critical of someone such as Albert Pujols. Bernie is far less harsh than most columnists. I read Bernie's columns and I read Jason Whitlock's columns. Whitlock is regularly very critical of the Royals and Chiefs. Bernie tends to be far less critical of the Saint Louis teams. Part of it is, no doubt, that the Cardinals are a far better team than the Royals. But part of itis, no doubt, that Bernie doesn't stir the pot the way some columnists do. And I don't mean to bash Bernie or Whitlock because both are very good columnists. And for what it's worth, Bernie used his column to write about the World Cup. I have no problem with a columnist who wants to expand his horizons and write about something other than the local teams.

I thought there was a blood test for HGH now. Anyway, I agree that HGH is likely at the root of the size increase in NFL players. I'd be surprised if steroids still weren't widely used as well. There seems to be some conflicting reports on this. I've found one link -- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5538709/ -- which claims that there's effective tests for HGH. On the other hand, if you believe Jayson Stark -- http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2474247 -- there is no effective test for HGH right now. Rob Manfred of MLB -- http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/sports/baseball/07cnd-drug.html?hp&ex=1149739200&en=3b93c1643fd82d05&ei=5094&partner=homepage -- also denies that there's a reliable test for HGH. So take that for what it's worth. HGH can be administered in a number ways. One of these ways is by extracting HGH from cadavers, as disgusting as that is. However, there are also many synthetic HGH products available now including Humatrope and Nutropin. Another method of increasing HGH production is by ingesting precursors of HGH. As for steroids, there are ways to get around the testing for testosterone. I don't remember exactly what the test is, but it's done by comparing the ratio of testosterone to another substance. If the amount of testosterone is too high compared to the other substance, the it's considered a positive test. As long as you don't exceed that amount, though, you can take testosterone and not fail drug tests.

The average size of lineman has jumped significantly over the past 20 years. The fridge was huge in 1985 at 305 lbs. How many NFL players tip the scales at over 300 lbs these days? Heck, how many college kids do? Players don't get that much bigger that quickly without some help. It's the white elephant in the room for the NFL, and nobody cares because few lineman are in the spotlight. Just a thought but there isn't a test for HGH. Even the IOC which is typically very strict about banning substances doesn't test for HGH. We're kidding ourselves if we don't think HGH is a big problem. I have nothing to back this up, but it wouldn't surprise me if HGH is rampant in the NFL. I do think the NFL drug testing could be a lot tougher. But relative to other leagues, the NFL testing has been very good.

Unlike MLB, the NFL has actually done a very good job of policing themselves and taking a strong stand against performance enhancing substances. They have tough penalties and have done random testing for a long time. Additionally, they not only test for the drugs but for masking agents as well. The union and the owners both agree that performance enhancing substances have no place in the NFL and have worked together to try to keep them out of the league. This is totally different from MLB where the owners were more than willing to sweep this under the rug (until Congress got involved) and the union opposed drug testing. Because the NFL hasn't allowed the problem to get out of hand like MLB has, there's not nearly the amount of controversy surrounding the NFL.

Here is a nice quote from an article about Albert and Mihlfeld "Consequently, a frustrated Albert Pujols -- after spending a year at Kansas City's Maple Woods Community College, where he met strength and conditioning guru Chris Mihlfeld and started the process of building an Adonis-like upper body-- waited 13 rounds before getting the call from the Cardinals." http://www.810whb.com/scripts/archives/getstory.asp?article=12344&string=noSearch I think its just naive that we all trash the last decades premier power hitteres and their records, but then hail the new guys who could break those records too. If Mihlfeld's name is really on that affidavit, then I'll pay a little more attention to this. Eventually the names on the affidavit will be leaked to the press, no doubt, and we'll have a much better idea if Mihlfeld has a role in this. If it is indeed Mihlfeld's name, I'll be suspicious of Mike Sweeney as well as Pujols. And I really hate to say that because I'm a Royals fan and Sweeney is one of my favorite players. I just think right now there's too many things uncertain to make any conclusion from this. Don't think I'm saying Pujols and Sweeney are innocent. I'm not. I'm just not convinced there's a fire to go along with all the smoke yet.

Mihlfeld was the Royals strength and conditioning coach in 2003 and 2004. He was a minor league strength and conditioning coach for five years. And he's also Mike Sweeney's trainer. That means he's associated with a lot of major league players. It's simply absurd to think that he referred all of these players to a supplier of performance enhancing substances. Pujols shouldn't be implicated any more than anyone else who's trained with Mihlfeld.

The evidence linking Grimsley to Mihlfeld is undeniable. Grimsley has stated that Mihlfeld helped him with recovering from Tommy John surgery. The evidence linking Pujols to Mihlfeld is also undeniable. There are plenty of reports about this, including apparently in an article from SI. That doesn't mean absolutely that Mihlfeld was the one who supplied Grimsley with HGH or amphetamines. And regardless of whether or not he referred Grimsley to a supplier of banned substances does not mean that he referred Pujols to a supplier banned substances. Let's keep those things in mind. I despise the Cardinals as much as anyone, but something like this isn't just bad for Pujols or for the Cardinals if it's true. It's bad for baseball. I sincerely hope that Pujols is clean. That being said, there's a lot of smoke right now around Grimsley, the Royals, and Pujols. And where there's smoke, there's often fire. I hope there's not, but this certainly has raised my eyebrows. I hope that Mihlfeld didn't supply anyone with banned substances. I'm a Royals fan, and I'd be very disappointed in the Royals as well if they had such a close association with someone providing banned substances to players. I sure hope the rumors about what is in the affidavit are 100% false.

Most closers are successful by having particularly "nasty" pitches. Izzy has a decent fastball and a filthy curve. That's why he's a closer and a finesse guy like Brad Thompson is a middle reliever. For Izzy to be successful, he's got to have good stuff and come right after hitters. And when he does, he generally gets outs. Sure, he gives up a few hits, but that's okay when you come right after hitters. Izzy has two major problems. One is that he's not as resilient as other closers. You can't pitch him three days in a row and expect him to be successful. His other problem is a confidence issue. More often than not, he doesn't go right after hitters. This is particularly true if he gives up a hit. He looks like a different pitcher with runners on base. Izzy has good stuff but he's not a control pitcher. He's not going to regularly hit the corners like finesse pitchers. And when he's not going right after hitters, he gets into jams and starts walking batters. He's managed to get out of a lot of those situations, but his luck ran out against Griffey. And I really think if he doesn't get his confidence issue worked out and if he doesn't get more rest, he's going to continue to struggle. But if he's used a little more sparingly and he regains the confidence to go right after hitters, he will be effective. When Izzy is hitting 94 mph regularly with his fastball and has good command of his curveball, he's still one of the best closers in baseball.

The offense has some needs. It's really only a slightly better than average offense, even with Pujols. I agree that pitching is an issue. At the beginning of the season, Wainwright and Thompson were outstanding. Looper had a good stretch. That made the bullpen look better than it was. But I think the biggest weakness is in the starting staff. Marquis should be a lot better than he is. Suppan is very average. Mulder is an enigma. And I'd be very surprised if Ponson is very effective through a full season. The Reds have pitching needs, but they have more they can trade to acquire pitching as well. They have young players that other teams would actually want and that can be traded to get the pitching they need. Maybe it's just me having a strong dislike for the Cardinals, but I think they're in a bit of trouble right now.

Cincy sweeps Cards. Final score 7-4. The only thing more beautiful than that score is seeing Cardinal fans freak out over on Cards Talk.

Indeed, I believe his brother has something to do with pharmaceutics and may have been involved with supplying the "goods" to him. They are both in deep doo-doo His brother will lose whatever license or job he has... aside from that, they may get off light since apparently Jason has been squealing like a mouse. I don't blame him at all for quitting and I can't figure out why anyone would. He's disgraced....not only professionally but also with his colleagues. If the Diamondbacks were the mob, he'd soon be sleeping with the fishes in davy jones locker. I suppose. But I for one am sick of all the overt drug use in this sport and am glad that more cockroaches will see the light of day because he's ratting them out. Don't like it? Too damn bad. Shouldn't have used roids then. Meh. It's not like Grimsley is doing this to better the sport. Not at all. He's ratting people out to try to convince prosecutors to go easy on him. Do I have any sympathy for the other players who used performance enhancing drugs? Absolutely not. But it's hard for me to cheer Grimsley on considering that he used performance enhancing drugs too and that he's only doing this to look out for himself.

Union's going to file a grievance and win in a walk. Retaliatory discharge at its finest. I highly doubt it. Grimsley asked to be released.

I bet Bud Selig wouldn't be too upset if Congress gets involved again. It wouldn't surprise me at all if a memo from Selig to Don Fehr calling for a ban on HGH and taking blood samples (even to store them for future testing) gets leaked to the media. And the threat of congressional involvement gives Selig a great excuse to write such a memo. Here's why. The players union is thoroughly opposed to blood tests. HGH will have to be tested for with a blood test. If Selig calls for the players union to back down yet again and embarrasses Fehr by leaking the memo to the public, it's yet another victory from a PR standpoint for the owners over the players union. Fehr can't really fight too hard because Congress is still looming and would love to force legislation on MLB. He'd have little choice but to submit to what Selig calls for. Why is embarrassing the players union such a big deal? It's pretty simple. In the past, there's been some dissent among the owners and they haven't presented an organized front. Historically, the players union has been more organized than the owners and has won the PR battles as well. However, making the players union look bad can only help to improve the position of the owners. And when it's time to negotiate a new CBA, the players union won't be in a good position to fight too hard lest they generate yet more negative press and look even worse. The owners will be at their strongest and the players union will be weaker. It's no secret that Bud Selig and Don Fehr aren't the best of friends. I doubt that Selig would hesitate to embarrass Fehr again, particularly when the current CBA expires shortly.

The comments on amphetamine use don't really surprise me. It's been reported many times that amphetamines are easily available to and widely used by players. I'm surprised by the reports that Grimsley could name a lot of supposed users of HGH, however. I can't help but wonder if he really knows it for a fact or if it's just a Canseco-esque thing of saying "hey, he's really playing well... he has to be using HGH!".

Mike Shannon isn't bad when he talks about the game. But he misses large parts of the game to talk about unrelated stuff. Jack Buck was great for painting a picture with words. Shannon tends to be the exact opposite. The other knock on Shannon is that he's a bit arrogant. Wayne Hagin is a fine announcer and is really good on TV with Rick Horton. And yet for whatever reason, Hagin never got along with Shannon and Hagin got fired for it. The only reason Hagin is back is because Bob Carpenter (another fine announcer) left to become the voice of the Nationals.

Agreed. I get more smack talked to be because my "hometown" is Saint Louis but I root for the teams from the western side of the state (Royals and Chiefs) but hate the teams from the eastern side of the state (Cards and Rams). It really irks Cardinal fans that I'm "from" Saint Louis and despise the Cardinals. I wish the Royals would decide to field a good team and perhaps Columbia would feel less like Cardinals territory.

And ESPN is saying tonight that Bernie re-signed. So, if the Yankees can get another good starter, I'll be very pleased with the offseason moves.

I've got mixed feelings about it. Damon's a nice guy to have at the top of the order. He's pesky, gets on base quite a bit, has a bit of pop, and has decent speed. And since the move weakens the Red Sox, that's a positive as well. But signing Damon pretty much means unless Bernie Williams comes back as a DH that he's gone. Bernie is a class act, was a great Yankee, and it's sad to see him go. Damon is very good, but I'll miss having Bernie patrolling center field. I'm not really sure the Yankees addressed a need. They're going to score a lot of runs no matter what. And they could've signed a corner outfielder for a cheaper price and moved Matsui to center. I say this because I think starting pitching is far bigger of an issue than filling the hole in center field. There's question marks about Pavano and Wright. Johnson is a year older and the wear and tear is showing. I think he'll have a good year, but I'm not sure he'll be the dominant Randy Johnson of old. Mussina is a Yankee through and through, but age is taking its toll on him as well. At times he struggled to get through five. I like what I see out of Wang and Chacon. Small is valuable as a long reliever and a spot starter, but I wouldn't want to just throw him into the rotation. Maybe the Yankees still have the money to spend on a good pitcher, but I'm not sure since they lost a lot of money this year (approximately 50 to 80 million). So, I do like the move somewhat, but I still have some questions. If the Yankees do something to improve the starting pitching situation and bring Bernie back to DH, I'll feel a little better about this move. And for what it's worth, I think Bernie still has a couple of good years left.

I read NSBB from time to time (though I almost never post), but I think this board is much better. Cards Talk has one or two moderators who read the sports boards much and it's simply impossible for them to get rid of the junk. I don't think it's so much a knock on Cards fans that their board isn't good so much as it is a question of the moderators (or the lack thereof) there. As far as the actual fans go, I tend to think Cub fans are better. Despite what people say, I think Cub fans are more knowledgeable about baseball. And a lot of the Cards fans I know are more of the in-your-face variety that like to talk smack if you're rooting for another team. I root for the Yankees and Nationals and take my share of taunting from Cards fans. I'm not saying Cards fans are bad fans. But there are teams that in general have better fans and there are teams that in general have worse fans.

I'm slightly biased on this issue as I'm somewhat of a Cardinal fan. I'm more of a Yankee fan, but I'd favor the Cardinals over the Cubs. That being said, it's hard to think that offense, or any hitter in the Cardinals offense, has carried the Cardinals. The biggest thing going for the Cardinals is having two top of the rotation starters, one of which is just starting to get in a groove. The Cardinals are 18-5 when Mulder starts. When Carpenter starts, the Cardinals are 18-4. Compare that with the rest of the rotation. When Morris starts, the record is 13-7. When Suppan starts, the team is 10-12. And when Marquis starts, the Cardinals are 10-13. The Cardinals are 27 games over .500 when Mulder or Carpenter starts compared with exactly one game over when the other three starters start. And when you look at the numbers, Mulder has been more lucky than good. Carpenter, on the other hand, has just been outstanding. What's my point? When you see a contrast as sharp as the one I just presented, it's a very good case that Chris Carpenter (and not Albert Pujols) is the Cardinals MVP. And if a player isn't the MVP of his own team, how can he be the league MVP? That's my case against Pujols.

Thanks for the welcome. :-) Yup, this next year will be my first year as a grad student. I'm studying meteorology. Cool, myself and Cubbies75 are incoming freshman at Mizzou, and the guy who goes by Mizzou is a student as well. Cool. Welcome to MU! :-)

Thanks for the welcome. :-) Yup, this next year will be my first year as a grad student. I'm studying meteorology.

The real losers from this aren't people just across the river from St. Louis. The people who really lose from this are people who live a couple hundred miles from St. Louis. I'm pretty lucky where I am to have five Cardinal affiliates within 30 or 40 miles. I listen on KFRU in Columbia, but there's also affiliates in Jefferson City, Moberly, Fulton, and Mexico. Most of them are pretty dedicated affiliates and pick up just about all the Cardinal games. They're somewhat typical affiliates, however, and have a range of maybe 30 or 40 miles at night. While central Missouri gets good coverage, not everywhere you might consider Cardinals country has this kind of coverage. There are people, particularly to the west of here and out on the plains, that may have no local affiliate at all or may get poor coverage from a nearby affiliate. I'm thinking of places like Kansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Indiana. A lot of fans in those areas rely on KMOX for coverage their local affiliate doesn't provide, if they even have a local Cardinals affiliate. Another problem is that some of the affiliates aren't very dedicated. Some affiliates don't carry all of the games. Other affiliates don't carry all of the additional programming the Cardinals have. It's been mentioned that moving to KTRS will allow the Cardinals to even have more programs on the radio and that it's good for fans. Of course many of the affiliate stations won't carry those programs and so their listeners won't benefit. And many fans will lose some of the coverage they already have if their local affiliates aren't very dedicated. You can bet the Cardinals will take care of fans within 50 or 100 miles of St. Louis. The real losers in this are the fans who are 200 or 300 miles from St. Louis. It's a foolish move by the Cardinals who seem to have forgotten that some of their most loyal fans don't live anywhere close to St. Louis.