Thr Grimm Report

As most of you know, whether you like baseball or not, Jason Grimsley, former Diamondbacks pitcher, has admitted to the use steroids, amphetamines and human growth hormone (HGH). There has been a lot of reaction to this around the baseball world, in the media, by fans, and people who hate sports all together. Here is my take on the situation and what is getting lost in all of this mess.

First if you are in the last group of people I listed above…. SHUT UP! You have no idea what you’re talking about. This is not just “another reason for you to hate sports”. I don’t have a problem with anyone who does not like sports, I do have a problem when people who do not like sports try and comment, and more importantly think they are right, on things relating to sports. I don’t sit here writing about the economic structure we have in the US. Why? Because I do not know enough about the topic to think I have an opinion that A) matters and B) should be heard.

The baseball world has been shaken hard by this latest scandal. There have been a lot of things written and said about this, most of them degrading Jason Grimsley and making him out to be a trader to the sport and his teammates. In the report filed in court, Grimsley has named names of people in baseball who use performance enhancing drugs. Jeff Nelson was quoted as saying that he needs to shut his mouth and accept his consequences. White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has basically stated the same thing and then some.
Here is my problem with all of this. Jason cheated, that is true and he has admitted to it, but he has not rolled over on his teammates or his former teammates. In a statement by Jason he said that investigators showed up at his house in April the same day a shipment of HGH arrived. Since that day he has cooperated with the government, until they asked him to wear a wire in the clubhouse and try to get dirt on teammates and Barry Bonds. Grimsley refused this request and the feds went public with his report. This does not sound like a guy who rolls over on his teammates. When asked about the names he named in the report, he said he never named names but only answered questions that he was asked.

So now he is getting killed in the media and in the baseball world for telling the truth! Isn’t this exactly what we are always upset with Bonds, the fact that he continues to deny his use and claim ignorance to a grand jury. Here we have a guy who got caught and has answered all the questions honestly and refused to be a mole in the clubhouse. The night the report about his use of performance enhancing drugs came out, he went to the Diamondbacks GM, Josh Byrnes, and asked for his release because he did not want his teammates to go through the media circus he would bring. This does not sound like a bad teammate or a snitch.

Jason cheated and for that he is guilty. But as the days go by and the original shock of the situation has cleared it is time to give the guy a break. He is not an evil person, he is not the Anti Christ of baseball, he is a guy who saw how he could get an edge and took it. He got caught and admitted it unlike most players who get caught (just read up on Rapheal Palmero, Barry Bonds’ grand jury testimony, and every other player who tested positive and blamed it on “over the counter supplements”.)

So Jeff Nelson, Ozzie Guillen, media, fans just shut up about the issue. Lets chill out and see what MLB and the MLBPA does about HGH testing (since the only way to detect HGH is through blood tests). Jason Grimsley is out of baseball, his career is over, he will be chided on the streets whenever someone recognizes him, but in the end he is just the latest player to get caught in an era full of cheaters and liars. At least he can’t be called liar.