I know, politics are not usually the move here. But while GC’s n00b crew, myself included, are doing some late-night mop-up, Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo is introducing the world to a state legislator from Georgia whose outlook on the way the world works makes Carl “Carnosaur 3” Everett look like Stephen Jay Gould:
Georgia State House Rep. Ben Bridges (R)…is now in a bit of trouble for spilling the beans about evolution being the product of a Pharisee Jew conspiracy to bamboozle normal Americans and destroy Christianity.
œIndisputable evidence ” long hidden but now available to everyone ” demonstrates conclusively that so-called ˜secular evolution science™ is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternate ˜creation scenario™ of the Pharisee Religion, reads the letter that went out under Bridges’ name. œThis scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic ˜holy book™ Kabbala dating back at least two millennia.
It seems that the actual author or analyst, I guess you might say, was a fellow named Marshall Hall, the husband of Bridges campaign manager, Bonnie Hall. Then they sent it out over Bridges’ signature to state legislators in Texas, California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio. And they didn’t stop by letting the cat out of the bag on evolution. They also blew the whistle on all this hokum about the earth revolving around the Sun.
Barnes’ memo pointed fellow state legislators to the information at fixedearth.com which rails against the œa mystic, anti-Christ ˜holy book™ of the Pharisee Sect of Judaism and claims that œthe earth is not rotating ¦ nor is it going around the sun.
Before you call this veteran legislator an ignoramus, consider this: according to his bio, Bridges is a college graduate, okay? Barber College. And he’s been a part of some important, Georgia high school hoops-related “legislation.”
How does a guy like this exist in the modern world? Thank God I’m from Chicago, where we don’t have time for all this back woods hoo doo.
I’d write more, but I have to read up on Cubs Spring Trainging and team billy goat curses, baseball seances with Dutchie Caray, and Kerry Woods’ “diet.”
I still haven’t heard much more support for the “Kerry Wood was on steroids” allegation than anything “over the signature” of Rep. Rabbinical Kabbalah Whatever.
Am I unfair? Rep who? Can you cruci- I mean, clarify that for me?
I dunno, a player loses 30-lbs and a large amount of stamina — not too far removed from the same time Jason Giambi, Sammy, and the rest did — and I can’t ask the question? ESPN’s Jon Miller did the same last year, accusing the Cubs of not being forthright about Prior and Wood’s health for some time. Come on JD, argue poor Kerry off the cross for me.
l’m not hysterical about this. I admit to being a Wood partisan; I’d like to see him do well and I’d be disappointed if he were discovered to have taken steroids. I’m also not naive about the probably distressingly high number of MLB players who took some kind of illicit substance over the years I’ve been a fan. I’m just saying that even the circumstantial case for steroids that seems to be there for say, Sosa (who appeared to gain and then lose muscle mass, not just weight), isn’t there for Wood.
If one way to tell that a player is using PED’s is to show that he has been dominant for a long period of time, I suggest that Wood does not fit that profile. His numbers have been good, obviously (his ERA almost always below league average), but only occasionally league-leading (266 SO in 2003, for example). He also has never displayed, to my eye, a stereotypical PED-user’s physique; no impossibly freakish muscles, no swollen head. His well-known ongoing predilection for hurting himself, I guess, can cut both ways. I suggest that he has shown little of the endurance that PED’s can assist in providing, but it could also be argued that he has the classic fragility of a PED user. I think, on balance, his injuries (tears, strains, etc.) are probably more related to his grinding mechanics than to PEDs, and his declining stamina likely stems from his years-long injury/rehab cycle. That is: he can’t have suddenly lost stamina he never really had.
Finally, if there’s anecdotal evidence suggesting that Wood has used PEDs, I haven’t read or heard about it. That doesn’t mean too much, I know, but I think it merits consideration. For all his foibles and DL time, he’s still a famous pitcher (and he used to be something of a yappy one, to the delight of Cub fans tired of milquetoasts), and surely someone could have started a whispering campaign by now. Miller was right to question the Cubs’ forthrightness about Wood’s and Prior’s health status, but the Cubs’ use of poor/misleading PR does not necessarily mean that either pitcher used PEDs.
Sorry for the long post.
I’d like to see Wood do GREAT. I hope he turns into our Eric Gagne. But he’s been soaking up real money, producing little, and showing all the signs of steroid deflation that other players have in an era when very few people are being honest about it. Dusty Baker got blamed entirely for Wood and Prior’s issues, even tho other Cub pitchers managed to get thru that era and not end up the same way. Wood and Prior’s suckage coincides with that unlicensed trainer the Cubs had in their lockerroom and the beginnings of steroid testing. So, I feel fine raising the question.
As for the physical look steroids bring and player dominance — it depends what your using them for and how much real talent you have to begin with. In pitchers, steroids aren’t about power and mph speed but endurance and bounce back time, both of which Wood has lost completely. The steroids could have been used to support his bad shoulder, which may have been the hidden issue all along. The rumors that followed Clemens make more sense in his ability to play at his advanced age more than adding power. Maddux has lost speed over the last few years, but pitches on a rotation with guys literally half his age. That’s the stand-out feature for modern pitchers, whether it comes honestly or thru steroids (and no, I’m not accusing Maddux).
GC would probably rather sign Evanescence than have us turn this into a Cubs blog, so I’ll shuddup after this. It’s fair to blame Baker for lots of things, but not fair to make him shoulder (arf) all the blame for Prior and Wood. Wood’s serious injuries predated Baker’s tenure by 4 years, and even Prior was previously abused and misused by the great Bruce Kimm.
I think I’m just bitter because if Wood was using steroids, he wasn’t doing it right, i.e., Cub fans have yet to really reap the benefit as we did (allegedly) with Sosa. As for Prior, I grant you that things there are a bit fishier than with Wood. I let myself wonder about him a bit more, as if I need more negative things to think about re: that team.
I’d sooner sign Evan Seinfeld.