What I would say

The following is the transcript of Houston 3rd baseman Jeb Golinkin's statement regarding his use of steroids:

"I used steroids because I saw what they were doing for the guys who were using them. There is enormous pressure put on us as athletes by virtually everyone involved in the game of baseball to produce at a high level and there are tremendous incentives to do everything you can to please those pressuring you. Hitting another ten home runs is a big deal in this game and there are big rewards for doing it. Put simply, I took steroids because at the time, the rewards for taking the substances outweighed the risks involved with using. Did I know it was wrong? Yes. But an extra ten million dollars a year along with all of the adoration that comes with being a superstar makes you rethink whatever moral objections you may have to taking steroids in one hell of a hurry.

I used steroids, and I got caught. I accept full responsibility for my actions. It was my fault and only my fault and I am personally prepared to deal with the consequences of my actions. I'm not answering any questions about who else was involved or where I got them or any of that other bullshit. I made my decision on my own. As far as details, I can tell you that I used from 2001-2003. I used x, y, and z. I took x so that I would recover from my workouts faster. The faster you recover, the faster you can get back to the gym and lift again. I took y to make the muscle that x allowed me put on look good. In other words, y made sure that I would look like a Greek God when I took my shirt off and not some neanderthal. And I took z to limit the side effects of taking x and y. In particular, I was looking to not grow tits and keep my nuts from shrinking too much.

I discontinued my drug use at the end of the 2003 season not because I saw the light and came to the realization that what I was doing was morally wrong but because, and only because Major League Baseball implemented a viable steroid testing policy starting in the 2004 season.

I realize now that what I have done has stained my career and has hurt the sport. I am truly sorry for all of those things. But I am also not going to sit up here and act like I'd be telling you this if I hadn't gotten caught. I, like everyone else who used, made a decision that involved taking a calculated risk. At the time, it seemed like a pretty easy decision. In retrospect, knowing what I know now, which is that the sport would actually wake up and that I eventually might get caught, I would have to think a little more about it.

In particular, I would like to sincerely apologize to the guys that were clean. Each and every one of them felt the same pressure to use I did. Each and every one of them saw the benefits and had to compete against guys that were taking advantage of those benefits. Some of them never cracked the bigs because they didn't use. Some of them only played 4 years in the Majors when they would've played 9. Some still put up great numbers and continued to make all start teams. My decision and the decisions of others like me have called the legitimacy of every accomplishment of every baseball player of this era into question. Lance Berkman's numbers will be subjected to the same skepticism by members of forthcoming generations as my own, and that is truly unfair. Thus I would like to take this opportunity to truly and sincerely apologize to Puma, and every ballplayer like him. Let me reiterate, I'm not going to tell you anything about who was involved. This was my decision and I personally got caught and thus I personally will deal with the consequences. I'm not outing anyone else. Period.

As for going forward, I think that if you look at my numbers since I stopped using, you'll realize that I'm still a pretty damn good ballplayer and if you don't believe me, I'll show you again this season. I care about the game, I care about my teammates, and most of all I care about winning. If anyone needs me, I'll be in the batting cage."

I think the guys in the black jerseys won....

When we launched the new (and oh so fabulous) 1560thegame.com, I was supposed to begin writing my blog directly on the website. That was the idea at least.

We tried, we failed, and now I crawl back to blogspot like an old man who still buys cds because he can't figure out the Ipod his kid gave him two Christmases ago.

Since you haven't heard from me in a while, I won't discuss the Rockets on this particular post. If I did, you'd probably find my criticisms unreasonably harsh, and you'd probably be right. But you can all relate to the frustration of watching the Rockets stumble through games and blow fourth quarter leads. It pisses you off, right? Well then imagine how pissed off you'd be if you were in Europe and were following the game at 4 am instead of sleeping. That's me. Just keep that in mind.

I'd imagine that most of you thoroughly enjoyed this years Super Bowl. So did I, however I will say that the game is considerably less interesting at 4 am than it would have been at 10 pm. I'm in Geneva (which is in Switzerland....). Here in Europe, the majority of the populous doesn't give a damn about [American] football. But I did manage to find an English pub (Mr. Pickwick's) willing to stay open all night and make money on the "stupid Americans."

I showed up at the bar at around 11:30 pm our time (4 30 pm) and was pleased to find a rather well lubricated crowd of American folks happily drinking overpriced pints of beer and generally reveling the fact that everyone around them didn't secretly (or in the case of the French, not always so secretly) resent their nationality. Personally, I was simply pleased to be in the company of people that spoke English. Anyway, I got a beer and successfully managed to get downstairs without being hit by an errant dart thrown by some drunk wearing a Jeff George Washington Redskins jersey and I found a seat next to some British guy (side note, upon my asking him if he liked American football, he responded in a perfectly awesome British accent "I like beer and American women"...love the Brits).

After spending roughly 10 minutes simply being fascinated by the completely random group of people gathered together for the mother of all American sporting events, I turned my attention to the television...where the "Sky Sports" pregame show was playing out in front of me. It was at this point when I realized it was going to be a long night. Sky's analysts included some guy that might have played football at one point in his life who sort of looked liked James Brown, some guy that allegedly once played quarterback for the Washington Redskins (the key word being "allegedly" and rounding out the all star team, some British guy. After seeing this all star crew, my British friend turned to me and asked (referring to the former Redskin quarterback) "who the hell is that bloke, I've never heard of him." Yep And when I asked who the British guy was, he responded "he covers Rugby normally."

Right before kickoff, Sky explained that we would be able to select our announcers. We could have the Michaels/Madden team, or two British guys that neither I, nor my British friends had ever heard of. I never thought I'd say this, but thank God we got Michaels and Madden. I thought things might look up from there and I might be able to salvage a normal Super Bowl experience out of the evening but it was simply not meant to be. Sky couldn't fill the copious amounts of advertising time and as a result, while everyone in the states watched really expensive commercials, I had to listen to some British guy who covers Rugby, some guy that might have played for the Redskins, and some James Brown wannabe talk about football.

At 3am some relatively attractive Irish lady bought me a drink.

At 3 15, pretty much everyone left.

At 4 am, I started playing darts to stay awake.

At roughly 5am, Santonio Holmes caught a pass. Because of this catch, the game ended, and I got to go home and go to bed.

No wonder no one in Europe follows the NFL.