When it comes to the subject of steroids in baseball there isn’t a more credible source than Jose Canseco. The dude was practically the godfather of roids in baseball, the way he tells it. Players, owners, agents, the union — they all lie, but Canseco tells the truth. And when he was asked about the 2003 positive test that supposedly includes Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, Canseco offered something extra:

“When you tell me something I didn’t already know, I’ll be surprised. And I’ll tell you this, Major League Baseball is going to have a big, big problem on their hands when they find out they have a Hall of Famer who’s used.”

Canseco goes on to say he’s not into naming names (I guess he forgets about his books) because he wants to get the union for propagating this whole mess. OK, so now that we have the info, who’s the player? We can’t be sure until we hear from Canseco, but I’m sure many of us have a damn good idea who it is. Let’s see:

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The A’s were in Boston to finish up their series with the Red Sox Thursday when the David Ortiz/Manny Ramirez report emerged. Naturally NESN went over to the Oakland clubhouse after the game to get the thoughts of Nomar Garciaparra who was a teammate of both Manny and Papi in Boston during the 2003 season. And let me tell you something, Nomar was nervous, uncomfortable, fidgety, and overall looking guilty when discussing the ‘03 testing list. Check out the video:

In case you can’t watch the video, Nomar says the list was a joke and that since it was supposed to be sealed by the grand jury that it would be viewed as inadmissible evidence in the courts. He said guys who wanted testing didn’t take the test on purpose so that the percentage of positive tests would go up. He was questioning the legitmacy of the list, stressed it was supposed to be anonymous, and he overall seemed to be defending himself as if he were one of the guilty parties on the list. I don’t think anyone would be surprised to find out if he were. How else do you tear a muscle completing off the bone?

I’m really struggling with this story. Ordinarily when a team is forced to vacate past accomplishments, I look at that as a wrist-slap, nothing penalty because you can’t really undo games that a team won. For Florida State coach Bobby Bowden however, that seems like the absolute worst thing you could do to the man. Facing the thought of vacating 14 wins because of an academic cheating scandal, Bowden’s getting creative:

Meanwhile, Bobby is hatching one final trick play. This one involves digging up what he says are 22 victories earned while he was coach at South Georgia Junior College from 1956-58. Asterisk that, NCAA.

“I’ve got to get put in the grave here one of these days … ” Bowden said. “It don’t count to them. It does to me.”

Like I said, I’m having a tough time interpreting this. Is it pathetic that Bowden is digging this deep just because of a numbers game? Is it worse that Joe Paterno’s Penn State team full of criminals haven’t cost him any wins but an academic scandal cost Bobby? Is Bowden and Paterno’s game of career wins chicken a childish, egotistical battle that’s holding back both schools or is it a symbol of loyalty, longevity, hard work, and accomplishment? I think it’s some combination of everything I mentioned. Maybe the best thing would be to have the wins vacated just so their stupid game could come to an end. I highly doubt either one is doing much coaching these days anyway.

The Pirates have been an easy target for my derision lately, and that of MLB in general since ‘92 — their last winning season. They haven’t even won 80 games in that 17 year span and they seem to be content with their bottom-dwelling status as the farm team for everyone else. Their GM Neal Huntington is treating his roster almost as if it’s a joke, taking the phrase “trigger-happy” to a whole new level.

In just over a year, the Pirates have traded away Jason Bay, Xavier Nady, Nate McClouth, Freddy Sanchez, and Jack Wilson. That’s a semi-decent team right there. Look, I understand the financial constraints in the game as well as anyone and how hard it is for teams to compete on an annual basis unless you have the pockets to sign All-Stars each off-season. Thing is, that doesn’t mean the team’s GM has to go overboard in trading away every single halfway decent player with talent like they have swine flu.

I understand if you acknowledge that you won’t be competing in the near future and that you’re trying to get value in the meantime. I understand if you feel you want to start from scratch and get rid of all bad contracts. Here’s my problem: I’m still waiting to see what they got back for All-Star Jason Bay so you better make it worthwhile if you’re going to trade a player. Secondly, you have to keep at least one good player with experience otherwise you’re running a Triple-A team out there and that’s when this happens.

So while Huntington’s treating his team like a farm club, might as well jump in and get in on all the action. I hear they have good bullpen catchers to warm up your pitchers.

OK, so maybe the Wanger wasn’t exactly headed for Cooperstown (settle down NY media, you don’t have that much influence) but it’s incredible how easily players can rise and fall in baseball — particularly pitchers. Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang was 54-20 his first three and a half seasons in the bigs, posting under a 4.00 ERA. Sure the record was deceiving because he was supported by the mighty Yankee offense, but a sub-4.00 ERA in the AL East is good. Now looking at the guy you wonder if he’ll ever bounce back.

It all started a Sunday in June last year where Wang injured his foot running the bases during interleague play. What appeared to be something harmless turned out to keep him out the entire season — an 8-2 year down the drain. This year Wang had a miserable start to the season, posting a laughable 34.50 ERA after his first three outings. Even after returning from a DL stint he still wasn’t effective, though he did lower his season ERA to 9.64. The capper finally came on Tuesday night when it was announced Wang would have season-ending shoulder surgery.

While Wang will likely be back next year, there’s serious doubt that he’ll ever get back to his 19-win form. Keep it in mind: for every Johan Santana and C.C. Sabathia out there, there are five so-called one-hit wonders that flame out because of injury or true lack of stuff. Wang was second in Cy Young voting three years ago. Brandon Webb and Jake Peavy aren’t even thought of anymore. Knowing all this and the Phillies still want to keep Kyle Drabek and J.A. Happ instead of going with a reliable, consistent starter like Roy Halladay? They’re nuts.

I must be a generation late or something because when I saw this video I thought to myself, “cool, he’s doing the Ferris Bueller dance.” Anyway, we’ve come to find out that rain delays in baseball create some funny moments during the down time and this is no exception. Check out the video SI Extra Mustard shared of Cardinals single-A pitcher Casey Mulligan. The longer you stick with it, the better it gets:

That ass-shake on the 1:15 mark was pretty impressive. I wonder what the team in the opposing dugout was thinking while watching it the whole time.