The Mitchell Report Like a lot of Yankee fans, I am dismayed by the news that Andy Pettitte was a steroid user, though not entirely shocked; he's close friends with Roger Clemens, and that suspicion has long hovered over the Rocket. (Just ask Mike Piazza.) The other Yankees named in the report aren't really central to the team—Kevin Brown (that explains him punching a wall), Gary Sheffield, and so on. They were hired guns.

But also like many Yankee fans, I am skeptical about the paucity of Red Sox players mentioned in the Mitchell report. The only one of import: Mo Vaughn, and he hasn't played with Boston for a decade. (He's retired now.) Ortiz? Ramirez? Other Red Sox who suddenly had terrific years in, say, 2004?

We'll never know. And, one suspects, a big reason we'll never know is because George Mitchell is a director of the Red Sox.

How baseball could have asked a man who's affiliated with one team to conduct this investigation, I'll never understand, but it's probably evidence of Bud Selig's general incompetence.

"Take a look at how the investigation was conducted," said Mitchell. "Read the report. You will not find any evidence of bias, of special treatment of the Red Sox or anyone else, because there isn't. They had no effect -- none whatsoever -- on this investigation for this report. As for players, I remind you that it is common now for players to serve many clubs. Many of the players named on this report played for many years with other clubs, including the Red Sox."

Oh, balderdash. The Red Sox dodged a bullet when Mitchell was named to head this investigation, and they must be delighted with the report. (They should be.)

The Times genuflects before the Mitchell aura, raising the issue of Mitchell's potential bias, then merely saying, essentially, that everyone respects George Mitchell. (Which, frankly, ain't necessarily so.)

When of course, every decent journalist would know that appointing a director of one team to run such an investigation compromises the thing from the start.

“Judge me by my work,” Mitchell said. “Read the report.”

To be fair, I haven't done that yet. (It's 400 pages long.)

Still, Mitchell's conflict of interest should have prevented him from heading this investigation, and if Selig et al think that this report has closed a chapter on steroids, they are wrong. The question of whether it whitewashes the record of baseball's dominant team of this decade will remain.
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