Hey, Mitchell, here's a little report on you--you're a phony

Where exactly do you show that you know right from wrong? If you had the slightest sense, you wouldn't have taken the phony "job" in the first place. That's the starting point of "integrity."

• (NY Post): "Did George Mitchell say too much, the first time around? Was he too independent, thus too provocative?

The George Mitchell who first revealed the findings of the Mitchell Report on Dec. 13, reached a strongly stated conclusion. He said, right from the top, that both the owners and players (represented by Bud Selig and Donald Fehr) chose to sacrifice integrity in favor of money.

• For a fellow appointed by Selig, such a broad conclusion seemed to confirm that Mitchell had, in fact, investigated and then spoken in an independent fashion.

But Tuesday before Congress, when Mitchell was at least twice provided the opportunity to repeat that conclusion - that charge - he seemed to carefully avoid saying anything at all.

• When Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) strongly suggested that MLB was guilty of staging drug-fixed games, thus guilty of a drug conspiracy and fraud-for-profit, Mitchell might have repeated his spoken conclusion from a month earlier, that integrity was abandoned for money."

(MITCHELL NOW DOES HIS BEST JOSE CANSECO IMPERSONATION, IE "READ MY BOOK." )...(sm)

• (NY Post, continuing): "Instead, he only said his findings can be found in his report.

• Next, when Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) pursued a similar line of questioning, Mitchell again demurred, repeating that his answer can be found in his report.

It seemed curious that given the opportunity, Tuesday before Congress, to again get right to the heart of the matter, as he did on Dec. 13 - to repeat that baseball consciously chose to indulge the widespread presence of illegal drugs in order to increase profits -

• Mitchell clammed up."

From NY Post column by Phil Mushnick, "Cold, Hard Cash, Greedy NFL Freezing Out Fans," 1/20/08

• P.S. Phil doesn't have scantily clad girls on his site, doesn't pander to teen males, and apparently isn't a BBWAA member afraid of losing one of his plum committee assignments in the bureaucratic fortress of MLB, Inc. and the Baseball Hall of Fame. (sm)

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