'A Team of Destiny and Teflon,' (the Red Sox) Selena Roberts, 10/22/07
- For a variety of reasons, these views did not take off in 24/7 coverage. A blogger fumed about this article that she was a "New York" writer, but I looked up her bio and she spent most of her life in the deep south.
- (NY Times, 10/22/07, 'A Team of Destiny and Teflon,' by Selena Roberts):
- The Red Sox hopscotched across the infield grass last night as part of the joyous choreography of another World Series berth,
- with not so much as a suspicious dab of flaxseed oil on their darned socks.
Other teams have players surface amid the Balco case and steroid raids, in the pages of tell-alls or inside doping investigations. Other teams fret over findings.
- All is free and clear.
Hitters like Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia left the Green Monster with a bellyache from homers as Boston put away Cleveland, 11-2, to take the American League Championship Series in Game 7.
- Suspect signings like Dice-K and J. D. Drew eventually salvaged Theo Epstein’s big-ticket costs in the off-season by joining to help pull the Red Sox out of what was once a three-games-to-one deficit in this best-of-seven series.
- Once again, the Red Sox were far removed from the freight of controversy last night.
- against a brick wall, inside
- a dingy corridor at Fenway Park, facing a hundred reporters.
Byrd was in place to answer questions about an article in The San Francisco Chronicle yesterday that reported that from 2002 to 2005 he bought nearly $25,000 worth of human growth hormone and syringes from an anti-aging clinic in Florida that was investigated for illegally distributing performance-enhancing drugs.
- Byrd responded with contradictions and boilerplate spin, but more on his defense in a moment.
- He began his news conference by saying,
- Disappointment? It actually sounded more like suspicion.
Here, the Indians were forced into dealing with a distraction before
•Indians fan blogs were abuzz with conspiracy theories about leaks and motive and a destiny undone. What about the Red Sox? Why don’t they have these hobgoblins of H.G.H.?
- Maybe the Red Sox have bloodstreams as clear as mountain creeks. Maybe their Dixie cups are free of all impurities.
- not just part of the giddy Red Sox Nation,
- but a director of the team.
- Mitchell has bristled at the idea of a conflict. And there is no evidence — or even an implication — that Mitchell has in any way been part of a pro-Red Sox plot to keep the franchise clean.
But perception of preferential treatment is an issue he cannot sidestep*** with more names leaked every day, with almost every team within six degrees of doping suspicions —
- except the Red Sox.
They enter the World Series untainted. They played last night undistracted.
- The Indians didn’t have that luxury.
Boston won emphatically. And the Indians certainly didn’t seek an excuse — “I’m proud as I can be of our players,” Indians Manager Eric Wedge said. But Byrd did feel the need to address the team in a pregame meeting.
“I have nothing to hide,” Byrd told reporters before the game. And yet he refused to give a timeline for his H.G.H. purchases or the medical condition he claimed as the reason for his prescriptions.
“Everything has been done out in the open,” Byrd said.
- And yet Indians officials and Major League Baseball shrugged with a we-know-nothing response about Byrd’s H.G.H. story.
In a corridor that smelled of concession food, deep inside Fenway Park, Byrd was under suspicion.
- The Red Sox were in a happier place — at the other end of a hallway,
- in their carefree clubhouse,
- without the burden of a doping saga.
- the purity of the Red Sox and the credibility
- of their esteemed director." ........
- ***The Elephant in the Board Room, 7/17/08
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