Gumbel lumping Bagwell with McGwire stirs Astros fans

"Bryant Gumbel won't elaborate on Jeff Bagwell comment

• Bryant Gumbel created something of a stir among Astros fans with his comments regarding Jeff Bagwell during Tuesday’s episode of Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel on HBO. Gumbel declined a request to elaborate on his closing editorial, which
• appeared to lump Bagwell in the same group with Mark McGwire.

At the end of an “open letter” to “baseball’s usual suspects,” Gumbel encouraged Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro to learn a lesson from McGwire’s “phony non-apology.”

• “On behalf of all fans, do us a favor. If and when you’re ready to come clean, don’t insult us with talk of how much of what you did was God-given and how much was chemically induced,” Gumbel said.

“Let us figure that out, OK? And don’t play us for idiots. Spare us the lies about talking ‘roids for health reasons. We’re all grown-ups. You took stuff for the same reason most of us break or bend rules.

• You thought you could get away with it. And you did.

“Please feel free to share this letter with Bagwell, Nomar (Garciaparra), Pudge (Ivan Rodriguez) and all those others

• who went from hitting homers to power outages overnight.

Tell ‘em fans are ready to accept what happened. Tell ‘em we’re ready to move on. Tell ‘em that most of us get it … even if they, like you, still don’t.”...

• The Astros’ radio crew will return intact for 2010,

with Milo Hamilton calling home games with Dave Raymond and Brett Dolan, who will once again share duties on the road." …

• From Houston Chronicle, "Thomas detects change with fans," by David Barron, 1/22/10, via RadioDailyNews

Tweet Stumbleupon StumbleUpon