Conspiracy

Players fall all the time.  It’s how they get up that matters.

Consider Tim Raines, for instance.  Raines was a gifted ballplayer, a kind of Maury Wills with gap power.  Early on in his career, Raines grew dependent on cocaine, to the point that he carried it in the pants’ pocket of his uniform rather than leave it in his locker.  Raines entered rehab on his own accord and retired with career stats that have him knocking on the door at Cooperstown.

There’s also Mickey Mantle.  The drug of choice for the Mick was alcohol, in the glass or by the bottle.  Liquor as much as anything killed Mantle, who died of cancer that spread from his liver.  “Don’t be like me,” Mantle advised at the end.

And now we have banned-from-baseball (sort of) Mets’ closer Jenrry Mejia, who claimed yesterday that he’s the victim of a conspiracy orchestrated by MLB.  Mejia held a news conference in which he laid out the charge.  You see, he did take steroids, but just once.  The second positive test-result was inaccurate, and Mejia was warned that if he appealed, officials would “find a way to find a positive.”  In other words, “I felt there was a conspiracy against me.”

It may even extend to the players’ association, because it hasn’t sprung to Mejia’s defense.  “They should have found something to appeal for,” he said through an interpreter.  But wait, there’s more, as reported in today’s NYT.  The story ends with this bit of advice from Mejia:  “All you have to do is admit your guilt when you are guilty.  And stay positive when you’re not.”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but that sure sounds like what we used to call a Freudian slip.