Mitchell Report gives baseball center stage

Neil Best

December 14, 2007

Alex Rodriguez is nearly as fascinating a media figure as he is a baseball player, but yesterday he outdid himself with this trick:

Speaking publicly for the first time about the biggest contract in baseball history - and with some pretty interesting material, actually - while entirely ignoring the day's really important A-Rod story.

The Yankees' decision to put him on the phone with reporters the morning the Mitchell Report was to be issued seemed like a comically cynical attempt to change the subject, especially when it was made clear A-Rod would not discuss the report.

In fact, the big Rodriguez news would came later, when Mitchell's list of alleged steroid abusers did not include A-Rod, blessedly clearing a path for the Yankees, MLB and Rodriguez himself someday to rescue the home run record of Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron from Barry Bonds' clutches.

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It would have been nice to hear what Rodriguez had to say about that, but for now his status will have to suffice as a sliver of good news on a day the Yankees took some hits with the fingering of Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and even David Justice on Mitchell's list.

I'll let the baseball writers figure out what will happen to whom, but the YES Network's Justice falls in my jurisdiction.

Early in the day a YES spokesman declined to comment on what effect, if any, the news would have on Justice's status with the network, but on "Yankees Hot Stove" last night Justice denied ever taking human growth hormone or having met Kirk Radomski.

He did say Brian McNamee once discussed with him the healing powers of HGH, but that he rejected the idea because of his fear of needles.

That was one small slice of a story so big that for hours before Mitchell's news conference, a clock on the lower right of the screen began counting down to the big event, not on ESPN but . . . CNBC?

That channel, along with sister station MSNBC, soon would opt to ditch a panel in Iowa that included prominent current senators in favor of a lone former senator at a podium in Manhattan.

Yup, while cable news counterparts CNN and Fox News attended to the mundane business of another Democratic presidential debate, CNBC and MSNBC joined YES, SNY, ESPN, WFAN, ESPN 1050 and WCBS-AM in carrying Mitchell live.

"This is a major story, and we were able to give our viewers both breaking news coverage of the press conference and complete coverage of the presidential debate [on tape delay]," an MSNBC spokeswoman said.

(When Bud Selig spoke later in the day, CNN and Fox joined the fun, too.)

It all was part of a riveting few hours reminiscent of a time when baseball players had skinny arms and contested their biggest games on weekday afternoons, turning the sport into the center of conversation in the office and on the schoolyard.

After a morning that began with a false list of implicated players circulating on the Internet, Clemens turned out to be the headline of a report that spawned hours of analysis.

Amid all of the expert legal and baseball analysis on TV, radio and the Internet, WFAN's Chris Russo expressed disappointment at the lack of sizzle on the list.

"It's not as great as you'd like if you were really looking to pound Major League Baseball," he said. "The list is, eh, OK."

Still, it was a huge story, even though it almost surely contains some errors, injustices and clearly isn't complete.

(By the way, James Dolan must really be serious about not firing Isiah Thomas, because if ever there were a day he could have done it and have no one notice, it was yesterday.)

There inevitably were some strange moments, such as ESPN's Roger Cossack mistakenly calling Jason Grimsley "Jason Priestley." Oops.

And Jeremy Schaap of ESPN said Jose Canseco himself tried to get into Mitchell's news conference but was barred for not being a member of the news media. Canseco was last seen hurrying across 42nd Street in the sleet, vindicated once more.

A few hours later, YES rolled out "Yankees Hot Stove."

On the day A-Rod spoke of re-signing, the show never got around to exploring that "news." But thanks to other news of the day, for now YES, its owners and viewers can embrace Rodriguez and history - guilt-free.