Go blog yourself

Sorry for the dearth of posts, Dear Reader. Blogger was down for unanticipated maintenance yesterday...Wednesday afternoon, on into the evening...and well into today...Thursday...last night.

No blog was safe from the debilitations. Not Atrios, Hallabaloo, or Alicublog, to name a few "somewhat popular bloggers."

It's almost as if it was intentional. Blogspot goes down specifically so that America-haters such as yours truly are unable to blogospherically react to the news with a characteristically long sigh and the words, "So, what took you so long?"


Meanwhile, in other baseball news, this is going to really blow things up, real good.

Jason Grimsley, a journeyman pitcher with the Arizona Diamondbacks, took only two hours to disclose what he surely hoped would remain a secret, and what other major leaguers also wanted to keep private. About two months ago, according to federal investigators, Grimsley revealed that he had used performance-enhancing substances for several years and that other players did, too.

When three investigators arrived on Grimsley's doorstep April 19 with the suspicion that he had just received a shipment of human growth hormone, it did not take long before he admitted that he had used anabolic steroids, amphetamines and human growth hormone, according to documents filed in the United States District Court of Arizona.

Thirteen federal agents searched Grimsley's home in Scottsdale, Ariz., for six hours Tuesday. Mark Lessler, an agent with the Internal Revenue Service, would not divulge what was uncovered. The agents are investigating Grimsley for illegal possession of drugs, illegal distribution of drugs and money laundering of the profits.

During Grimsley's interview with agents, he admitted to receiving and using performance-enhancing substances 10 to 12 times, according to the court papers. Grimsley also named other players who were users, but those names were blacked out in the documents.

And while the Diamondbacks unceremoniously released him, if what Grimsley is singing is remotely true, ownership is intimately complicit in all of this.

The affidavit details what Grimsley told investigators about drug use in clubhouses, including his description of coffee pots labeled "leaded" and "unleaded" to indicate which ones were laced with amphetamines. He also said that amphetamines were called "greenies" or "beans" and were widely used because "they work." According to the document, he said: "Everybody had greenies. That's like aspirin."

Of course, Grimsley, while liked as a teammate, is not the most upstanding citizen.

The press and the critics have been dying to nail Bonds, and wondering why the stars haven't been named, but almost predictably it's the aging mediocre pitcher that's the one desperate to use something to keep his career alive.

Anyway, a journeyman murderer/replacement level criminal mastermind and a journeyman replacement level middle reliever killed/nabbed. Not a bad couple of days for the Executive Branch, I guess.