That was a quote from a speech president bush gave. Remember? I should have cited it.

You asked me how I know Ken was the best of the era. The best answer I can give is: I don't know, but I believe it. It seems to me that most of the people in this forum treat baseball like math class. You gotcher swarps and the morps3 and your oops. I don't think of baseball like that. I think it's a mixture of gym class and performance art.

I think Griffey was the best for a few reasons.

1.) Great ambassador of the game. Nice guy, big smile. Great with kids.

2.) Athletic aestetic. Smooth. Powerful. Graceful. It's the performance art idea. He was technically doing the same things everyone else was doing, it just looked a hell of a lot cooler when he did them. (like the biggio/griffey argument yesterday. If they were cars, Biggio is a chevy malibu, Griffey is a lambo. They will both get you where you're going, but which one do you want?)

3.) He never used steroids. Okay, I don't know this one for sure, but, I firmly believe he never used the stuff.

4.) Everyone in the nineties was chasing Griffey. I offer that steroids were largely a response to Ken's natural talent.

baseball isn't about stats. They help to evaluate guys over the long haul, but they leave out about a third of the story. For example, people said that Griffey was an average centerfielder - which may be true. But, I'm sure a lot of third base coaches held guys at third because they weren't going to let Griffey, the star, beat them. No stat for that.

How many times did a lefty come in to face Griffey, only to give up hits to righties hitting after him (arod, buhner, etc..) No stat for that.

How many times did a pitcher crap his pants when Ken was on deck? How many times did a right fielder play way too deep against Ken? How many times did an opposing coach overcompensate for Ken?

All eyes were on him at all times. Distractions aren't good for defenders.

Most fans just don't understand that.

Look, I know how to hit a splitter and I know how to do all those things they only the baseball fraternity knows. I can listen to Joe Morgan and think he's brilliant. I don't know what warp3 is.

And, it all boils down to this: Ken was a great role model. He certainly didn't drive people away from the sport. In fact, isn't he credited with saving baseball in 95?

Other non baseball people can argue he wasn't the best, feel free to (the more attention on baseball the better). But, I think he was the finest, and I think most baseball people agree.

True.

Except Ron Paul.

“It’s kind of sad, but the money is what has given us credibility, not the authenticity of the ideas.”

is to fix campaign financing.

We cannot expect to turn things around when all of our elected officials are propped up by corporations.

I don't care who wins, republican, democrat, whatever. Just give me someone who isn't tacitly obligated to scratch the backs of large corporations.

Ron Paul:

“It’s kind of sad, but the money is what has given us credibility, not the authenticity of the ideas.”

Hillary, Norman Hsu is on line 1.

Today around 2pm in midtown.

It's going to be a really boring circus.

Somewhere, Javi Lopez is nervous.

Ron Gant fakes a smile while dropping his kids off at school.

Roger Clemens sighs, and pops another HGH.

Big Mac refuses to get out of bed today.

Jose Guillen, Jay Gibbons, Juan Gonzalez, Clay Hensley, Jerry Hairston, Felix Heredia, Jr., Darren Holmes, Wally Joyner, Darryl Kile, Matt Lawton, Raul Mondesi, Mark McGwire, Guillermo Mota, Robert Machado, Damian Moss, Abraham Nunez, Trot Nixon, Jose Offerman, Andy Pettitte, Mark Prior, Neifi Perez, Rafael Palmiero, A lbert Pujols, Brian Roberts, Juan Rincon, John Rocker, Pudge Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Scott Schoenweiis, David Segui, Alex Sanchez , Gary Sheffield, Miguel Tejada, Julian Tavarez,Fernando Tatis, Maurice Vaughn, Jason Varitek, Ismael Valdez, Matt Williams and Kerry Wood. Brady Anderson, Manny Alexander, Rick Ankiel, Jeff Bagwell, Barry Bonds, Aaron Boone, Rafaeil Bettancourt, Bret Boone, Milton Bradley, David Bell, Dante Bichette, Albert Belle, Paul Byrd, Wil Cordero, Ken Caminiti, Mike Cameron, Ramon Castro, Jose and Ozzie Canseco, Roger Clemens, Paxton Crawford, Wilson Delgado, Lenny Dykstra, Johnny Damon, Carl Everett, Kyle Farnsoworth, Ryan Franklin, Troy Glaus, Rich Garces, Jason Grimsley, Troy Glaus, Juan Gonzalez, Eric Gagne, Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi,

really?

You've assumed Varitek and Pettitte were using?

Any government report which mentions Ozzie Canseco is going to be fun by default.

I got that from a pretty good source.

I don't stand by it, it was emailed to me from a person working for the MLB. Of course they said it wasn't verified. I thought you folks might like to read it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Let's just wait and see how accurate the list is.

We've been flogging him for 2 decades.

I'm ready for 40 more ballplayers to flog for the next 2 decades - here's looking at you, Rog.

"According to McNamee, during the middle of the 2000 season Clemens made it clear that he was ready to use steroids again. During the latter part of the regular season, McNamee injected Clemens in the buttocks four to six times with testosterone from a bottle labeled either Sustanon 250 or Deca-Durabolin that McNamee had obtained from Radomski."

PRICELESS.

I'll be giving Kinkos about 20 bucks today.

403 pages of egg on Bud's face.

Ron Villone.

Fernando Vina.

This is like Christmas morning.

was a very bad boy.

And Paul LoDuca's - thank you for the steroids note is PRICELESS.