Controversy bound to hover over Moyer's pursuit of all-time home run record
Jamie Moyer lost another bid for his 250th career win in Monday’s 5-3 loss to the Marlins, but inched closer to becoming baseball’s all-time home run [given up] leader.
The fourth-inning jack by Wes Helms gave Moyer 477 for his career, 28 behind Phillies great Robin Roberts’ 505 for the all-time record, which could fall later this season.
“If Moyer gets to 506, baseball purists may put an asterisk by his name in the record books,” said ESPN’s Buster Olney. “There’s no doubt that his totals were inflated by steroid use, even if Moyer wasn’t the one actually taking them.”
Moyer has surrendered a slew of home runs to outed and suspected steroid users over the years including Manny Ramirez (10), Alex Rodriguez (6), Barry Bonds (5), Rafael Palmeiro (5), Brady Anderson (5), Juan Gonzalez (4) and Lenny Dykstra (1).
Meanwhile, Roberts was lit up by a far more respectable bunch, including Duke Snider (19), Hank Aaron (9), Jackie Robinson (9) and the ever-dangerous Wally Moon (9).
“I can’t help that every record nowadays has steroids attached to it,” said Moyer. “Did a lot of my home runs come from the bats of known steroid users? Yes. Could I allow 500 home runs without them? Probably.”
Hamels' 'bad boy' image forever tainted by minivan joyride; Phils weigh options
Cole Hamels has landed in hot water after being seen driving what is alleged to be his wife’s minivan on CSN SportsRise this past Tuesday. The staff ace was en route to an MRI appointment to check on his pitching elbow when cameras caught the Sports Illustrated cover boy with his pants down, looking like a manscaped Screech.
“I’m thoroughly embarassed by this entire ordeal,” Hamels said in a phone interview. “I’ve spent my entire life building up this rough and tough exterior, then I go and ruin it by looking like a dag gum soccer mom in front of the whole city. My original plan was to just take the Bug like I normally do, but my gosh darned wife made me take the van, which is how all this happened.”
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel told PhillyGameday.com that he is still weighing his options of how to handle the situation, though he didn’t rule out a demotion to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to allow Hamels to regain his “bad boy edge.”
“It goes without saying that I’m disappointed with the decision he made to run off in that van like he did,” Manuel said. “We’re trying to figure out the best way to handle this right now, but we may send him down to Lehigh for a few weeks. There’s a good chance we’ll just send him to work with Nails [Lenny Dykstra] and hope he picks up on some of his s****y behavior.”