The delivery doesnt make a fizzing sound like Prasannas or Shane Warnes

SEATTLE, Washington - Thanks to Alex Rodriguez – thats not a typo – we will get a better understanding of the depths of the mess caused by Biogenesis and its ballplayer clients. There isnt much sympathy for the Yankees third baseman, a fallen star, but players do support A-Rods right to play as he appeals a 211-game suspension – through the 2014 season – which is scheduled to begin on Thursday. “He says he feels good to play, I mean I dont know too much about whats going on there but if he feels like he wants to play and they let him play I dont see why not,” said Blue Jays shortstop Jose Reyes. “Be on the field, play baseball and do what he loves to do. From the other stuff, I dont know whats going to happen to be honest with you.” It could be that Reyes has but a passing interest in the Rodriguez-Major League Baseball-Biogenesis saga or, perhaps, hes on to something. We really dont know how this will play out. Rodriguez intends to appeal, a legal process which could take weeks or months and keep him on the field until an independent arbitrator renders a ruling. This is good and it will be healthy for the game. Theatre aside, maybe well actually learn of whats gone on here. Unlike about a dozen others who swallowed their pride, signed off on statements and disappeared to serve 50-game suspensions, Rodriguez intends to defend his honour. The fact he has no honour as an already admitted drug cheat and as a nauseating narcissist is irrelevant. His will to fight opens the entire process to greater scrutiny. Did Rodriguez attempt to purchase the documents linking him to Biogenesis from Tony Bosch, the founder of the now-defunct anti-aging clinic? Or did Bosch, facing financial ruin after a disgruntled employee went public about Biogenesis peddling of PEDs, attempt to extort money from Rodriguez in exchange for the papers? Will an arbitrator view Bosch as a credible witness considering Major League Baseball threatened to sue him if he didnt cooperate? Was Rodriguez not only a user of Biogenesis product but also a recruiter, supplying the clinic with additional clients from the baseball world? These questions will – or at least should – be answered because Rodriguez, regardless of motive, has the gumption to fight. The Players Association, which backs a cleaner game on behalf of members who are fed up with others drug use, is supporting A-Rods appeal. Players like Mark DeRosa, who want a clean game, also see the value in the appeals process. “I know its something that weve got to address,” said veteran Mark DeRosa. “I just think that when we sit down in the offseason or when that Players Association meetings get together Im sure there are going to be a lot of opinions on a lot of ways to just, I dont want to say to make it easier, just make it a one shot lifetime ban, see ya later and then no one will ever do it again. I dont know if thats the answer. Im sure there will be a lot of things discussed.” As a player who broke into the big leagues in the late 1990s, the height of steroid use in the game, DeRosa is bothered that drug use continues to be a hot topic. “Just very tiring to listen to,” he said. Tigers shortstop Jhonny Peralta settled for a 50-game suspension. Should Detroit make the playoffs, hell be eligible to return to the lineup at that time. DeRosa, a teammate of Peraltas for part of the 2009 season, was shaken by the news. “Peraltas the toughest one for me,” he said. “I shared a locker next to him in Cleveland. Shared a locker next to him all of spring training and the first half of the season and I know him, I know his wife, I know his kids, I know his family so thats shocking. No it wont change my perspective of him as a person. Definitely you question some things but Id like to think I know who the real guy is.” The unknown seems to bothers players most. No doubt, theres a washed up pitcher somewhere who didnt make it because drug users were rapping his offerings over outfield walls in minor league parks across the country. Surely theres a dirty player in the majors who beat out a minor league teammate, at the same position, because the other guy was clean. Greats like Ryan Braun, the guy the Brewers chose to give a nine-figure contract instead of Prince Fielder, may no longer be great without the drugs. “I dont think these people realize its affected way more than just them,” said DeRosa. However well intentioned his comment, DeRosa surely realizes a dirty player whos stashed away millions of dollars likely has fewer regrets about his career than the clean scrub who never made the big time and wonders how different his bank account would be if hed cheated. As for the commissioner, Bud Seligs war on drugs is inconsistent with the passive stance he took as Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds rewrote record books and did all but turn green in transforming into Incredible Hulk-like characters. Maybe back then he didnt care, just thankful for renewed interest in the game years after the players strike of 1994 wiped out a World Series and public appetite for the sport. Maybe back then he didnt know, ignorant like so many of the rest of us who want so badly to believe the sports we watch are pure. Either way, this pursuit feels better suited to the man who will succeed Selig. As for A-Rod, its the strangest thing. So obsessed is he with his legacy and his money owed that hes willing to fight. His motive is personal. It always is. The difference, in this instance, is that baseball fans stand to benefit. Shoes Canada Free Shipping . Brad Jacobs and his Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., team took control of the game early. Shoes Canada Sale . Nathan MacKinnon, Jamie McGinn and Jan Hejda also scored for the Avalanche, who won despite being outshot 38-23. MacKinnons goal, also on the power play, came with just over a minute remaining. https://www.shoescanadaonline.com/ . Note: The Calgary Flames announced Tuesday that Sean Monahan would not be made available to Canadas World Junior team. Shoes Canada Cheap .C. -- Todd Fiddler scored a hat trick, including the overtime goal, as the Prince George Cougars survived an 8-7 win against the Kamloops Blazers in Western Hockey League play Sunday. Fake Shoes Canada 2020 . They were putting most of their energy into a record-setting offensive display. The year is 1950 and 12-year-old Johnny Gleeson has picked up an illustrated article about the finger-flicking Australian Test bowler Jack Iverson, dubbed the mystery spinner because Englands Ashes squad of that summer were bemused and puzzled by his bizarre spinning craft. To the Englishmen, Iverson was a veritable Mr Magic - a seeming offbreak turned from leg and what appeared to be a legbreak came back into the right-hander. Iverson took 21 wickets at 15.23 in that series before treading on a ball in the Adelaide Test. He hobbled through the fifth match and never played big cricket again.But his finger-flicking mystery bowling style immediately held great fascination for young Gleeson, whose slender long fingers were ideal for spinning a ball and especially well-suited to the folded-finger grip used by Iverson.Gleeson began his cricketing life as a wicketkeeper, and when he moved from Tamworth to Sydney in 1956, he kept in the lower grades for Western Suburbs. In secret, he trained alone, trying to master the finger flick.In 1958, at the age of 20, Gleeson returned to Tamworth and won selection for an overseas tour of Canada with the Emu Club. Frustrated that his bowlers couldnt make inroads in the opposition batting, he shed the pads and began to bowl his Iverson style.He first bowled in a serious match in Melbourne in 1964, turning out for the Australian Postal Institute. Gleesons deliveries mystified all and sundry that day, many beating the bat and the keeper.By the summer of 1965-66, Gleeson was the first-choice spinner for Gunnedah. Jack Chegwin, a great promoter of country cricket in New South Wales, took sides with current and ex-Test cricketers in them to the outlying areas, ever on the lookout for raw talent. Gleeson took wickets in one such match and delighted in getting the chance to bowl to Richie Benaud, one of his boyhood heroes.Benaud knew exciting talent when he saw it and he took a big interest in Gleeson, advising him to the Balmain Club, of which the secretary was Fred Bennett, who was destined to one day become chairman of the Australian Cricket Board.Gleeson got bags of wickets for Balmain, and in 1966-67 he made his debut for NSW, in Perth. He bowled 23 overs into the wind but found operating on the hard, true surface at the WACA less than great. Her took one wicket and was made to carry the drinks in the next match, in Adelaide.Sir Donald Bradman, then chairman of the Test selectors, met NSW captain Brian Booth on the eve of the match and asked him who was going to be 12th man.Johnny Gleeson, Booth said confidently.Well, thats the first mistake youve made this game.When NSW batted, Bradman asked Gleeson if he would like to accompany him to the nets and bowl to him. Bradman was 58 then. He wore neither pads nor gloves. Half a dozen balls from Gleeson were enough for him to say, Thanks John. By the end of the season I think youll be playing for Australia.Gleeson toured New Zealand with an Australian 2nd Xl in 1967, and by December that year he made his Test debut against India. He played in all four Tests, taking the last three wickets in Brisbane to help Australia win by 39 runs, and was a certain pick for the tour to England in 1968.He was dubbed Cho (Cricket Hours Only), because, apart from the nets or at the ground, he was never around. Maybe he wanted to maintain the mystery.Once, upon our arrival at the Waldorf Hotel, our London home away from home, there was captain Bill Lawry talking about playing bright cricket (so long as we win) and Cho fast asleep in the background, his head resting on Garth McKenzies broad right shoulder.I roomed with Cho on that 1968 tour, and one day asked how the publicity affected him. Doesnt worry me in the slightest, he said. Never read the newspapers. Next, I found him trying to close the lid on a suitcase overflowing with newspaper cuttings about one mystery finger-flick bowler John Gleeson.Lawry managed his fast and medium-paced attack brilliantly, but when it ccame to spin, though he could play it well, he didnt understand spinners.dddddddddddd. However, Lawry did like the way Gleeson bowled. Cho operated with a flat trajectory and was more at home on a green top than a slow, dusty turner, thus complementing the likes of the fast men McKenzie, Alan Connolly and Neil Hawke.Gleeson struggled to make an impact in India in 1969-70, apart from the Bombay Test, where the wicket had bounce and pace. He made an impact of a different sort on the last day of our match against South Zone in Bangalore a month later.Set 200 runs to get in two hours, we collapsed to the masterly spin of Erapalli Prasanna, who, by the fall of our sixth wicket, had the incredible figures of 6 for 9 off nine overs. Barnacle Bill Lawry was battling for a draw at the other end when Cho strolled to the wicket and spoke quietly to square-leg umpire BR Nagaraja Rao before heading to chat to the official at Prasannas end, NS Rishi.That done, Cho leaned over his bat, rejecting the umpires request to take guard, quipping, Not required, Mr Umpire. I took guard in Bombay weeks ago.While Lawry defended stoically, Gleeson either padded away or hit out.Stumps were drawn five minutes before the scheduled close because a section of the crowd began throwing stones.Lawry had batted for an unconquered 10, Cho was not out 18, and Australia at stumps were 90 for 8. There were back slaps all round for the two players, but Ian Chappell, Doug Walters and others were far more interested in what Cho had said to the umpires.Well, I said to the ump at square leg: Mr Umpire, if you give me out lbw, I will wrap this bat about your head. And I said the same thing to the other umpire.In my minds eye I can see Cho now. He moves in with a funny gait, a bit like a comical mix of Groucho Marx and Ronnie Corbett. Hes not a short man, but stays low. The delivery doesnt make a fizzing sound like Prasannas or Shane Warnes. It glides out of that folded-finger grip, always on target but devoid of what we call loop or shape.Unknowing batsmen were easily snared by Cho, who really was a master of deceit. Even if the ball went as straight as a gun barrel, his body language was a distraction for the unwary. His crowning glory was probably his bowling against the powerful South African batting line-up, headed by Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards, Eddie Barlow and Mike Procter, in 1969-70. Only Richards could play Gleeson effectively. When asked by others, including his team-mates, Richards would say: If you go after it and hit the ball just as it lands, it matters not which way the ball turns.Barlow tried that against Cho in the third Test, in Johannesburg, but didnt quite get to the pitch of the ball, and keeper Brian Taber stumped him yards short of his ground.In the four Tests, Gleeson bowled 255 overs and took 19 wickets at 38.94. He bowled a good deal better than his figures reflect.His bowling mystified many a good batsman, and Ray Illingworths 1970-71 Ashes squad was no exception. In Sydney, John Edrich waltzed up the pitch for a mid-wicket chat with his opening partner, Geoff Boycott.Hey Boycs, Edrich said joyfully, Ive just worked out Gleeson. I know for sure where each ones going.Oh, is that all, Ede? Boycott laughed, I worked Cho out two Tests ago, but dont tell those boogers in the dressing room.Gleeson was a great character. He had the dry, quirky sense of humour of the bush-based folk of the outback Australia of long ago. He spoke with passion about bowling, especially spin bowling, and the mystery of the finger-flicking style. Just as he loved the Iverson way, Cho delighted in Ajantha Mendis similar finger-flicking styleNow, sadly, Cho has gone. He proved to us all that some wicketkeepers can turn their hand successfully to spin bowling.So long, Cho. Fond memories of you and your cricket will stay in our hearts forever. ' ' '