FanHouse CJNitkowski

With the strong accusations made in the Mitchell Report based on the testimony of Brian McNamee, it was probably inevitable that questions would surface about his integrity. Discredit the source, discredit the story. What is surprising, however, is that one player is now speaking up in McNamee's defense. You may or may not remember CJ Nitkowski, but he trained with McNamee and has nothing but good things to say about the guy. From the AP:

I've known Mac for over 10 years and I have been a client of his since 2001. It pains me to see what he was forced to do, and you can be assured it has been awful for him.

Mac is one of the best in his field and he takes his job seriously. He is well educated in exercise science with multiple degrees and is even more dedicated to his clients. This is testimony he never wanted to give. Only when it appeared that jail time was imminent and when he was under immense pressure did he give federal investigators and Senator Mitchell the information they were looking for.

A reckless conclusion would be that Mac is a "rat." For those who believe such a thing, I'd recommend less television. This is real life, not "The Sopranos," and with a family Mac was left with no other alternative. There are a lot of people I love in my life, but none more than my family. There isn't a friend or teammate that I would desert my family for and go to jail.

That's a pretty ringing endorsement for McNamee, especially coming from a player (Nitkowski plays in Japan last I checked). Nitkowksi is pretty outspoken, he writes his own blog, left comments on Rob Neyer's blog last year, and even gave an interview to Bucs Dugout (a Pirates blog) last summer. I suppose some people would view him as a minor league Curt Schilling, but he seems like a pretty candid and genuine guy to me. At this point there's going to be a lot of he-said/he-said in the wake of the report, but now we can tally at least one person in McNamee's column.

Via Baseball Musings.

International Pastime will look at baseball's influence outside the U.S.

Yes, apparently that's how some teams do it, so says Yankees pitcher Kei Igawa who played for the Hanshin Tigers in the Japanese League last year. From the New York Times

After contributing to a Hanshin victory, Igawa's manager would frequently hand him an envelope stuffed with yen, usually the equivalent of about $1,000. Igawa was free to spend the money as he liked. He usually saved it and kept the envelope as a souvenir.

The financial exchange, which is separate from a player's salary, is common in Japanese baseball and known as kantoku shou, which, translated literally, means manager prize. The foreign players in Nippon Professional Baseball commonly refer to it as fight money.

Dude, I knew these players were rich, but come on, keeping $1,000 as a souvenir?! That's quite insulting to the rest of us. But then again, as former Major Leaguer C.J. Nitkowski, who now plays in the Japanese League, put it -- with today's salary it's nothing more than ashtray change at best. Amen. Lets keep this all in perspective though, shouldn't our collegiate athletes and boosters already be used to this?