December 13, 2007: The Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball is released the public. Since the leader of the investigation was George J. Mitchell, the document becomes popularly known as The Mitchell Report.
Mitchell had a distinguished career in politics. He was a U.S. Attorney in his native Maine, and a Judge of the U.S. District Court. When his mentor, Senator Ed Muskie, resigned in 1980 to become U.S. Secretary of State, Mitchell ran for his seat, and won it, being elected to a full term in 1982 and re-elected in 1988. At that point, his Democratic colleagues elected him to be the Senate Majority Leader, a post he held for the rest of his term. He did not run again in 1994.
Instead, being of Irish descent, he accepted a post as U.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, and was among the negotiators of the Good Friday Accord that ended "The Troubles" in 1998. His ancestral homeland was grateful, and he was appointed the Chancellor of the Queen's University in the Northern Irish capital of Belfast. Officially, he held this post for nearly 10 years, from 1999 to 2009, even as he served as Vice Chair of the 9/11 Commission in November and December of 2002.
In 2006, in the wake of Congressional hearings the year before that tainted the reputations of several current and former players, Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan H. "Bud" Selig asked Mitchell to lead an investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs by players.
After 20 months of investigations, Mitchell released a report running 409 pages, and including the names of 89 former and (then) current players, claiming evidence of use of steroids or other substances prohibited by MLB. Among them were former Yankees Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and David Justice; and some stars from other teams, including Barry Bonds, who already held the records for most home runs in a season and most home runs in a career.
This was just a few weeks after the Boston Red Sox had won their 2nd World Series in 4 seasons. And it did not escape the notice of some people in the media that Mitchell was a member of the board of directors of the Fenway Sports Group, owners of the Red Sox. But the report mostly let the Red Sox off the hook. It was as if Mitchell was trying to say, "The Red Sox are clean, and their recent victories were won fairly. But the Yankees, the team that Red Sox fans hate the most, won their recent Pennants and World Series unfairly."
It was a dark moment for Yankee Fans. Just 3 years and change earlier, they could legitimately say that their last title was in 2000, and Boston's last was in 1918. Now, it was generally accepted by baseball people, official and unofficial alike that the Red Sox had won 2 of the last 4 World Championships, while the Yankees hadn't really won one since 1978.
On July 30, 2009, The New York Times reported that 104 players had failed steroid tests in 2003, and that 2 of them were David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, the 2 biggest hitters on those Boston title teams. Just like that, the Sox' 2004 and 2007 titles were exposed as frauds.
What's more, The Mitchell Report was also exposed as a fraud, because it said nothing about Ortiz and Ramirez. Mitchell, already a behind-the-scenes political operative when Richard Nixon was digging himself a deeper hole in the Watergate scandal, should have known: It's not the crime that really gets you, it's the cover-up. He had accused, with evidence that held up better with some players than with others, but had covered up the "crimes" of players for his own team.
It is a tremendous stain on the career of a great public servant.
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December 13, 2007 was a Thursday. And, wouldn't you know it, New England beat New York that night. The New England Patriots beat the New York Jets, 20-10 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. Speaking of cheating: This was the year that the Patriots had been exposed in the "Spygate" scandal.
I have to give Bill Belichick credit for one thing: He didn't lie about it. Whereas the Red Sox and their fans still insist that everything they've won since 2004 is legit, Belichick basically said, "Yeah, I cheated. What the hell ya gonna do about it, huh?"
There were 2 games played in the NBA that night. The Washington Wizards beat the Miami Heat, 104-91 at what's now named the FTX Arena in Miami. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 102-97 at what's now named the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
There were 10 games played in the NHL that night:
* Here's one where the New York Tri-State Area beat New England: The New Jersey Devils beat the Boston Bruins, 3-1 at what's now named the TD Garden in Boston. The Scarlet & Black got a goal from Brian Gionta, and 2 from Jamie Langenbrunner.
* The New York Islanders beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-2 at the Nassau Coliseum. (The New York Rangers were not scheduled.)
* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1 at what's now the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
* The Ottawa Senators beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh (then known as the Mellon Arena).
* The Calgary Flames beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 9-6 at what's now the Amalie Arena in Tampa.
* The Colorado Rockies beat the Nashville Predators, 2-1 at the Bridgestone Arena in Tampa.
* The Edmonton Oilers bear the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 in a shootout at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
* The Florida Panthers beat the St. Louis Blues, 1-0 at what's now the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
* The Dallas Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-1 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
* And the San Jose Sharks beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 at what's now the SAP Center in San Jose.