Someone doesn't wanna be like Mike.

Have you been bothered by the coverage of this new Canseco book? Sure, the guy is a louse, but I think it's self-serving of sportswriters to trash this guy as they sat quietly complacent for many years, fully aware of the presence of steroids in baseball. I think it was particularly obvious during the homerun record chase, when all writers silently colluded to follow the record and ignore McGuire’s massive arms. I knew kids who took Angro in high school; the stuff makes you wild and pumped up, but it can’t make you that big. He was juiced, so was Sosa, and probably every other person Canseco outs in his book. Remember when Caminiti admitted using drugs? When are sports journalists finally going to get over their collective awe of athletes and call them out?

Well, I agree with you, but we're just as complicit as sportswriters--the fact is that people would rather know-but-not-know that their idols are jacked up on dangerous drugs, as long as they keep hitting home runs and knocking helmets off wide-receivers coming across the middle. This isn't a new argument, but it's true that everyone wants to see UNPRECEDENTED FEATS!!! all the time. If you want to blame somebody, blame the league and the players--they know-know, and have for a long time, and the fact that no one has been willing to say anything about it until their career prospects were already gone speaks volumes about the sense of responsibility that exists in pro (and college, and high school) sports.

There's plenty of blame to go around, of course, but one thing that sticks out in my mind is the MLB players' union, who forbade its members from taking voluntary drug tests to prove their innocence! I mean, the fact of the matter is that you can't "prove" a negative like "I don't take drugs," but the idea that an organization that exists, theoretically, to represent and support its players won't let them vindicate themselves is crazy.

Who is ultimately responsible for the prevalent willful ignorance? I think it's easy to blame sportswriters (and not entirely unfair), but we're the ones who pay them to write this stuff, and I'm sure that there have been examples (i.e. Leahy on other subjects than 'roids) of journalists who have suddenly found themselves on the outside looking in after writing something their sources didn't want to have out there. Their job is to sell newspapers, and I think in that sense we are all implicated by our acceptance of the way sports have been covered in the last 20 years. But they do have a responsibility to write the truth, and it can certainly be argued that if nothing else there's been a fair amount of lying by omission going on in the press.

Forget Mike, I wanna be like Wilbon

A while back, Wilbon wrote a good article comparing steroid use in baseball and in the Olympics. It seems like fans are up in arms every time a foreign athlete is caught using illegal substances but when it comes to our beloved national pastime, fans are ready and willing to overlook the truth. It's sort of like how the Op/Ed writers in the New York Times single-handedly tried to defeat Bush and were totally ignored by this stupid country...Sometimes even telling the truth doesn't do any good...

L

Mike, Mike, and Mike (and Jose)

Okay. Mike Leahy = jackass. Because remember something: when Jordan was on the Wizards, the high scorer was Jerry "the gun" Stackhouse, who shot 40% and played way too many minutes. Their only other scoring option was a very young Larry Hughes, who wasn't being put in a position to succeed. They now have Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison to combine with Hughes, giving them a triad of young and very talented players at their core, plus solid efforts from guys like Jarvis Hayes and Jared Jeffries, and some role players like Anthony Peeler. In other words, they are a REAL TEAM. That Jordan team sucked cause he had no help, not because of selfishness on his part. Furthermore, Wilbon is awesome and he doesn't write bad things about Jordan because there is nothing bad about him that anyone needs to know (i.e. related to b-ball). And on the steroid thing, I think it's clear that Jose Canseco is an idiot asshole liar who is telling a remarkable amount of truth about steroids. There is no reason not to believe his accounts of McGwire, Giambi, Rafi, Juan Gone, even maybe Pudge, though that is a little harder for me to believe. If you have doubts, go ahead and take a look at the Rangers statistics (esp. Rafi) after Canseco got there. Notice here (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/stats_historical/mlb_individual_stats_player.jsp?playerID=120191) that Rafi Palmeiro never hit more than 26 homers before 1993, Canseco's first full year with the Rangers, at which time he hit 37 and then proceeded to hit at least that many in 10 of the next 12 seasons. Coincidence?
-Kolsk

Re: Mike, Mike, and Mike (and Jose)

For some reason that link to rafi's stats didn't work. Let's try again (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/stats_historical/mlb_individual_stats_player.jsp?playerID=120191).

Re: Mike, Mike, and Mike (and Jose)

Well yeah, but part of the argument is that Jordan (as GM/player) kept those bad players around on purpose, because they were willing to play his type of game. As soon as he was gone, they started trading away problem players (Stackhouse) and acquiring team players who run at full speed (Jamison)--and let players like Hughes play at the pace that his game is suited for. In other words, the team sucked because Jordan had no help, but he had no help out of selfishness on his part. Understandable, perhaps, but he's not blameless for their mediocrity under him as GM and/or player. Maybe I'd feel different if I were from Chicago though, huh? :)

And yeah, I agree with you re: Canseco's assertions. But it would be a lot more compelling coming from a current player, or at least a guy who didn't end his career in disgrace (see Ken Caminiti).