Rotoman

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080105

Back to my steroidal ways. While searching for minor league stat sources I happened upon this story by Trace Woods, from his website The Long Ganhi.

A few years ago Trace wrote THE ABSOLUTELY BEST look at the possibility that Barry Bonds was using, long before the cream and the clear.

In spite of his suspicions and interests, Trace doesn’t traffic in reckless speculation or sensational rumor mongering. And his best outrage in this piece is for the baseball writers who somehow missed whatever steroid use has been going on for all these years.

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Major League Baseball : Ask Rotoman

The season is winding down, with fabulous pennant races. Which is why Rotoman cares about Bobby Jenks, closer on the fading White Sox, wants leagus to understand why September is different than other months, especially since we get to see some premature performances by some awfully good players. And then there is self evaluation. How did we do?

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Yahoo! Sports – MLB – A Giant oversight

Clearly I don’t care about baseball anymore. What I see on the field I admire and I disdain, but it all fits within the framework in the game. What I care about now is this insane grandstanding journalists do about steroids.

I”m sure I’ve linked to other equally facile Dan Wetzel stories, which seem to think being truly competitive is living up to some sort of Wetzelian purity standard. But this one takes the cake. This guy is working hard to play to the resentful side of every average sports fan. What a chump.

Why? Because he’s not letting go. Bonds won three MVP awards before there was any question (I think) of steroid use. Impugn his recent incredible achievements, if you think he cheated. He as much admitted it in his illegally leaked grand jury testimony, but given the present tenor there is no chance he’s using banned substance now, is there? If you think his talent is all steroids, let him fail nobly, man.

But so rabid is Wetzel’s hatred of players that he’s willing to imply (without any evidence that I can see) that Jason Giambi has once again become the best hitter in baseball because in May (Wetzel says) he decided to use steroids again (because what the heck did he have to lose).

I, of course, have no evidence that Giambi isn’t using, except that players are tested fairly regularly, and if Mike Morse is to be believed, the drugs can hang around in your system for years! So what good is that test?

Impugn Bonds’ records in the disputed years if you feel the need, but please refrain from making stuff up. If Jason Giambi hasn’t been tested this summer, that’s a scandal I’d like to know about, but if he has and he’s clean and he’s hitting as well as he ever has, doesn’t that tell us something far more fundamental (and a lot less explosive?).

Bottom line is, no matter what you believe, Dan Wetzel is just trying to incite your resentment. He’s shown a total disregard for what might actually be happening in favor of what might stoke you most. Well all be better off if we ignore him.

Who?