One Baseball Writer's Mea Culpa

On the steroids issue.

Thanks, Hal Bodley of USA Today, for being a stand-up guy on the issue. The MSBM (mainstream baseball media) did miss this issue, and Bodley points out the paucity of steroids stories over the years.

I agree with Bodley that there should not be an investigation of the past. I have never called for that. What has irked me is the spinning and denials that are going on from all corners, including the "ah-heming" being done by baseball writers. I hope that those die down and that baseball can move on in a clean fashion. I don't necessarily agree that the fans are that culpable. Sure, they enjoyed the comic book-like atmosphere and all of the home runs, but if they were clamoring for more it's only because the powers that be in baseball hooked them on the spectacle, like good marketers should. There were many of us who remember well the physiques of Musial, Mays, Williams, Aaron, Jackson, Schmidt and the rest and questioned the inflated physiques of the modern-day titans.

We just didn't have a newspaper's inches for a forum. But we did talk about it. And if we didn't go so far as to commit libel or slander, we did wonder how men past their growth years grew so much and looked so good. Especially because many fans work out themselves, and somehow they couldn't put on the mass that certain players did.

Thanks again for being so forthright. The talking heads on the MSBM networks and the big names among baseball writers have been fidgeting for a while on the topic. They'd prefer to write about whether the Yankees have the answers this year, whether the BoSox can repeat and how the Braves get it done every year.

And that's all good stuff. Most people don't like friction or controversy, but fewer people like hypocrisy and transparent denials.

Hal Bodley's column is a good start. Let's hope that the MSBM recovers from this disastrous era of non-reporting and covers in depth the entire game, and not just moon shots of balls going over the walls of picteresque parks with short porches.

The past should be appropriately buried, but the Lords of Baseball, the writers and the fans should remember this era for a long time and not permit a repeat.

Hope does spring eternal, after all.