Posted on 06/07/2006 1:30:00 PM PDT by mojito
It's easy to understand the media's love-fest with Albert Pujols. The St. Louis Cardinals slugger crushes baseballs into the outer realms. And more important in the wake of the BALCO fiasco, he has yet to be tainted by evidence of steroid use.
Pujols has 25 homers in 51 games played, putting him on pace to break Barry Bonds' record of 73 home runs in a single season. Both fans and rival players breathlessly praise Pujols as they once did Bonds. St. Louis' marketing department is constantly churning with new ideas for milking the Albert cash cow. And within baseball's press boxes, writers and reporters check their e-mail, drink free sodas, and question, well, nothing.
Two weeks ago, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Pujols "is being touted as the first P.S. slugger, post-steroids." The paper also categorized speculation that Pujols might be juicing as an "errant rumor." The New York Times followed up with this Pujols quote: "My testing is proving a lot. It's working really good."
Is Pujols abusing steroids or human growth hormones? I don't know. But what's alarming in this era of deceit is that nobody seems interested in finding out. A little more than one year removed from congressional hearings that produced the most humiliating images in the game's history, baseball writers have a duty to second-guess everything. Instead, everyone is taking Pujols' test results at face value. Have we forgotten that Barry Bonds has never failed one of Major League Baseball's drug tests?
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Pujols is out indefinately with a lower back strain, or something similar. Tests have, so far, been unable to determine (last I heard).
They might as well say it's over. The revenue stream says the fans never really cared in the first place. The sports writers cared, the senate cared, some fans cared but not enough to impact the bottomline. Might as well call it a done deal and move on.
Are MLB's tests today not harder to "fool" than they were when Bonds was fooling them?
Pujols is an immense guy, but it's possible he just has a lot of endogenous (natural) testosterone.
As I understand it, steroids are detected with a blood test, which major league baseball administers. Human growth hormone is detected with a urinalysis, which the players' union refuses to allow. Correct?
The scandal is about to take a new, more explosive turn.
Pitcher Jason Grimsley of the Arizona Diamondbacks has been released from the team after a federal raid on his home. He is part of an expanding probe into illegal drug use in baseball.
Here's more:
EXCERPT:
According to court documents, Grimsley failed a league drug test in 2003. Authorities said when he was cooperating, he admitted to using human growth hormone, amphetamines and steroids.
He added that amphetamine use was prevalent in pro baseball and that it was placed in coffee in clubhouses -- marked "leaded" or "unleaded" to indicate which pots contained the drugs -- Novitsky wrote.
The Republic reported that Latino players were cited by Grimsley in the court documents as a major source of amphetamines, as were major-leaguers on California teams who could easily travel to Mexico to buy the drugs.
The newspaper reported that the affidavit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, said that Grimsley took delivery of two kits containing human growth hormone at his home on April 19.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2474291
The HR stats in the NL are a joke because of the taxpayer funded Wiffleball stadiums they've been building. That's ruining the game, not steroids.
In 1964, DC Stadium (RFK) was the 4th easiest HR park in the majors. Now, with the same dimensions, it's the toughest.
Grims should ask for a refund. The stuff didn't work. He sucked when he was with the Royals. Used to boo him as loud as anyone but one day I was setting just a couple of rows behind his wife and saw her start crying when the boos started.
My Royals will contimue to suck as a team as long as David Glass owns them and his son is president of the club.
Not sure what anyone can do about testing Pujols. He now has to take drug tests in baseball.
Maybe get some men in black masks ans jackboots o force him to give baseball writers even more urine to test.
There's still juicing going on in the schools that's for sure. My kids talk about who they think juices in 8th grade. Sad.
baseball is a great game for little kids. I've learned to be less in love with it as they get older. Now the pressure to dip and do roids is starting to take the place of snowcones and laffy taffy.
At least the Cardinals TV and radio guys have been raving about Albert ever since his first month as a rookie. His performance this year isn't a surprise, but rather what you'd expect from a maturing young slugger. He's actually about 20 points below his career batting average. His 13th round draft pick is a steal, but that's nothing unusual. He played HS ball in Kansas City area and then played for a community college (where in his first game he had both a grand slam and an unassisted triple play while playing shortstop.) If he's juiced he's been doing it a long time. I much prefer to believe he's the real thing, just what baseball needs to put Bonds behind us, rather than to pander to liberals' obsession to tear down everything that's good. Watch the way he plays the game, not just the great hitting, but the way he runs the bases and the way he plays defense. He plays the game beautifully, the way it should be played. Have you ever heard of a squeeze play being broken up by a pickoff throw to FIRST base? Pujols did just that the game before he was injured, ran the runner back from the plate then threw him out at 3rd.
Sportswriters are not journalists. How many sportswriters do anything other than hype the games they're covering?
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