Before I get into anything heavier, I present these facts to you. In 2002, I told Maryland to win the whole thing, and follow my commands. They did. Fame and riches came my way. Now here we sit, in 2005, and I am once again on top of the bracket mountain. I am in two pools, and thanks to Louisville, and the survival of "sure things" UNC and Illinois, I am in first place in both of them. Interesting that this year's tourney began on St. Patrick's Day, and I'm Irish. Is that a stretch? Of course.
So the only plausible answer is that I'm kind of legit, and reading my column is making you more enlightened and more likely to take home the winnings in your pools some day. On with the column.
I know you may be tiring of Juice talk, but I cannot help but be eaten up inside by this steroid thing. It has been debated and dissected, but to be honest, not enough. The resources we can pull from this issue are far from exhausted, and I have the feeling name after name will keep coming out. Obviously, the big ones have already been thrown into the fire, but there are many more to come.
The problem I have is this: too many people are brushing it aside, or not giving it the outrage it deserves. Especially around here. We cheered for cheaters. In 1998, I had no connection with Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa, other than that I was a baseball fan and they plied their trade on the biggest stage that their sport presents. But I was captivated by the whole production, and even at the time, when reports were released that McGwire was on Andro (since banned by Major League Baseball), I still thought nothing of it other than "there is going to be history made and I will be witness to it, so don't ruin it for us, MEDIA!"
We were not Red Sox fans for those months or moments, but rather baseball fans, envious of what these men and their cities were reveling in. History in front of our very eyes, bash by invigorating bash. They were almost machine-like, and now we know there was a reason behind their robotic efficiency. And it all fits under the same umbrella, Red Sox fan or not.
So why does it now feel like Boston, its fans, and the Red Sox themselves are looking down upon this issue like it's happening on a TV show, not to them, not to us, and not to our charmed city? We care about opening with the Yankees four days from now and how to talk trash to the Yankees fan who lives next door to us.
Don't think for a second that the Red Sox and steroids are mutually exclusive - they're not.
Euphoria is healthy, as long as we don't overdose on it. We have been on a five-month Caribbean cruise ever since the World Series, so I think it is time to come back to the reality of the situation. Yes, the Sox did the unthinkable and yes, we should not live down how titillating the whole experience has been. But baseball has a problem, and if we blindly follow a team and a rivalry when there are much greater issues at play, then we have become true "Homers."
I think fans prefer the "don't ask, don't tell" approach to this whole thing. As long as there's baseball, and my team is taking the field, I don't care what's going in their bodies, as long as they're winning games. If a guy is producing and he is not an outright jerk, he will be embraced. Barry Bonds is an outright jerk, but his talent (albeit supplemented) transcends most criticism. Sammy Sosa had what is to him a down year in 2004 (.253, 35 HR, 80 RBI, 133 K) especially considering the other-worldly numbers he had put up in previous seasons (six straight forty home run years leading up to 2004). Maybe he was off the juice with the new, quasi-stringent policy. Or maybe he knew he couldn't put cork in his bat any more after the embarrassing incident in July 2003 when his split bat looked more like a bottle of champagne popping on New Years Eve? We just don't know.
I am as confused by this as anyone, and maybe that is why people are not devoting themselves to outrage. There is too much gray area, too much unknown, and so being upset would be wasted energy - it might take too much work to figure out where the anger should be directed.
Or maybe this news simply isn't new to anyone. Everyone knows steroids have been around college and professional sports in some capacity for decades now. We know about Lyle Alzado and now Jim Haslett, and I recently heard that the majority of a BC football team from as early as 1971 was juicing. Arnold Schwarzenegger even admitted to using them, and he said he would do it again. I guess you could say he founded his whole career on them, so maybe we can't blame him.
So the best solution is to get lost in the Sox, as if they perform in a vacuum and none of the breaking news will impact them. But we should know better. After all, it was Sox utility infielder Manny Alexander who was caught with 'roids in his glove compartment in 2000, one of the first big leaguers to get busted publicly. I'm just saying...
