Apologists Be Damned

Jose Canseco
Originally uploaded by wonderbread74.

Do you get the feeling Major League Baseball has done more than moved a franchise to Washington, D.C., but also learned the simple Beltway strategy of smearing opponents.

Since bits of Jose Canseco's book implicating some current Major Leaguers of steroids use were reported by the New York Daily News, MLB apologists have repeatedly popped up.

Apologists like Tony LaRussa, Walt Weiss and, of course, Bud Selig have a had one common refrain: attack the truth and credibility of Canseco. He feels he's been blackballed by baseball therefore he has an ax to grind. He needs to money. He's jealous of Mark McGwire's success. Or as Jason Giambi said yesterday, "He's delusional".

In fact, Giambi was certifiably delusional at a press conference yesterday where he apologized five times but never answered what he was actually apologizing for.

All these statements about Canseco have a grain of plausibility, but the facts have clearly been laid out. Major Leaguers have been using steroids and grand jury testimony shows that the biggest stars in the game have admitted to them. Barry Bonds, Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Canseco and the recently deceased 1996 National League MVP, Ken Caminiti are guilty.

When is Major League Baseball, which is also complicit in this epidemic, going to come clean. The damage has been done to the game and its hallowed records, but cannot be quantified in the physical damage done to the athlete's bodies.

Some believe Giambi's pituitary gland cancer was accelerated by steroid use. Caminiti is dead. Who can guess which Major Leaguers will slowly waste away from steroid use in the same manner as the former Raider, Lyle Alzado.

Sadly, in addition to wondering who will win the World Series, this spring will bring with it whispers of who looks skinnier and who looks less bulky. Let's cut with hiding what everybody already knows: after all these years, the baseballs weren't juiced, the players were.