More Baseball & Steroids

Holy crap! Rafael Palmeiro just got suspended for taking steroids. How is that possible? Didn't he stand up to Congress and tell them he "never" used steroids? Could he have been lying? Could the others have been lying? Hey, maybe he didn't use steroids then, but got the name of a a good dealer from the other palyers at the hearing. The only thing that surprises me is how surprised members of the media are. Not that he got caught (he makes enough money, he should be able to get better masking stuff), but that he was using. Please. The NFL has had much stricter testing for steroids, but you know a lot of them are using. The Olympic testers are supposed to be the best in the world, but a bunch of people get around them. For every scientist trying to keep up with steroids, there's probably five coming up with new ones or figuring out ways to hide old ones. Besides, cheating in baseball is more common than cheating in football recruiting in the SEC. When a guy gets caught using a corked bat, it's laughed off. Baseball fans waxed nostalgic about the 1951 pennant race when the Giants made up 13 games in six weeks to tie the Dodgers before winning on Bobby Thompson's homer, but they don't want to meniton the fact that the Giants set up a telescope/buzzer relay system in their clubhouse to steal signs. Oh, and these sportswriters who abhor cheating elected Gaylord Perry into the Hall of Fame even though his signature pitch, the spitball, was illegal. Actually, I shouldn't be surprised that sportwriters were. They are notoriously stupid.

Commentators are even stupider. Sean Salisbury was asked who was more important to the Eagles, Terrell Owens or Brian Westbrook. He said Owens. Why? They didn't make it past the NFC Championship game without Owens in 2003, but they made it to the Super Bowl in 2004 with Owens "on the roster". Must have been one Hell of a cheerleader to lead the Eagles to the Super Bowl from the sidelines in street clothes. And Salisbury seemed to forget that an injured Westbrook didn't play in the NFC championship game the year before either. But he did play in the last one. Since both missed the playoffs in 2003, who was more valuable in last year's NFC Championship game - the guy who played or the guy who didn't?